Stephen Frey

Back when this novel first came out I think I probably liked it well enough, but now 14 years later I can’t stomach it. First of all it’s very stagey. Near the beginning for example, Jesse has intense conversations with people that go into tons of detail about current and past events. No one talks like that and putting an info dump into a conversation is still an info dump. Oh and if you’re trying to impress us with your wine knowledge, but don’t actually have any, ask someone for show more heaven’s sake. Opus One. Jeez, is that the only thing you could come up with? Poseur. Secondly, I hated the voice and speech characterizations peppered throughout, like “he said in his deep voice” and “he analyzed”; very amateurish. Just indicate who spoke and elucidate separately. Third are the clichés both in character and action; of course Jesse falls down when Ross is chasing her, haven’t you seen any B movies? And that predator/prey thing was so heavy handed I just rolled my eyes the whole time. David is a nice looking, malleable fuck-up and will undoubtedly stumble and stutter his way into a heroic ending, but I don’t want to see it. Ditto for Jesse who is just a bit smarter, but equally uninteresting and bland. All the evil manipulators are just so evil that they’re like cartoons. And the rape scene? Did we need that? Please, talk about gratuitous. I’m done. show less

In "Arctic Fire," Stephen Frey introduces us to Red Cell Seven (RCS), an ultra-secret arm of the U.S. intelligence apparatus. RCS has been operating for over 40 years and is apolitical, protecting the interests of the United States rather than any one political ideology. The new president, however, is not willing to let RCS operate with impunity any longer and is threatening to dismantle the organization. Certain rogue elements within RCS will not allow that to happen, no matter what it show more takes to survive.

Troy Jensen is an operative in RCS, unknown to all his family except his father, former Marine Colonel and CEO of one of the worlds largest banks. Jack Jensen, Troy's adopted brother, thinks Troy is just a spoiled rich kid, traveling the globe in search of adventure. But while Troy is off climbing mountains or fighting bulls, he is actually gathering intelligence and using his "hobbies" as cover. His latest adventure sees Troy working on a crab boat in Alaska, one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. But it would seem Troy tempted fate once to often and his family is notified that he was washed overboard by a wave during a storm.

Jack had never come to terms with his being adopted. In addition to wondering who his real parents were, he never could seem to live up to Bill's expectations. Troy was seemingly the perfect son and the pride Bill had for him was painfully evident. Jack thought part of the reason was that blood was thicker than water. But Jack cared for Troy as only brothers can, adopted or not, and he did not believe the story of Troy's death. Troy was a survivor. There was no way Troy would have been the only person washed overboard. If anything, he would have been the one to save the others as he had done in the past. Jack quits his job as a bond trader and treks to Alaska in order to find the truth. But Jack makes some very dangerous people nervous and is soon running for his life.

This was an enjoyable read, fast paced and full of action. The plot was, for the most part, very believable if not somewhat scripted. The ending was a stunner and seemed to come out of left field. I am not really sure what the author was intending with it. It is obvious he was setting it up for a sequel, but the ending seemed to raise more questions than necessary. That being said, if you are an action junkie, then you will enjoy this book. show less

It’s summer. Hot, dry, windy and Montana is burning. Hunter Lee, at the suggestion of his brother Strat, has left New York City, a failed marriage and an extremely successful junior partnership at a prestigious law firm behind and moved to Fort Mason, Montana. Hunter and his brother attempt to uncover the identity of who is behind the recent mega-fires that are destroying homes, thousands of acres of timber, farms, livestock and now human fatalities. Suspense builds throughout Stephen show more Frey’s latest novel, Hell’s Gate; the fires continue to burn while Hunter and Strat discover that even small towns are filled with incendiary secrets.

A few years ago, I was up in Montana visiting the in-laws, and my mom-in-law mentioned a friend of hers had just recently started up a company that supplies the wildfire and smokejumpers with meals, cots, showers and bathrooms. I remember thinking that a really shady, disreputable type could possibly use this type of contract with the Forest Service to really line their pockets if they figured out a way to start the fires. And that is part of the premise of Hell’s Gate. When the author thought of how much money independent air cargo companies get paid to shuttle firefighters around the west during fire season, and how much food services get paid, he came to the same conclusion I did. It wouldn’t be all that difficult to arrange a lot of fires and make lots of money. The question in this novel is who is doing this. Add to the air cargo company and food service company, a railroad who has just been hit with a 40 million dollar payout from a lawsuit, a timber mill going out of business the lack of trees, a powerful Senator, unfaithful wife, vindictive business partners and you just have a whopper of a story.

I don’t know if Stephen Frey has spent a lot of time in Montana or simply researches the heck out of his books, but I can tell you, having lived there for the first 30 years of my life, he just nails it.

Many of the towns in the novel are fictional, but I know the area he sets them in, and he portrays it very well. The mountains, trees, fly-fishing, grizzly bears, the bars and café’s, the vastness of the state are captured superbly. When the wildfires explode, I swear I could almost smell the smoke.

I like this book. A lot. I want to go fishing. I want a big ole greasy cheeseburger in a dump that makes great food. I want to drink a cold beer on a hot afternoon while the smell of fresh cut hay fills the air. (And I hate beer.) I want to stand next to the Mission Falls, see a bear cross the road in front of me, hear the horrifyingly scary sound of a mountain lion screaming late one night up in the hills. (Sounds like a woman getting murdered…I swear it does…) I want to see that pesky herd of deer that invade my mom-in-law’s front yard every evening and eat the flowers. *sigh….I think I’m heading north soon…I’m feeling the need for a little Montana….

Oh…almost forgot…the story was awesome. I didn’t figure out the who, what and why until the author revealed it, and how great is that??!!

‘Nuff said, hie yourself off to the bookstore today and git yerself a copy….its derned good readin’. (And it comes out today, so it’ll be easy to find. Right there, front of the store, just as you walk in the door.) show less

Arctic Fire is the name of a fishing boat that is used to set traps in the Bering Sea during the lucrative crab season. Crewing on the boat is one of the most dangerous jobs on earth with the exception of protecting the US from real evil-doers. The captain and crew are tough and the weather is tougher, but that cannot account for two men being lost at sea in two crabbing seasons. We learn that the supposedly dead men are members of Red Cell Seven, an elite secret corps of US citizens who do show more whatever they are told by the leader of the RCS Carlson who takes direction from the President. Unfortunately, when there is almost unlimited power and license to kill, evil men like Maddux, who have a distorted view of their mission and their own agenda, work their way up the ladder and gain the confidence of their leaders. Maddux is determined to carry out an unauthorized plot using RCS personnel to change the world and is instrumental in the deaths of the two agents/crew members from the Arctic Fire.

This is exciting so far, and there is enough daring action, murder, and mayhem to get the readers’ hearts accelerating. Stephen Frey adds elements of family history, father-son complexities, widow anger and fear, secret deals and disloyalty, inferiority complexes, narcissism, private wealth, public power, travel and adventure, and an idyllic love affair in the eye of the thriller storm. How do the short sections of chapters and rapid changes of points of view of the violent action combined with the peaceful, longer scenes of a developing love affair hang together to form a novel?

In the first 50 pages, I wondered how is all this was going to come together so that Arctic Fire is not just another potboiler in the fiction thriller category. Frey’s experience and talent as a writer become apparent forcing me to suspend disbelief and boredom and get into the excitement of the interaction of all the standard and required categories of the genre. I enjoyed the plot and the character development and even the themes involving limits of power and justification of violence that are relevant in our current period in the US. Everything comes together in the novel thanks to Stephen Frey’s talent and his 16 novel experience. This is a 5 star work in the fiction thriller category. show less