SILENT LIES BY M.L. MALCOLM

ONE OF THE BEST NOVELS AND DRAMA EVER WRITTEN SINCE THE 10 COMMANDMENTS

Photo: M.L., author of "SILENT LIES".

I just finished reading M.L. Malcolm's novel "Silent Lies". I paused for a while, took a deep breath,  and decided to go back to Shanghai, perhaps, for a short moment, I would slip under the coat of an intoxicating night mist and get lost on the bridge joining Buda and Pest, or perhaps, just perhaps,  ask Aristide Bruant, Mistinguette and Charles Boyer if they would  join me at Le Chat Noire for an Armagnac,  and see if Leo and M.L. Malcolm are around. This is  what I felt, this is what I experienced, and this is what I wanted to do, after having read M.L. Malcolm's masterpiece "SILENT LIES". To Europeans and world troubadours-adventurers, nothing is new in Malcolm bigger than life fictional story. But to Americans and those who were not born at the other edge or fence of East Europe, Les Annees Folles, Montmartre,  Paris-Canaille 1912, The Prussian Empire and neighboring joints of Shanghai piers, Malcolm's novel is an Ali Baba film noire episode... A perfect stage set for Bogart, George Raft, Clark Gable and Eddie Constantin. "SILENT LIES" does not tell lies. Au contraire, it describes life or maybe lives and events which crafted, joined and separated the very fabric of a world that vanished at the shadows of the roaring wheels of modern technology.  I am referring to the nostalgic and lyrically turbulent years of the early twenty centuries, where "Dames" spied on emperors and cabaret coquettes helped elect presidents,  an era when and where Leo, the  novel's hero of Malcolm could enter China without visa and without passport. A world, where a face, your face could tell everything about you. A world of enigmatic existence of quasi mythical adventurers, spies, hustlers wearing fur and Estragon and dining Chez Babette...

Leo would use anything, including his charming tactic in talking with others, to fulfill his dreams, protect his wife and daughter. But Leo is also a thief and an adventurer by raison d'etre. A real character with prefabricated charisma and sweet-agitated charm. He traveled to Shanghai taking with him a stolen diamond necklace, his one way ticket to prosperity, financial security and possibly his death. Would his spirit of adventure...would his savvy and charming European style in flirting with women...would the bizarre and treacherous characters waiting for him on the road of the unknown...would Shanghai open doors for him or decimate his dreams? Malcolm wrote about so many things in her fabulous novel: Payoffs, peasants, hustlers, Chinese Mafia, diamonds, long journeys, cargos, horns and bells of ships, human drama, beggars, passion, adventures, a bizarre Astor House Hotel,  glamorous Club Casanova,  scandals, the Lido, women, schemes, defensive anger, charm, complicated transactions, deals on the wheels...in brief, about Real Life with its ups and downs...

The author is a fabulous writer with an astonishing romantic clarity and captivating narrative style. The ambiance, atmosphere, setting, feeling and style of the book are out of this world. A world far from the ordinary and the banal. The book is a masterpiece. Add it to your collection of treasures. Rating: 5 stars out of five. "SILENT LIES" is one of the 10 best books of the year. Published in the United States by Longstreet Press. ISBN: 1-56352-750-2.