In 1987, Matthew Morrell, David Morrell’s teenaged son, died of a rare form of bone cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma. To say that the death of his son influenced some of Morrell’s work falls far short of the mark, I would guess. In [Fireflies], published the following year, Morrell tells the story of a father who sees the death of his son in a visit to the future and unsuccessfully tries to save him upon returning. The book is usually included in the non-fiction portion of the author’s bibliography because Morrell so frankly deals with the loss of his son.

[Desperate Measures] draws from the same boiling pot of emotion. As the book opens, Matthew Pittman sits in a bathtub holding the business end of a .45 caliber revolver in his mouth. Grief-addled and depressed over the death of his teenage son, he has closed all his accounts, repaid every favor, and even written his own obituary to be printed in the newspaper where he finished up his last day of work. His squeeze on the trigger is interrupted by the ringing of the telephone. Worried that the telephone call might muddy his otherwise clean exit, he answers the telephone. Pittman’s editor plays on the journalist’s healthy sense of guilt and convinces him to do one last job – write the obituary for a man not yet dead. Pittman tries to conduct an interview with the man, but is blamed for the man’s death and caught up in a political conspiracy that threatens everyone he contacts. The journalist soon finds value and purpose in his life again as he fights to survive.

The opening chapters of [Desperate Measures] are achingly realistic in dealing with grief-fueled depression and suicidal thoughts. Morrell, long known for his attention to realistic detail and research, obviously gave rein to his own grief and dark thoughts in constructing Pittman’s state of mind. And it is not difficult to see Morrell’s own battle to find purpose in life again in the rest of the book; merely substitute Morrell’s struggle to continue writing for Pittman’s fight to survive.

As an action-filled thriller, [Desperate Measures] delivers everything a fan of the genre or a fan of Morrell would expect. But for me, the best pieces of the book are the passages where Morrell reflects his own struggle in Pittman’s.

Bottom Line: A thriller that delivers the expected thrills but a deeper reading provides a glimpse into the author’s brutal grief and struggle to survive.

4 bones!!!! ( )

NIL