Books Set in Europe: London, England

The Secret Keeper, by Kate Morton (2012)

The Secret Keeper is a mystery with all sorts of twists and turns.  The novel begins when 16-year old Laurel sees her mother, Dorothy, stab a strange man to death at their country estate.  The murder is deemed have been in self-defense, and, with one exception, the family never discusses the matter again.  Laurel, however, her the man address her mother by her first name. Who was this man and what was his relation to her mother?

Laurel has never forgotten the murder.  Now, 50 years later, Dorothy is nearing the end of her life and Laurel hopes to learn of her mother’s past.  Dorothy’s children have gathered around to care for her.  Laurel goes over old photograph albums with her mother and comes across a mysterious photograph taken during London during World War II. She also finds Peter Pan book with an inscription to Dorothy from Vivian.

The story is told between the present (2011) and London in 1941.  We learn early on that Dorothy may have had a checkered past.  Laurel seeks to learn about her mother’s past.  Dorothy lives across the street from the wealthy and beautiful Vivien Jenkins. They both do volunteer work for the War effort.  Dorothy has a vivid imagination and attempts to befriend Vivian.  Dorothy’s boyfriend is Jimmy, a young man from a working class background, making a living as a war photographer.  Although Dorothy loves him, she doesn’t want him to come in contact with the wealthy Vivian.

Somehow, thought, Laurel knows that there is a relationship between her mother, Vivian and Dorothy.

The characters really come alive.  There were twists in this novel that I never saw coming.  It held my interest from page one to the end.

Read: August 21, 2018

5 Stars

Books Set Globally: Dubai, America and Italy

The Flight Attendant, by Chris Bohjalian (2018)

The novel begins when Cassie Bowden, a flight attendant in her light 30s, awoke in a strange hotel room in Dubai next to the bloody body of Alex Sokolov. Cassie was a binge drinker who experienced frequent black-outs whenever she drank.  Upon seeing the dead Alex, she briefly wondered whether or not she killed him during one of her black-outs.  She tried to recall the events of the previous evening, but remembered only that she had dinner with Alex and returned with him to his hotel instead of the hotel where the other flight attendants were housed.  She vaguely recalled that a woman named Miranda joined them briefly in Alex’s hotel room.

Instead of contacting the authorities, she quickly dressed and returned to her hotel, discarding any potential evidence of the night along the way. Upon joining her flight crew, she began her series of lies.  Alex had been on the flight from New York to Dubai, which is where Cassie first met him. By the time the return flight arrived in New York, his body had been discovered, and because Alex was an American, the FBI wanted to interview the crew members on his original flight.

Cassie realized that she could be in legal trouble so contacts a lawyer recommended by the flight crew’s union.  When interviewed by the FBI, Cassie blurted out that she had spent the night with Alex, but lied saying that he had been alive when she left his room.  

Alex was a hedge fund manager, with ties to Russia.  Could there be more to his story that Cassie knew?  Why was the FBI so interested in Alex?  And what of Miranda?  What was her relationship with Alex?

This was a very quick read and entertaining until the last couple of chapters. The novel then went off the rails with a very bizarre ending that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Read: August 15, 2018

3.5 Stars

Books Set in Africa: Cairo, Egypt

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, by Michael David Lukas (2018)

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo takes place over a millennium, from 1000 years ago when Ali became the night watchman of the Ibn Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, to the late 1890s, when Solomon Schechter and the Smith twins, Agnes and Margaret, “discovered” and saved the documents stored in the synagogue’s geniza, to present day Joseph al-Raqb, who traveled to Cairo, Egypt to learn about his father.  The synagogue is said to house the legendary Ezra Torah Scroll, which was written centuries before the birth of Christ.

In alternating chapters, we learn Cairo during three periods of history.  Ali’s story takes place around the year 1000.  He was a young Muslim orphan who was hired by the synagogue council to be its night watchman.  As he learned his job, he also became fascinated by Jewish traditions, while maintaining his own religious beliefs.  In the late 1890s, Solomon Schechter (1847 ~ 1915) was in Cairo to search for the Ezra Torah Scroll.  With him were the middle-aged widowed twins Agnes Smith Lewis (1843 ~ 1926) and Margaret Smith Gibson (1843 ~ 1920), who were real people (although probably did not join Schechter on this quest).  The sisters were known for having discovered the Syraic Sinaiticus and were Biblical scholars in the Presbyterian Church.  In present day, Joseph al-Raqb, is a young American graduate student, raised by his Jewish mother, but whose father is Muslim.  A few months after his father’s death, Joseph received a mysterious package from his father.  This led him back to Cairo to find out why the object was sent to him.

In alternating chapters, the focus is on one of the above periods of history.  In Jewish tradition, texts with G~d’s name are sacred.  When such texts become worn or unusable, they must be treated with respect and not just thrown out.  Traditionally such texts are either buried or stored in a geniza.  The geniza in the Ibn Ezra Synagogue is a small room in the attic.

When portions of sacred texts are found being sold on the black market, Solomon Schechter traveled to Cairo to seek out the documents.  He had the documents saved and sent to Cambridge University, where they are still held.  [This is true.]

In family tradition, the eldest son of the al-Raqb family (with Ali being the original night watchman).  Joseph’s father was the eldest son, hence was the night watchman.  He held this position until after the Yom Kippur War when an event occurred in which he was unable to keep a mob from the synagogue.  Joseph became fascinated in his quest to determine the fate of the Ezra Scroll.

The novel doesn’t take a position on the religious tradition per se, but does raise issued confronted by religious scholars in studying ancient documents.

I was totally absorbed by this novel.  Michael David Lukas also wrote The Oracle of Stamboul, which is a historical novel about the last days of the Ottoman Empire.  I read this book about 7 years ago and very much enjoyed that as well.

Read:  August 8, 2018

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Budapest, Hungary

Strangers in Budapest, by Jessica Keener (2017)

In the summer of 1995, soon after the collapse of Communism in Hungary, Annie and Will moved to Budapest, Hungary.  Will believed that Hungary would be an ideal country for him to exploit a business opportunity.  They arrive with their young son, Leo.  Leo was recently adopted, but this story thread seem to have no bearing on the rest of the book.

Before leaving for Hungary, Will and Annie’s elderly neighbors, Rose and Jozef, put them in touch with Edward, another elderly man who is living Jozef’s apartment in Budapest.  Edward is a crotchety old may who insists on secrecy.  He is in Budapest to hunt down the man he believes killed his daughter.  The evidence he presents to Annie is thin.  Is Edward just grieving for his dead daughter?

While Will is out making potential business contacts, he meets Stephen.  Stephen acts as translator.  He is of Hungarian background, but lived most of his life in America.  After meeting Will and Annie, Stephen just happens to run into the young couple.  Is this a coincidence?

Annie has a need to help people.  She encounters young Gypsy girls, or as she quickly learns, should be called Roma, and wants to help them.  They offer her flowers, then demand money.  Because the American dollar goes far in post-Communist Hungary, she gives them what is actually tons of money.  Will is robbed of his wallet, which contained $900.  Other than reporting the theft, and encountering Stephen at the police station, nothing further comes of this event.

This novel was way too busy.  There are too many story threads and too many people.  The novel provide a clear depiction of Budapest, and having visited the city several times, I could visualize the places described.  Still, I got bored with the characters and the final resolution of the novel stretched credibility.

Read: August 4, 2018

3 Stars