TRIOLOGY COMMENTS BY DR. JACK C. WHYTOCK, FRHISTS, OCTOBER 7, 2022

General Editor
A Survey of Presbyterian Mission History in Africa

Macnutt has done it! He has authored a major-length thriller trilogy with unique sub-genres and for this he deserves sincere congratulations. This is no minor feat. Literally a lifetime in the making for such a work as this trilogy.

Trilogies as literary works are not easy to produce. As one reviews just what a trilogy is I check off the list against Macnutt’s Connection trilogy. So, I start with my essentials for a trilogy. Good trilogies must allow each of the three books to be distinct yet at the same time well bonded as a whole, showing unity and coherence. Each book must not repeat itself, beyond the obvious necessities for ease of reading, yet at the same time must develop and show growth progressively from book to book. Good trilogies have a winsome appeal about themselves and entertain the reader and cause them to enjoy and take pleasure in the experience of reading these massive sized trilogical books. In essence a trilogy can be summed up in three words, beginning, middle, and end, with the seeds caste in the first, the beginning, and grow in the second, the middle, and reach logical climax in the final, the end. Good trilogies follow enough main characters that the reader is not overwhelmed. Good trilogies develop crisis with the endings but without full resolution especially in books one and two, so that there is always that sense of anticipation, more is yet to come, and things are not resolved or complete yet. That point then leads us to the final book in the trilogy series where the reader is satisfied and not left wondering, is the author coming back with a sequel fourth volume. The trick of a good trilogy is to resolve and satisfy yet create just some mystique at the end of the trilogy that the door opens a little to the future but without the need for a fourth book.

Our world has been enthralled by the Tolkien trilogy series Lord of the Rings, with its prefatory work on the hobbits. Macnutt, not writing in the same literary-styled work as Tolkien did, does much the same for structure. The trilogy of the Connection is clear, yet Five Dollars a Day is somewhat a prefatory work to it yet not as I have said before totally necessary to read first. I just say this and make this parallel as it establishes the place of trilogy in the popular culture of our day.

Now having made my review of a good trilogy how does Macnutt fair, after all he is a lawyer and one with a professional background of being judged so all is fair here. As a series there is good unity of story line, threaded throughout. Good character development and the feel that one knows the characters. The main two characters Isaac Menshive and William MacIntosh provide that unity of plot line and character development from book to book. In book three, two significant characters are developed and ordinarily this may not work in a trilogy, but the author has crafted it so carefully through family relationships that it can be pulled-off, it works. I do not want to give away too much here on names. Each book in the series is distinct and its own yet well crafted as a set for unity. The reader is winsomely entertained in all three books and proper resolutions are made yet appropriate questions are left at the end of books one and two. As a trilogy I personally thought it was well done and is worthy of being classified as a trilogy.

Clearly the author is not lazy but has done his background work. There is a consistent level of exacting research and attention to detail by the author in all three volumes. One often comes away with a personal feel that one has been there as the description is carefully crafted. In volume three, The 9/11 Connection, let me give some examples. The author’s descriptors of scenes set at the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square and the Sainsbury Wing and at the Wallace Collection, London make one want to return or go there. Details are picked up which makes this book more than an ordinary thriller, one is being educated all along the way on very important cultural centres, collections, architectural styes and details, the decorative arts and also to a lesser extend on music. It makes reading the book take on two or more levels of reading all at once. There is the plot-line of the characters rooted in cultural worlds which are worthy of reflection in themselves, but this is combined with attention to travelogue and interest well beyond travel guides and takes us to art, culture, and on occasion language, music and not to mention extensive forays into law, economics, international relations and of course psychology and crime. Volume three brings us very much into our present world of Russia and the Ukraine and the author develops a plot with fascinating conjectures introduced (some may even say conspiracy theories!) that make for very fascinating reading without me spilling too much here. I sometimes wondered if the author were an intense student of psychology but perhaps it is the lawyer’s mind at work and one which has a deep grasp of human nature. Although the sixth sense is there in the character Will MacIntosh (p. 137) so maybe that is part of the author’s secret to the world of understanding and perception.

For those familiar with Macnutt’s other books one will find interesting parallels again in this final volume. Macnutt’s work on furniture and comments on rooms in houses brings a smile (p.294) and makes one see that his writing builds one stone upon another and he can cross genres and topics with integration.

Of the three volumes in this “Connection” series, my first preferences were with volumes one and two. That does not mean that volume three was not of interest, it was a little too long for me and I felt it could have been shortened and thus not as gripping for me as a reader. I realise that crosses into the world of the subjective and some others may disagree with that critique. Trilogies are not easy to write and sustain unity of development and attention. I think for myself the test is always in the final third volume. The trilogy does not unravel and fall apart. No, it holds together and resolves many questions which a reader has and tries to come up with one’s own answers. Some may have seen it coming, but I cannot say that exactly in the way that it was resolved. Does the author allow a door for a fourth volume? Maybe, but not necessarily needed and that for me is best. In reviewing trilogies, it is often discussion of the final book and the ending which feature. Here the subjective and objective combine and I suspect there may be a variety of final assessments on the ending.

Congratulations to the author on a truly Herculean feat in writing this trilogy. Years of discipline in the writing craft have gone into this trilogy and few would attempt such a feat.

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