Explanatory scenes bog down ‘Inside Out’

Author Barry Eisler says that when his new spy thriller "Inside Out" was in manuscript form, it contained more than 80 footnotes.

“I was tempted to keep them in the text, but in the end I judged them too distracting from the story,” he writes in the Sources section.

Thank goodness he kept them out of the story. In fact, it’s hard to believe that he would even attempt to insert 80-plus footnotes in a novel. Yes, that’s right, 80-plus footnotes in a novel.

Even without the footnotes, “Inside Out” isn’t that exciting of a story. It nearly drowns under the weight of its own ripped-from-the-headlines plot that’s crammed full of evil government intrigue. By addressing the timely topic of torture, specifically waterboarding, Eisler tries to write an intelligent thriller. But he forgot to develop characters who readers want to care about. And his plot twists aren’t that stunning. And reading sentences — on one page! — that contain phrases such as “force drift,” “high-level facilitator” and “authorizations
could be construed as limitations” induce headaches.

Eisler, who used to work for the CIA, gets credit for tackling a complex, controversial subject and trying to turn it into a 21st-century drama. There are a few exciting parts to “Inside Out,” particularly an intense showdown between the bad guys and the good guys
in Costa Rica. But there are way too many boring explanatory scenes with characters gabbing incessantly. Characters are supposed to drive the story, not the other way around.

In short, “Inside Out” is about a black ops soldier named Ben Treven who is released from a Philippines jail and is given a new mission by his former commander. Find and kill Daniel Larison, a rogue soldier from Ben’s unit who has stolen 92 torture tapes from the CIA and is using them to blackmail the U.S. government.

Treven eventually teams up with Paula Lanier, a sexy FBI agent, to form an uneasy alliance as they go after Larison in a perilous journey. But dark elements within the government — and maybe even Lanier herself — have their own agendas as the mystery of the tapes gets murkier and more chaotic.