Bannerman's Ghosts

Bannerman #5

by John R. Maxim

A long-awaited package has finally arrived at the fortified estate of billionaire sociopath Artemus Bourne. But instead of containing the anticipated biological nightmare one of his offshore firms created, inside are three severed human heads . . . An act of vengeance by a man long thought dead has set in motion a drama too terrifying to imagine -- one that will ensnare ex-government assassin Paul Bannerman and his "ghosts," operatives assumed dead but actually hiding in suburban Connecticut from their dark and bloody pasts. For Bannerman and his people cannot sit idly by as a maniac who hungers for ultimate power -- and possesses the wealth and weapons to achieve his terrible aims -- obliterates the lives of the innocent. But the clock is ticking rapidly down to Armageddon. And if he makes one wrong move, everything that breathes in Bannerman's world will die.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction

464 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

John R. Maxim was born in Greenwich Village, NYC, educated at NY Jesuit Schools (Xavier and Fordham) played all the street sports and most team sports.
Comes from a family of cops and a few Feds. After school, took up flying, skydiving and dirt-track stock car racing until the Military decided it could do without him. Then went into marketing and advertising. Several awards. Rose to Senior VP at major New York Advertising agencies. Work involved a great deal of international travel. Major hobby back then was sailing.
Always wanted to write, however, and, one night on the bar car, decided to give it a year, succeed or fail. Sold first novel at age 41. Wrote 12 more plus one non-fiction, averaging a year and a half each. Translated into ten languages. Several were optioned for film or TV. Still waiting.
Took up skiing. Many trips to Switzerland and Colorado. With the kids gone, sold our Connecticut house and moved to Hilton Head Island with his beautiful wife, Christine, herself a champion sailor.

Reviews

[Linda Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is only for the true Bannerman fan. It doesn't hold up to the previous novels in this series. Even without all of the endless back stories and explaining, I believe that the unfamiliar reader would be quite lost. There is a whole lot of talking in this book and too much of the action takes place off-screen. But the stuff that we do get to experience as it is actually happening is quite exciting. There's a sociopathic billionaire who is developing dangerous biological weapons and having them tested on African rebels. There's a missing assassin who has long been presumed dead but who is the key to controlling a rebel leader in Angola. And a powerful American government official who gets caught in the middle of it all. Luckily for the government man (and unluckily for the billionaire), some of the pieces in this puzzle happen to be friends of Bannerman. And Bannerman always takes care of his friends.

[RH · Rating 2 out of 5]

Artemus Bourne is a very wealthy businessman with a lot of influence everywhere. His overseas biochemical company seems to do things against the law, though. When three heads of associates instead of viral samples are sent to him, he knows that his secrets have come out. He also knows who is after him.

The one weakness of the sender is a woman, former assassin of the Mossad. But when trying to get close to her, Bourne enlists the help of Paul Bannerman, himself an acquaintance of this woman. The solo actions of the sender, the woman and Paul Bannerman and later their combined efforts lead to one conclusion; locked up inside his own place he is exposed to the viral samples he had been sent and does not survive.

[Curtis Edmonds · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you want to pick up Bannerman’s Ghosts, I can tell you where. If you go to the Raleigh-Durham airport, go to the food court in the terminal and take a right. The bookstore is on your right. It is, as far as I know, the only used bookstore in a major American airport (or it least it was when I wrote this review, ten years ago). It is filled with airport novels, the sort of books that are good to have on long-haul airplane flights and nowhere else. The inventory could easily have been cobbled together from abandoned books left behind on airplanes or lost in terminal trash cans. The books are, mostly, both horrible and in horrible condition, as though they were read once and then shoved rudely into the back-seat pockets of airplanes and then stepped on a few times. You should find Bannerman’s Ghosts there in about six months, probably together with other books by the author, I would expect.

If you want an idea of the prose style and the plot and the essential uselessness of Bannerman’s Ghosts, I refer you to the following excerpt, pages 253-54 in the hardback version:

“Small wonder that his friends are suddenly unavailable or speaking only through their attorneys. Never fear, though, you scaredy-cats, you shirkers, you quitters. VaalChem will survive this. Its good work will continue. And I will exact retribution on all those who have declined to partake of Eggs Florentine with me.”

The speaker here is Artemus Bourne, a reclusive brunch-obsessed Virginia multibillionaire and the villain of the piece. He is the CEO of VaalChem, a South African chemical company, and they don’t make companies more evil than that. Like all reclusive billionaires in airport novels, he is wholly evil, marinated in evil thoughts and redolent with evil schemes. Money never makes anyone happy in airport novels.

Bourne (not to be confused with any Bourne character in the Robert Ludlum pantheon of airport novels) has hit upon a great scheme to corner the world market on Eggs Florentine; he is planning on releasing a horrible plague on the earth that will combine the “Marburg” virus (a second cousin to Ebola or something like that) with the smallpox virus that will sweep through populations worldwide, killing hundreds of millions of innocent people. Make that innocent poor people, actually, because then Bourne will be able to sell the vaccine at great profit, which will allow him to have the remaining world population over for brunch. Or something like that.

However, in order to have his chemical death factories proceed unmolested, he must control Alameo, the leader of a group of rebels in Angola that are seeking control over the diamond mines. The way to control Alameo, Bourne believes, is by locating and kidnapping his ex-girlfriend, an American woman named Elizabeth Stride, who has spent a long and productive career as an assassin for the Mossad and would be on anyone’s short list of people not to kidnap. However, the virus is accidentally loosed on an Angolan freighter bound for Nigeria, and a military detachment from Liberia discovers the virus and sends word to the State Department, which traces the shipment back to Bourne, thereby foiling his brunch plans and causing him to vow vengeance for everyone who chose not to partake of his aforementioned Eggs Florentine.

I hope all of this is clear.

Coincidentally, Elizabeth Stride is by way of being connected with the titular character of Paul Bannerman, who is a humble Connecticut travel agent by day and a fierce CIA independent contractor at night, or something like that. (The book makes no mention of whether a certain percentage of CIA subcontract agents must be from faith-based organizations, to which I can say, watch out for those door-to-door evangelists.) Bannerman lives in a gated neighborhood filled with his crackerjack team of superspy operatives, including a master burglar, several hitmen, one black widow, and an angel. (The cover reminds us that the book was written by the “New York Times Bestselling Author of Whistler’s Angel”, hint hint, nudge nudge.) Bannerman’s crew can tell you’re coming from fifty miles away and kill you with a salad fork, should they be so inclined. After reading this book, you might not mind so much.

You would think that a book like Bannerman’s Ghosts, which focuses on bioterrorism, couldn’t help but be interesting, at least in some tangential way. You would be wrong. Bannerman’s Ghosts is only slightly more interesting than the in-flight magazine. You can’t say you won’t put it down, because you will, when the flight attendant brings you everyone’s favorite snack, pretzels and Cranapple. (Or that’s what you get on Delta now; airline bankruptcy sucks.) It’s a long slog, with the threat of bioterrorism reduced to an uninteresting and quickly-resolved subplot.

The real focus is on Artemis Bourne, and whether the author will provide a means for the comeuppance of a brunch-obsessed multibillionaire merchant of death or not. I will not provide the answer to this question. I prefer to leave you in suspense, which is something that Bannerman’s Ghosts cannot be said, in any particular, to do.


Note: I cannot provide you with a good recipe for Eggs Florentine, at least not without violating someone's copyright, but I can provide an ingredients list:

* eggs
* butter
* a white cheese (feta or cottage)
* a yellow cheese (Cheddar or Colby)
* chopped spinach

Thank you for your time and attention.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

After I bought this book for my Kindle I quickly discovered that I had read it before. As a matter of fact, the paperback was sitting safely in my basement.

I was not too concerned as I had enjoyed it the first time round and I reckoned it would be like re-visitng an old friend.

Not so, knowing how the story plays out eliminates all suspense which is a key ingredient for the enjoyment of this type of novel.

Still I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a fast moving thriller with interesting characters, exotic locales, and thought provoking political references which may have been prescient when the book was first written but appear to be the status quo today.

[Joe O'Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good; man developing and testing bio-weapons attempts to find former spy who would be insurance against one of his foes and her former lover; main character from Haven, might be in better context if I had read the earlier Bannerman books.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

entertaining book

[Patti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like John Maxim, but to read the Bannerman books you need to start with the first one.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am very interested in the topic of bio war. Enjoyed the plot and characters as well. Maxim always keeps me in suspense.

[Keith]

Sorry, fans, but I could not force myself to finish this book. I'm not going to give it a low rating since I only got 86 pages in before deciding it's not my cup of tea.