Twilight at Mac's Place

What can I say that's different? I was determined to own every book that Ross Thomas had ever written. I really like his books! Now I own ALL of them.

Unofficial CIA fixer Steadfast Haynes dies of a heart attack. To the shock of his clandestine buddies, word is out that good old trustworthy Steady has done the unthinkable and written a memoir of his unrecognized covert operations. This tome that allegedly exposes many folks has been inherited by his son Granville.Everyone remotely involved with Steady wants possession of his book though their reasons vary without knowing what the pages expose for all fear the Cold War secrets Steady knew and bared. Someone murders Steady's beloved Isabelle and retired CIA agent and "friend" Undean, and steals the book. Though Granny knows his father's memoirs were mostly blank pages, he wants it back especially since he has two competing large cold cash offer to purchase his dad's memoirs. As a former homicide detective Granny knows how to investigate a crime and where to get cold war help.The reprint of Ross Thomas' delightful TWILIGHT AT MAC'S PLACE should bring the late great writer new fans of thrillers. The story line is action-packed and filled with incredibly exciting twists and turns. However, as is usually the case in a Mr. Thomas tale it is the cast from the deceased to the hero to a waiter, et al that makes for a superb reading experience. That will send readers seeking other master novels by this great author.Harriet Klausner

One of the more interesting characters we encounter in this story is Tinker Burns, a spry old ex-French Foreign Legionnaire and maybe the only living American veteran of Dien Bien Phu. TWILIGHT AT MAC'S PLACE is one of the best novels I have read about espionage and Washington intrigue.

This is a later McCorkle and Padillo adventure set in Washington, D.C. Thomas again uses their bar and grill as a focal point. The real hero of the story is Granny Haynes, former LAPD detective and now aspiring actor. I consider this book to be one of Ross Thomas' better efforts, full of insights on maneuverings within the CIA and the Washington power elite.

It is a testiment to Ross Thomas's skill at invention that my wife and I have frequently lamented that there really isn't such a bar as Mac's Place. After reading the several novels in which it figures, along with its owners, McCorkle and Padillo, I have a hard time believeing that the dark and excellent establishment, with its distintive staff and quiet mysterious air, can't actually be found if one were to look hard enough among the side streets in D.C.'s Northwest quandrant. But alas, it's all made up. Yet what a great invention. Thomas makes every aspect of the fictional world he presents to the reader totally believable. This book, like most of his others, has enough plot elements to fuel three or four books by any lesser author, yet he binds these together in a compact story that both surprises and satisfies. McCorkle and Padillo may be older and slower, but the world they inhabit is as dangerous, treacherous and interesting as ever.