Book #68: The Abductors: Conspiracy by Jonathan Frakes

 

The Abductors: Conspiracy

Jonathan Frakes

(with Dean Wesley Smith)

 Released: January 1st, 1996

My 11th book for 2025 was Jonathan Frakes’ “The Abductors: Conspiracy”.  It was ghostwritten by Dean Wesley Smith.

Growing up, my dad was a big Star Trek fan.  As a young child, my dad would often point to the screen on a weeknight or weekend and go "Look Bryan!  It's Mr. Spock!".  I never really cared much for the franchise growing up.

Later on, in college, my roommate Ed Lawrence was a huge Trekkie, and got me into it.  I found a deal that got me all 3 seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series on Blu Ray for $60.  I jumped at the deal and was hooked.  [Blogger’s Note: Getting old means getting my history mixed up.  I got all 3 seasons on DVD for Christmas that year, and later upgraded to Blu-Ray a couple years later with the deal.]

After watching the entire series, I got into Star Trek: The Next Generation.  I never really cared for Riker, but grew to enjoy the character and his similarities with Captain Kirk compared to Captain Picard's more diplomatic methods.  Jonathan Frakes was a great actor, and portrayed a great leader.

I've heard about Frakes' directing, and book writing a couple times, but never truly decided to look into it.

A few weeks ago, I was looking around Wonderbook in Hagerstown, and I came across this book.  I had heard of it, but from the title and cover, I was not impressed.  This looked like another dime-a-dozen sci-fi book that pack out every used bookstore.  I picked it up to have a copy for my library, and to say "I read Commander Riker's book."

This book was amazing.  

The plot is interesting.  A college teenage couple are camping in the Idaho wilderness when they are abducted by an alien race.  Back in her hometown of Portland, the young woman's father hires private investigator Richard McCallam to discover her whereabouts, and have her return safely.  His case leads to some high profile contacts, and uncovers a more sinister plot involving hydrogen bombs being planted in cities around the nation and world.

The pacing is very good, and several times I was very captivated by what I read.  I remember today, when I woke up and drank my coffee, I had to stop for work about 25 pages out.  I pushed through my work day so I could get home and finish reading this epic story.  It was well worth it.

This was a strong novel to push with Frakes' pop culture status.  The story is good.  The writing is well done.  The characters are relatable.  Another thing I enjoyed was the Pacific Northwest (PNW) setting.  The story bounces from Rural Idaho, to Portland, Seattle, Bellingham, and the eastern Oregon desert.  The book even namedrops classic Portland locations such as Powell's Books.  I plan to ask them next week if any of the new employees are aware of it.  Maybe even look for a full copy (The one I picked up was missing 2 pages that were torn out).

Another cool part of this story was how the chapter heads included various quotes from shows, movies, books, and other art forms.  I'll share them in my list.

Here is what I learned:

—————

• Jerry Rodale is a 19-year-old college student in Denver.

• His girlfriend is Tina Harris who also attends college in Denver.

• They enjoy camping and stargazing in the Idaho wilderness.

• Tina’s parents live in Portland, OR.

• Her parents have a swimming pool.

• The Salmon River flows into the “River of No Return” canyon.

• The lobby of the Sundown Hotel smells like stale cigarettes.

• Richard McCallum is an ex-cop turned private investigator.

• McCallum has a library of signed copy mysteries in his office.

• Evan Toole is an assistant investigator.

• Arthur has more freckles than Howdy Doody.

• Henry loves donuts.

• Alan Wallace is the Vice President of the United States.

• Arrington Harris is the founder of Harris Industries.  One of Portland’s richest men.

• He is Tina’s father.

• “Chance discoveries favor those with a prepared mind.” - William Marshall, “Thin Air”.

• Janet Osborne is the Mayor of Portland.

• Richard and Janet are seeing each other.

• The aliens have a “cobra-like” appearance.

• The aliens are a race known as “Klar”

• Any experienced backpacker pitches his tent facing east to catch the morning sun.

• Luke worked in Customs at Sea-Tac International for a year.

• “The reading of detective stories is simply a kind of vice that, for silliness and minor harmfulness, ranks somewhere between crossword puzzles and smoking.” - Edmund Wilson, From an article in the New Yorker.

• Joe’s is a deli on Burnside across from Powell’s Books.

• Joe’s is small, but has great chowder and sandwiches. 

• “Facts are not judgments, and judgments are not facts.” - Dick Francis, From In The Frame.

• The Brandon Mine is an old Silver mine on the south slope of Mount Rainier.

• Binky’s Doughnuts on Front Street in Portland is Henry’s favorite donuts in the entire city.

• NASA had 4 active space shuttles in 1996.

• An AK-47 can be a nasty weapon that spits out a stream of bullets and hit what it is aimed at.  

• McCallum has only ever fired one before at a police range.

• “Amazing the positions a man minding his own business finds himself in.”

• The Klar are very careful and conservative.

• Bristol’s is one of the finest restaurants in Portland.

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"A bad forgery's the ultimate insult."
- Jonathan Gash, 'The Vatican Rip'

"We're all not quite as sane as we pretend to be."
- Robert Bloch, 'Psycho'

[Blogger's Note: Chapter 3's quote was ripped out and is missing until I can find it.]

"Misfortune can happen to anyone.  Only the dead are safe from it."
- Harry Kemelman, 'Friday the Rabbi Slept Late'

"Publicity is like power...it's a rare man who isn't corrupted by it."
- Anthony Price, 'Colonel Butler's Wolf"

"First you dream, then you die."
- Cornell Woolrich, his personal notebooks.

"Every woman from daily help to the Queen of England can gauge a man quicker than a flea can hop."- Nigel Morland, 'A Rope for the Hanging'

"No one wants to be part of a fiction, and even less so if that fiction is real."
- Paul Auster, 'The Locked Room'

"If you know anything about detective work, you'd know that the most seemingly impossible conditions are often the easiest to explain."
- Carolyn Wells, 'Vicky Van'

"In former days, everyone found the assumption of innocence so easy; today we find fatally easy the assumption of guilt."
- Amanda Cross, 'Poetic Justice'

"A mystery is something dark in itself which sheds light on everything around it."
- Timothy Holme, 'The Assisi Murders'

"The less you understand the greater your faith."
- R. A. J. Walling, 'Why Did Trethewy Die?'

[Blogger's Note: Chapter 13's quote was ripped out and is missing until I can find it.]

"The reading of detective stories is simply a kind of vice that, for silliness and minor harmfulness, ranks somewhere between crossword puzzles and smoking."
- Edmund Wilson, an article in the New Yorker.

"You can't have a tin can tied to your tail and go through life pretending it isn't there."
Josephine Tey, 'The Franchise Affair'

"A realist is somebody who things the world is simple enough to be understood.  It isn't."
- Donald Westlake, an article in Murder Ink.

"A hole in the ice is dangerous only to those who go skating."
Rex Stout, 'Too Many Cooks'

"Facts are not judgments, and judgments are not facts."
- Dick Francis, 'In The Frame'

"The most commonplace incident takes  on a new appearance if the attendant circumstances are unusual."
- Mary Roberts Rinehart, 'The Circular Staircase'

"Who makes the rules in this less than perfect world?"
 B. M. Gill, 'Victims'

"You can't help stepping on everyone's toes when you're all dancing around the golden calf."
- Jan Ekstrom, 'Deadly Reunion'

"Eliminate the impossible.  Then if nothing remains, some part of the "impossible" must be possible."
- Anthony Boucher, 'Rocket to the Morgue'

"Fear is a tyrant and despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake."
- Edgar Wallace, 'The Clue of the Twisted Candle'

"The worst is so often true."
- Dame Agatha Christie, 'They Do It With Mirrors'

"It's dangerous, very dangerous...to go from a preconceived idea to find the proofs to fit it."
- Gaston Leroux, 'The Mystery of the Yellow Room'

"The terrier does not give the rat time to dig a hole."
- Leslie Thoman, 'Ormerod's Landing'

"He who is capable of memory and reason...needs no seer's crystal ball."
- Lillian De La Torre, 'The Conveyance of Emeline Grange'

"A man's most open actions have a secret side to them."
- Joseph Conrad, 'Under Western Eyes'

"What we were, never was.  What we did, never happened."
- Donald Hamilton, 'Death of a Citizen'

"When there is only one possibility, it can't be wrong."
- C. Daly King, 'The Curious Mr. Tarrant'

"Judge not -- at least until the evidence is unequivocal."
- Colin Dexter, 'Service of All The Dead'

"If there was no such thing as coincidence, there would be no such word."
- Heron Carvic, 'Picture Miss Seeton'

"Digestion should be considered before a meal."
- Victor Whitechurch, 'Thrilling Stories of the Railway'

"When all are prisoners, the jailers are free men."
- Ted Allbeury, 'Shadow of Shadows'

"Who feeds on hope alone makes but a sorry banquet."
- Thomas W. Hanshew, 'Cleek, The Man of the Forty Faces'

"There are always exceptions to every rule, but only if you really know what you're doing."
- Elizabeth Peters, 'Die For Love'

"How can anyone decide whether a given fact is important or not unless one knows everything about it -- and no one knows everything about anything."- Frederic Brown, 'Night of the Jabberwock'

"When you have a bee in your bonnet, you don't start swinging a fly swatter."
- Michael Avallone, 'The Tall Delores'

"It is a rare mind indeed that can render the hitherto nonexistent blindingly obvious."
- Douglas Adams, 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'

"Authentic detail can always be used to beef up unsubstantiated theory."
- Ross Thomas, 'If You Can't Be Good'

"As time passes we all get better at blazing a trail through the thicket of advice."
- Margot Bennett, 'Farewell Crown and Good-Bye King'

"You need brains in this life of crime, but I often think you need luck even more."
- Leslie Charteris, 'The Saint' in "The Damsel in Distress"

"Death is an incurable disease that men and women are born with; it gets them sooner or later."
- Frederic Brown, 'The Screaming Mimi'

"No stupid man ever suspected himself of being anything but clever."
- Thomas Bailey Aldrich, 'The Stillwater Tragedy'

"No man is dead till he's dead."
- Frances Beeding, 'The Twelve Disguises'

"Test an absurdity and you may stumble on a truth."
- Roy C. Vickers, 'The Department of Dead Ends'

"Heaven pity the person who tries to tell all the truth."
- John Dickson Carr, 'The Crooked Hinge'

"It would be the height of idiocy to deny oneself wine merely to live a little longer."
- Roert Barnard, 'Unruly Son'

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Overall, this book was an amazing read.  I highly enjoyed it, and encourage anyone to check it out.  This is especially truly if you enjoy a good sci-fi novel with a dose of realism to it.

Highly recommended.

On to Book #69: "Connie" by Connie Chung.