Books Set in Asia: Jeddah, Saudia Arabia

Finding Nouf, by Zoe Ferraris (2007)

Read:  December 25, 2023

4.5 Stars

Books Set in England

Moonflower Murders, by Anthony Horowitz (2020)

Read: December 20, 2023

3 Stars

Susan Ryeland #2

Books Set in Europe: England and Switzerland

The Rembrandt Affair, by Daniel Silva (2010)

Read:  December 2, 2023

3 Stars

Other books I've read by Daniel Silva:

The English Assassin (Gabriel Allon # 2) / Read: Jan. 1, 2009

A Death in Vienna (Gabriel Allon # 4) / Read: August 18, 2008

The Black Widow (Gabriel Allon # 16) / Read: Apr. 30, 2017

The Unlikely Spy (Stand Alone Novel) / Read: Apr. 30, 2010

Books Set in North America: New Hampshire, United States

Mad Honey, by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan (2022)

 

Jodi Picoult’s book tackle timely social topics and Mad Honey is no different.  Her books also come with twists – some the reader may seem coming and others that come as a complete surprise.  This novel deals with both domestic violence and transgender issues.

 

The underlying theme of beekeeping and honey is, of course, a metaphor for life.  Mad Honey refers to the honey made from rhododendrons and mountain laurels.  The grayanotoxins from these flowers can make one very ill.  Mad honey is deceptive, because you believe it to be sweet, but not to be deadly.  It isn’t until after you become ill, that you realize the potency of the honey.

 

In this novel, high school senior Asher McAfee is living with his mother in northern New Hampshire.  They moved there when he was a young child after his mother left his abusive father.  His mother took over her family’s beekeeping operation following the death of her father.

 

In his final year of high school, he meets Lily Campanello, newly arrived from the west coast.  Like Asher, Lily is living with her single mother, having fled a troubled relationship with her father.  Lily has deep secrets and to keep these secrets, she lies about her past.  Some big lies, some small lies, and some lies of omission.

 

The novel goes back and forth in time.  The novel is told mostly in the voice of Asher’s mother Olivia, and in flashback, in Lily’s voice.

 

The book opens with Asher cradling the body of Lily at the bottom of the staircase in her home.  It appears they had a fight and Asher is charged with her murder.  Throughout the long trial, in which Asher’s uncle is the defense counsel, evidence is presented that could be interpreted to present a guilty verdict.  Mixed into the texture of the novel are tidbits about bees and honey.  I found these to be more interesting than the trial itself.

 

Read:  October 15, 2023

 

3 Stars

 

 

Books Set in North America: United States

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post, by Allison Pataki (2022)

I didn’t know that much about Marjorie Post other than she was the Post cereal heiress and had Mar-a-Largo built as her winter escape.

In this novel, based on her life, the 4-time married and divorced heiress comes across as a wealthy name-dropper more interested in her enormous wealth than her husbands.  She came from humble beginnings, although by the time she was a teenager, her father had established the Postum Cereal Company, and she lived a life on great wealth.  Although she had three daughters, her daughters barely play a role in the novel.

Her first husband, whom she married as a teenager, was Edward Bennett Close.  They divorced after 14 years.  Her second husband was E.F. Hutton, of the stock brokerage firm.  Together they expanded her company which ultimately was renamed General Foods Corporation.

Her third husband was Joseph E Davies.  He was a lawyer and diplomat who served as Ambassador to represent the United States in the Soviet Union after Stalin came into power.  It was during this period that Post acquired scads of Russian art, including works by Fabergé.  He was later sent to Belgium and Luxembourg during World War II.  In the novel, Marjorie is portrayed more concerned about her art and money than her husband being near the War front.

After the War, Marjorie spends millions of dollars building a home to showcase all her art.  She loves to throw parties and have people fawn over her.  She is also very proud of her jewelry, which the book references on every other page.  Although Marjorie is considered a philanthropist, the novel doesn’t focus as much on her philanthropic efforts as it does her spending habits on homes, jewelry, and art.

If the real-life Marjorie Post is anything like the Marjorie portrayed in this novel, she really wasn’t the type of person I would want as a friend.

I had previously read Sisi: Empress on Her Own, also by Allison Pataki.  That novel was about Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary, wife of Franz Joseph I of Austria.  I loved that novel and looked forward to reading about Marjorie Post.  It didn’t live up to my expectations.

Read:  September 20, 2023

2 Stars

Books Set in North America; California and Oregon

Small World, by Jonathan Evison (2022)

 

This novel starts out with a train crash in the winter somewhere in Oregon en route to Seattle.  Walter Bergen is on his final run as engineer before his retirement.  After the crash, we meet several of the passengers, who come from all walks of life and backgrounds.  Not only do we meet them, but we are introduced to their ancestors and their struggles to make a life in America.

 

The novel switches from the present day to the 1850s where we learn of the immigrant experience of several families.  Walter Bergen descended from an Irish family who fled Ireland during the potato famine.  There is Jenny Chen, whose ancestor Wu Chen, came from China in the 1850s and began life in California panning for gold.  He acquired a small stash of gold, which he turned into thriving grocery business.  Malik Flowers is a young basketball with dreams of being drafted by the NBA.  He is descended from a run-away slave.  Laila, whose ancestors were Native Americans, hopped on the train to escape from an abusive husband.

 

I enjoyed reading about the backgrounds of all of these characters.

 

Read:  September 13, 2023

 

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Rome, Italy

Eternal, by Lisa Scottoline (2021)

This novel is about Italy during World War II, Fascism and the treatment of Jews.

Although the novel was historically correct, I didn't care for the characters.  (It even addresses Syndrome K, which was how Catholic doctors saved a number of Jews by convincing the Nazis that the Jews were infected with a highly contagious disease called Syndrome K).

The plot revolved around three teenagers:  Sandro, Marco and Elisabetta.  They have been friends from childhood.  The two boys vie for Elisabetta, who professes to love them both.  Marco and Elizabetta are both Catholic; Sandro is Jewish.  Sandro's father initially supported Mussolini, until Germany invaded Italy and Jews were forced into the Ghetto, then the camps.

The story line with Sandro, Marco, and Elisabetta didn't ring true.

Read:  September 3, 2023

3 Stars

Books Set in North America: New York, New York

Single Jewish Male Seeking Soul Mate, by Letty Cottin Pogrebin (2015)

 

Zach Levy is the son of two Holocaust survivors.  Although not raised in a religious household, Zach’s family was culturally Jewish and his parents insisted on fighting for Jewish survival.  Zach promised his mother he would marry a Jewish woman and raise his children to be Jewish.  As he studied for his bar mitzvah, he was became obsessed with his Jewish identity and refused to participate in the Christmas festivities in his public school.

 

By the time Zach has become an attorney for ACLU, his parents have both passed.  He fulfills his mother’s promise, marries a Jewish woman, and has a daughter.  All was seemly going fine until his wife suddenly springs it on him that she has found someone else and is moving to Australia, taking their daughter with her.

 

In his legal practice, Zach becomes involved in controversial social issues.  As such, he becomes involved in a community program to discuss Jewish-Black relationships.  It is there that he meets Cleo Scott, a Black radio host and social activist.  She grew up in a religious Baptist household.  From the start, Zach has informed Cleo of his promise to his mother.  Still, as their relationship develops, they fall in love and move in together.

 

His love for Cleo forces Zach to consider his identity as a Jew.  Who is a Jew?  How can he keep his promise to his mother and yet continue his relationship with Cleo?

 

The title of the book might suggest that this novel is a rom-com.  It is not.  It is a thoughtful discussion about identity with dialogue about Jews and Jewish tradition and theology without being heavy-handed.

 

I loved this book.

 

Read:  September 9, 2023

 

5 Stars

 

Books Set in North America, California, United States

Milk Fed, by Melissa Broder (2021)

A novel about Jewish guilt, sex and food.

Read: August 25, 2023

3 Stars

Books Set in North America, California, United States

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, by Robert Dugoni (2018)

Sam Hill was born with a rare genetic condition known as ocular albinism, which makes his eyes red.  His mother enrolled him into a Catholic Elementary School, Our Lady of Mercy, but the school initially rejected his application due to his eye condition.  The school feared that the other children would make fun of him.  They did.  They called him the Devil Boy, and Sam Hell.  It didn’t help that the school’s principal, Sister Beatrice, had it in for him and made him miserable.

Sam’s only school friends wer Ernie Cantwell, the only Black student at the school, and Michaela “Mickie” Kennedy, a rebel in her own right.

Sam’s mother is extremely devout and tells Sam that each of his trials and tribulations is a result of “God’s will.”  Sam endures the bullying from a classmate who comes from a home where violence rules.  Forty years later, he is confronted by the bully again and learns time has not taken the edge off his foe.

This is a novel about faith.  Although Sam loses the faith of his mother, his mother’s teachings comfort him throughout is life.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

Read:  August 25, 2023

4.5 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Israel

The Lair, by Ayelet Gunnar-Goshen (2017)

Read:  August 11, 2023

4 Stars

Books Set in North America: American South: St. Louis, Missouri and Memphis, Tennessee

Marching to Zion, by Mary Glickman (2013)

This historical novel delves into the struggles of Jews and African-Americans in the early half of the 20th Century.  The book begins when Mags Preacher, a young African-American woman, leaves her home in the rural countryside and moves to St. Louis, Missouri.  She has dreams of learning the beauty trade so she can open a salon back in her hometown.  The first person she encounters upon arriving in St. Louis is Magnus Bailey.  The only job she can get is working with Mr. Fishbein, a Jewish refugee who runs a funeral home that serves the Black families in the town.

Fishbein had fled Eastern Europe amid the pogroms that killed his wife and child.  When he left Europe, he brought with him his adopted daughter, Minerva, known as Minnie.  She had lost her family in the violence against Jews.  Seeing her family killed experiences as a very young girl caused her to be a very troubled young woman after arriving in America.

Mags is happily working at the funeral home and eventually marries George McCallum, the manager, and they live in a small apartment attached to the funeral home.  After the violent race riots in St. Louis in 1917, Fishbein’s funeral home is totally destroyed.  Fishbein and Mags barely escape with their lives, but George is killed.  Mags then disappears from the story.

The novel moves from Mags Preacher to the very troubled love story between Minnie, a fiery red-head Magnus.  Interracial relationships were criminal offenses at the time.  Fishbein, Minnie and Magnus move from St. Louis to Memphis to looking for a safer place to live.  The novel describes life for Jews and African-Americans during the Depression through the mid-1930s.  Fishbein realizes that there is no safe place for Jews in America, especially for his troubled daughter and her lover, Magnus.

After I finished the book, I realized that Mags Preacher, the young woman at the beginning of the story had completely disappeared.  What happened to her?

Read: August 8, 2023

3.5 Stars

Books Set in Asia and North America: Pakistan, Iraq, and San Francisco, California

The Bad Muslim Discount, by Syed M Masood (2021)

This novel follows two Muslim families who immigrated to the San Francisco from Islamic countries.  Anvar Faris’ family left Karachi, Pakistan in the mid-1990s when fundamentalism begins to take over their country.  Safwa, a young girl living in war-torn Baghdad, Iraq, illegally escapes with her father to the United States.

 

Anvar’s mother is a deeply devout Muslim, but his father is more laid-back.  Anvar’s mother and older brother easily settle into California and into its Muslim community.  His father, however, finds the community a bit more difficult.  All is well until 9-11.  Anvar’s brother is the “good” Muslim in the family.  He goes to mosque, prays five times a day, doesn’t smoke or drink and becomes engaged to a women chosen by his parents.  Anvar, however, it the “bad” Muslim.  He drinks, sleeps with women and goes to mosque only when his mother insists.

 

In college, Anvar meets and falls in love with Zuha Shah.  Although they part ways, Anvar never stops loving her.  He isn’t as religious as Zuha and settles for being a “bad” Muslim.

 

Meanwhile, Safwa is living with an abusive father and confined to her house in Baghdad.  Her father then was abducted by Americans during the Iraq War, and she was left along with her brother who was dying of a terminal illness.  As the war drew closer to her home, she was forced to flee to Basra.  Ultimately her father was released, and they were reunited.  His abuse, however, continued.  Enter Oais, an evil villager.  He offers Safwa and her father an opportunity to escape to the United States, but at a terrible price.

 

Safwa and her father begin a new life with new names in San Francisco.  Safwa is now known as Azza.  As it happens, they live in the same apartment building as Anvar.  The landlord has a tender heart and gives people in need what he calls a “good Muslim discount” on the rent.  Anvar and Azza begin a relationship, but from her perspective, it is a way to escape the violence inflicted upon her by her father.

 

This novel explores faith and geopolitical issues through the eyes of the lens of Muslim Americans.  The author points out that Muslims have been a part of American fabric throughout the history’s country.

 

I loved this novel.

 

Read: August 2, 2023

5 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Beijing, China

Kitchen Chinese, by Ann Mah (2010)

 

After aspiring writer Isabelle Lee lost her job as a fact-checker at a prestigious women’s magazine in New York, she decided to lick her wounds with a trip to China where her much older sister was living and working as an attorney.  Claire introduces Isabelle to Ed, who is the editor of Beijing NOW, a magazine aimed Expats.  Although her grasp of the language is limited to “kitchen Chinese”, Isabelle knows her Chinese food ~ it was what her emigrant mother prepared for her when she was growing up.  Isabelle lands a job as food writer for the magazine.  She soon learns, however, that live in China is quite different from live in New York.

 

Each chapter describes a different regional Chinese food.  The author’s descriptions of the dishes make one’s mouth water.  Recipes are found at the back of the book!

 

Read: July 30, 2023

4 Stars

Books Set in North America: Venice, California United States

Künstlers in Paradise, by Cathleen Schine (2023)

 

Twenty-four-year-old Julian has just lost his job, his roommate, and his New York apartment.  He runs back to his parents, expecting them to bail him out, but they don’t.  They are tired of his expectation of privilege.  So, he sets across the country to stay for a while with his 94-year-old grandmother, Salomea Künstler, who is recovering from a broken wrist.

 

Salomea Künstler was just 11-years-old when she fled with her parents and grandfather from Vienna at the start of World War II in 1939.  Although very young at the time, she was just old enough to know of the horrors of the Holocaust.  While not religious Jews, they were Jews none-the-less, and barely escaped with their lives. Much of her family perished.  She came from a family of musicians, and Los Angeles and Hollywood seemed a logical place for the family to land.

 

Salomea Künstler, known to friends as Mamie, still lives in the family bungalow along the beach in Venice, California.  Just as Julian arrives and begins interviewing for jobs, the world shuts down because of Covid-19.  Julian is now stuck with his grandmother and her aging housekeeper, Agatha.

 

With nothing much to do, Mamie begins to share with Julian the stories of her life.  Mamie has wonderful tales of life in Vienna and America with her beloved grandfather.  In America, her family also rubbed elbows with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars ~ Greta Garbo, Otto Preminger, Thomas Mann …

 

As Mamie is in the twilight of her life, Julian has yet to come into his own.  Being with Mamie and Agatha, however, jolt him into reevaluating what is important to him in the quiet world of the pandemic.

 

This was a delightful story.

 

Read: July 25, 2023

4 Stars

Books Set in North America, Mississippi, United States

The Tilted World, by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly (2013)

This novel takes place in the fictional town of Hobnob Landing, Mississippi in 1927, during prohibition.  The town is located on the Mississippi River and is protected by levees, which are strained due to the heavy rains and high-water levels.

Young Dixie Clay lives with her husband in the outskirts of town.  She married young and soon found out that her handsome husband was not the man she thought he was.  Soon after their marriage, she discovered that he was a bootlegger with a violent side.  She perfected the recipe, and soon became known as making the best moonshine in the area.  She was able to command high prices for her alcohol, which her husband sells.

When two Federal revenue agents go missing, two more are sent out to find them.  One agent, Teddy Ingersoll, happens upon Dixie Clay and they begin a tentative friendship.  He was unaware that she was making moonshine.

This is set against the background of the great Mississippi flood, which decimated the South.  The town folk are preparing for the inevitable flood, and must decide whether to stay and sandbag the levees or breach the levees so that the City of New Orleans might be spared.

I enjoyed the first part of the book, but the last quarter seem a bit far fetched.

Read:  July 19, 2023

3.5 Stars

Books Set in Europe and North America: Turkey, Spain and New York

Kantika, by Elizabeth Graver (2023)

 

Although billed as a novel, Kantika is tightly based on the life of the author’s grandmother, Rebecca Cohen Baruch Levy.  The book spans from 1907 to 1950.  Rebecca was a young girl born to wealthy Jewish parents in Constantinople.  At the time of her birth, Jews, Muslims and Christians lived in a relative peaceful environment.  She even attended a Catholic school, where she spoke French.  She was also fluent in Ladino and Turkish.  After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the family lost its wealth and Turkey became increasingly hostile to its Jewish citizens.  The family was forced to leave Turkey to seek employment elsewhere.  Her father found a menial job at a synagogue in Barcelona, Spain, where echoes of the Inquisition were still resonating.  They had a very uneasy life in Spain.  Rebecca set up a dress-making business and married one of the few single Jewish men in her community.  It was an unhappy marriage; her husband was basically a good-for-nothing.  He returned to his family home in Turkey, ostensibly to find employment married, and was gone for so long, that Rebecca took their two young sons to be reunited with him.  Once there, she learned that he had died.

 

Rachel ultimately was invited to immigrate to the United States to marry the widower of her best friend.  To meet her potential new husband, she must go through Cuba, but leave her young sons with family back in Spain.  That way, she figured, that if she didn’t like her proposed intended, she could more easily return to Spain.  Upon her second marriage, she also gained a disabled stepdaughter, Luna.  Her husband’s family was content to let Luna be, but Rebecca saw the girl had potential, despite her handicap.

 

Rebecca and her new husband, Sam, set up a life in New York with her two sons, his daughter, and eventually have three children of their own, one of whom was the author’s mother.

 

Kantika is Ladino for song.  This book was a beautiful song.

 

Read:  July 15, 2023

 

4.5 Stars

 

Books Set Somewhere in the World

If Cats Disappeared from the World, by Genki Kawamura (2012)

 

What if you learned that you had only days to live, but were offered an opportunity to extend your life?  That is the premise of this novel.  The narrator learns that he has only days to live.  Then, the devil arrives, dressed in a gaudy Hawaiian shirt, and offers him a deal.  The narrator will be granted an extra day of life for every item he eliminates from the world.  Since the narrator is in seemingly good health, despite the recent diagnosis of a brain tumor, he “sells his soul” to the devil.  He agrees and eliminates cell phones, movies, and clocks.  Then, when the devil suggests cats, the narrator stalls.  He is unable to imagine a world without his beloved cat, Cabbage.  (As a child, he had a cat named Lettuce, so when he acquired another cat as an adult, he named it after another leafy vegetable).  This little novel is a true delight, as it reflects on life and love.

 

Read: July 12, 2023

4 Stars

Books Set in Asia: Burma

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, by Jen-Philip Sendker (2002)

This novel follows Julia Win, a young woman whose mother was American, and father was a well-known Wall Street attorney and Burmese national.  One day, when she was a child, her father ostensibly went to work and just disappeared.  Julia and her family knew nothing of her father’s life before he arrived in America.  He never shared his early life with his wife.  They only know that he was born and raised in Burma.

Years later, Julia finds an old love letter, written by her father to an unknown woman named Mi Mi.  She decides travel to Burma to seek out this mysterious woman.  Julia travels to a remote village in Burma that was once her father’s hometown.  There she meets a strange old man who tells her he has been waiting for her.  He tells her that his name is U Ba and that he knew Tin Win, Julia’s father.

U Ba proceeds to fill in the details of Tin Win’s early life.  An orphan at a young age, he was raised by a widowed aunt.  When he was 10 years old, he suddenly went blind.  His aunt took him to a monastery where he was taught to follow the wisdom of his heart.  He meets Mi Mi, who was born with deformed feet and can only scuttle around on all fours.  They immediately fall in love, and with their disabilities, form a magical ability to feel with their other senses.  After Tin Win regains his eyesight, he finds himself in America where he marries and has a family.  He never lost his love for Mi Mi, however.

This is a beautiful novel with some intriguing philosophical ideologies.

Read:  July 7, 2023

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe: United Kingdom

Payment in Blood, Elizabeth George (1998)

Payment in Blood is the second in the Inspector Thomas Lynley / Barbara Havers mystery series.  This novel starts out as pure Agatha Christie.  On a cold winter night, playwright Joy Sinclair was found murdered in her bedroom in a snowbound estate in a remote town in Scotland.  She had been a guest at the manor along with a handful of actors who were to be in Sinclair’s next play, the producer, a drama critic, the director, and his lady love, Lady Helen Clyde, and the servants.  One of them must surely be the murderer.

For reasons that are not immediately apparent, Lynley and Havers were sent to investigate the murder.  Lynley enlists the help of his forensic friend, Simon St. James, to assist in the investigation.  Odd, because Scotland Yard had virtually no authority over the crime committed in Scotland.  Lynley is in love with Lady Helen, and so focuses his attention on Rhys Davies-Jones, who was sleeping with Helen in the room adjacent to Joy Sinclair’s room.  Havers and St. James, however, focus on Sinclair’s revised play, which they believe holds the key to the murder.

Complicating the investigation is the 1973 of Hannah Darrow.  What is her connection with the manor?  Was her death really a suicide?  Following clues leading to her death point to a spy scandal involving the family that owns the manor.

This is the second novel in the series.  The author is still introducing the characters.  Lady Helen seems to have many lovers.  Havers lives with her working-class parents and feels quite out of place with her aristocratic partner.  Lynley has some skeletons in his past, which are only hinted at, although we learned from the first book that he was the driver responsible for the accident that crippled St. James.

I am glad that I started this series in the middle where the characters are more developed.  Had I started at the beginning of the series, I probably would not have been compelled to read further.

Read: June 23, 2023

3 Stars

Other Books Read in the Series:

A Great Deliverance (# 1)  //  Read June 1, 2023

Well-Schooled in Murder (# 3)  //  Read June 29, 2003

For the Sake of Elana (# 5)  //  Read February 21, 1994

Missing Joseph (# 6)  //  Read June 12, 1996 and January 25, 2003

Playing for the Ashes (# 7)  //  Read January 6, 1996

A Traitor to Memory (# 11)  //  Read January 3, 2004

With No One as Witness (# 13)  //  Read May 13, 2023

A Banquet of Consequences (# 19)  //  Read July 4, 2018

Books Set in Europe: Paris, France

Paris: The Novel, by Edward Rutherfurd (2013)

Although the book is entitled Paris: The Novel, it’s actually a comprehensive history of France through the lives of six families from the reign of Louis IX, King of France in 1260 through 1968.  The novel jumps a bit back and forth in time, and I had to constantly refer to the family chart at the beginning of the book (which comes in a just over 800 pages).

Each of the 26 Chapters covers a specific point of history, with fabulous details of life during that specific period of time, all through the above mentioned six families.  The families come from all walks of life: from aristocrats, to peasants, to the bourgeois, to Catholics, Protestants, and Jews.  From generation to generation, the author spends more time with some families than others, but in total, the reader is treated to a fascinated history of one of the most well-known cities in the world.

We learn what court life was like during the reigns of the many French kings.  We learn of the events leading to the French Revolution.  We learn how the Eiffel Tower was constructed, and its initial reception in Paris.  The tale provided the background of the Huguenots and how they were expelled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

Some characters are more fully developed than others.  The reader cheers Thomas Gaston on as he works on the Eiffel Tower.  His brother, Luc, leads a life on the edge and he shows us the seedy side of life in the city.

I thoroughly enjoyed this travel to France.

Read:  June 20, 2023

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe, United Kingdom, England

A Great Deliverance, by Elizabeth George (1988)  //  Inspector Thomas Lynley # 1

This is the first in the Lynley / Havers detective series.  It provides the origin story of how Barbara Havers, a somewhat cantankerous low-level Detective Sergeant in the Scotland Yard, begins working with the aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynley.

The novel revolves around a murder in a small village north of London.  A teenage girl confessed to beheading her father, but some of the townfolk question whether or not she actually committed the crime.  Enter Lynley and Havers.

The reader learns some of the backstories of Lynley and Havers.  Lynley is dating Helen, but he is also something of a lothario.  We are also introduced to Simon St. James, who is a close friend of Lynley and planned on a career in law enforcement before he was crippled in a car accident.  Lynley was the intoxicated driver of the car.  St. James just married Deborah, who was a former lover of Lynley.

Meanwhile, we learn a bit about Havers’ background.  She comes from a lower-middle class family and lost her young brother to leukemia when he was a child.  His death lies heavy on her family life.

I didn’t find the mystery as intriguing as other stories in the series.

Read: June 1, 2023

3 Stars

Other Books Read in the Series:

Well-Schooled in Murder (# 3)  //  Read June 29, 2003

For the Sake of Elana (#5)  //  Read February 21, 1994

Missing Joseph (# 6)  //  Read June 12, 1996 and January 25, 2003

Playing for the Ashes (# 7)  //  Read January 6, 1996

A Traitor to Memory (# 11)  //  Read January 3, 2004

With No One as Witness (#13)  //  Read May 13, 2023

A Banquet of Consequences (# 19)  //  Read July 4, 2018

Books Set in Australia: Outback

The Dry, by Jane Harper (2026)

 

Australian Federal Agent Aaron Falk returned to his tiny hometown in rural outback Australia to attend the funeral of Luke Hadler, his closest childhood friend.  Aaron wasn’t eager to return to his hometown.  Aaron and his father had been run out of town twenty years earlier after Aaron had been accused of killing his girlfriend, Ellie Deacon.  Luke’s father implored him to return with a terse message stating that he knew Aaron had lied 20 years earlier about his alibi.

 

Luke had ostensibly committed suicide after murdering his wife and young son.  His farm was failing and he was facing financial ruin, thus suicide seemed a logical solution.  Luke’s parents, however, didn’t believed it was a murder-suicide.  Since Aaron is in law enforcement, albeit white-collar financial crimes, they implore him to investigate Luke’s death.

 

Small town, long memories.  Luke’s father isn’t the only person who thinks Aaron lied about his alibi.  While joining up the young ambitious Police Sergeant Greg Raco, Aaron unofficially assists in looking into Luke’s death.

 

A lot of people in the tiny town of Kiewarra have secrets.  The story is told in flashbacks, which give the reader two mysteries – the present-day death of Luke and his family, and the death of Ellie Deacon, which occurred 20 years earlier, when Aaron and his friends were just teenagers.

 

The Australian outback is suffering a drought, which provides an added layer of intrigue.  The draught was causing farms to fail, which in turn caused shops in town to suffer.  The local bar is up and operating, alcoholism is endemic, and nerves are frayed.  Physical fights were common occurrences.

 

The local school was short on funds and local townfolk applied for grants to help support educational programs.  Luke’s wife was the financial officer for the school.  Had she uncovered a source of funding?  Why did she have Aaron’s name and phone number in her possession?

 

Aaron must carefully negotiate the present, while letting go of grudges from the past as he delves into his friend’s death.

 

The Dry is the first book in the series featuring (Australian) Federal Agent Aaron Falk.  

 

 

Read:  May 29, 2023

 

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe, Barcelona, Spain

Cathedral of the Sea, by Ildefono Falcones (2006)

Cathedral of the Sea is a historical novel set in 14th Century Barcelona.  The novel spans from 1320 to 1384 and follows the life of Arnau, who was born into a serfdom.  His mother was brutally raped by the landowner on her wedding night and was later forced to become wetnurse to the lord’s family.  Arnau’s father escapes with his son to the free city Barcelona where they attempt to make a life together.

Life is not easy, but Arnau and his father find contentment.  Arnau became friends with a young boy near his age who becomes his adopted brother, Joan.  As children, the two boys were inseparable.  They find comfort worshiping at the foot of the Virgin Mary in the cathedral that is being built.  Arnau joins the stone-worker’s guild, called bastaixos, while his brother joins the Church.  Ultimately, Arnau becomes very wealthy and is instrumental in providing funds to the king for protecting the city.  In exchange for providing funds, the king forces Arnau into a marriage with Eleanor, a spiteful baroness.  It is a loveless marriage that was never consummated and could be Arnau's downfall.

Arnau befriends members of the city’s Jewish community.  This puts him at odds with the Church and the inquisition.  Joan has become an inquisitor, Arnau is hauled before his brother to answer for his sins.

[Spoiler Alert: The reader was led to believe that Arnau's mother had died.  She appears deep into the novel as a prostitute in Barcelona.

This is a very long novel and was originally written in Spanish.  I liked it, but didn’t love it.  Perhaps something was lost in translation.

Read:  May 27, 2023

3.5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: London, England

Courtiers, by Valentine Low (2022)

 

This book is an inside look at functioning of the British royal family.  The advisors to the Queen, and other working royals carry immense power and influence.  The courtiers are those whom Diana referred to as the “men in grey suits”.  They are around the royal family at official events and are, in many respects, the power behind the throne.

 

The author takes the reader through the private secretaries, personal secretaries, assistants and deputy secretaries from before Elizabeth II’s rule through Harry and Meghan.  Many courtiers held their positions for years before either retiring or moving on.  They are the trusted advisors of the monarch’s inner circle.  When the Queen was alive, Charles had his own courtiers and Kensington Palace (William and Harry) had their entourage.  The author describes the conflicts of having three separate households, each with its own agenda and people.

 

The book focused on the current royal family and was written shortly before the Queen died.  The book discussed the challenges the courtiers faced negotiated through the scandal of Prince Andrew and the explosive Megxit.  The author spent a great deal of ink on Harry and Meghan.  They didn’t come out well.  While the book recognized that Meghan, as an American, had difficulty adjusting to royal life, it also acknowledge that she was difficult to work with and many underlings in the household left their employment rather than stay working for the Firm.

 

I found the book mildly interesting, but not fabulously so.

 

Read:  May 18, 2023

 

3 Stars

 

Books Set in Europe: United Kingdom, London, England

With No One As Witness, by Elizabeth George (2005)  //  Inspector Thomas Lynley # 13

 

This mystery novel is the thirteenth in the Inspector Thomas Lynley series.  It had been nearly a decade since I read the last Lynley novel.  While each novel is a stand-alone mystery, it seemed that there was a lot in this book that relied on considerable knowledge of the characters backstories.  That being said …

 

New Scotland Yard officers, Inspector Lynley (Acting Superintendent Lynley in this volume) and his sidekick Constable Barbara Havers (she had apparently been demoted from Sergeant in the previous novel), have stumbled upon a serial killer.  Three mixed race young boys were left for dead before Kimmo Thorne, a young white, gay female impersonator, turned up dead.  The prior three bodies had been assumed to be runaways and their deaths weren’t thoroughly investigated.  It isn’t until Kimmo’s body is found that the police compare notes and realize that all the deaths were committed in a similar fashion.  To curb accusations of institutional racism, Winston Nkata was hastily promoted to Sergeant to serve as the face for the press briefings.

 

Lynley and his team’s investigation led them to Colossus, a low-budget organization intended to help at-risk children.  The Colossus employees and volunteers all have checkered pasts.  Could they have a hand in the murders?  There also appears to be a link to shady organization called MABIL (Men And Boys In Love), a group of pedophiles who groom young boys for sex.  When a fifth body is found, there are some substantial differences, leading the investigators to believe there may be a copy-cat killing.

 

In between following where the evidence may lead, the reader also gets a peek into the private lives of Lynley and Havers.  Lynley’s wife is expecting their first child, while Havers lives her solitary life and tries to connect with her neighbor.  Their lives are not without their own personal drama and tragedy.  [Spoiler Alert:  Lynley’s wife, Helen, was shot on her doorstep in the wealthy neighborhood of Belgravia.  By the time she was transported to the hospital, too much time had elapsed, and she was brain dead.  Both she and her unborn baby were taken off life support.  Also, the book ends with Lynley appearing to turn in his badge.]

 

This book comes in at over 600 pages.  While it kept my attention, it could have been pared down to about half that size.  I also found one plot thread to have been resolved too quickly.  Still, I enjoy reading about the gentry Thomas Lynley and his working-class side-kick, Barbara Havers.

 

Read:  May 13, 2023

 

4 Stars

 

Other Books Read in the Series:

Well-Schooled in Murder (# 3)  //  Read June 29, 2003

For the Sake of Elana (#5)  //  Read February 21, 1994

Missing Joseph (# 6)  //  Read June 12, 1996 and January 25, 2003

Playing for the Ashes (# 7)  //  Read January 6, 1996

A Traitor to Memory (# 11)  //  Read January 3, 2004

A Banquet of Consequences (# 19)  //  Read July 4, 2018

 

 

Books Set in North America: New York City

The Hidden Palace, by Helene Wecker (2021)

 

The Hidden Palace picks up the characters from The Golem and the Jenni, but the reader need not have read the first book to enjoy this one.  This novel takes place eight years after the first novel has ended and begins around 1900.  There are several threads plots in this novel.  Chava, the Jewish golem, and Ahmad, the Arabian jinni, have gone their separate ways haven’t seen each other in years.  Sophia Winston, who became chilled following her affair with the jinni, has traveled to a desert Middle East to find a cure.  Anne is working as a laundress and raising her young son.  Interwoven into the lives of the characters, is a fair amount of history, as the world is on the brink of World War I.

 

Cheva realizes that as a golem, she never ages, while the people around her do.  She realized that she could no longer work in the bakery, so attends a nearby college and gets a degree in that allows her to teach cooking.  She reinvented herself as Charlotte Levy and landed a job at an orphanage academy.  After the jinni’s partner died, he holed up in the building and cut himself off from the rest of the community and spent his time constructing with steel.  Anne’s son landed a job as a Western Union messenger, which takes him around New York City.

 

While searching for a cure to her illness, Sophia encounteres a female jinni, whom she calls Dima.  Dima has been banished from her tribe and is searching for the jinni who can touch steel (Ahmad).  She promises Sophia a cure if she can bring her to Ahmad.  Meanwhile, back in New York, the reader meets Kreindel, a young girl who studies Hebrew with her rabbi and assists him in making Yessele, another golem to be her protector.

 

In addition to a beautiful story, the author also gives us a glimpse of life in the New York tenements at the turn of the last century.  I loved this book and look forward to other writings from this author.

 

Read:  May 3, 2023

 

4 Stars

 

 

Books Set in Europe, Madrid, Spain

The Princess Spy: The True Story of World War II Spy Aline Griffiths, Countess of Romanones, by Larry Loftis (2021)

 

Aline Griffith (1923 ~ 2017) was born Pearl River, New York, a sleepy little town in outside of New York City, to a middle-class family.  She had big dreams and longed to make a name for herself.  After graduating from college, she landed a job as a model with New York fashion designer Hattie Carnegie.  While it wasn’t her dream job, she did learn poise and a fashion sense.

 

A chance meeting at a dinner party one night in the early 1940s with an Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operative changed the course of her life.  She was given mysterious instructions and told to show up at a building in Washington, D.C., and give a false name.  That led to her training to become an operative with the OSS.  After completing the training course, she was sent to Madrid, Spain in the midst of World War II.  There she was to search for Nazi supporters in the supposedly neutral Spain.  She rubbed elbows with the rich and famous and dated many glamorous men.

 

After the War, she married Luis Figeuroa y Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno, Count of Quintanilla, making her an instant countess.  Her husband’s grandfather was Álvaro de Figeuroa, who had served as Prime Minister of Spain in the early 1910s.  She mostly retired from the spy business after her marriage, but in the 1950s she occasionally took on secret information-gathering missions for the CIA.

 

Her actual involvement in espionage was not well enumerated.  The author describes one event when Aline takes in some female operatives into her home, and one woman was sleeping in her bed.  Later, Aline discovers that the woman had been shot and killed while sleeping.  Aline called her handler and they quietly removed the body before morning.  The author, however, acknowledges that it is difficult to determine what is real and what is not because Aline, herself, provided very contradictory versions of various events.

 

Most of the book describes the life of high society in Spain during.  The author describes the sport of bullfighting in detail and introduces the reader to some of the most famous bullfighters of that era.  Aline traveled in circles where she met and became friends with many of the bullfighters.  From reading this book, one gathers that most of her time as a spy was attending cocktail parties and bullfights.

 

During the War, Aline seems to be nervous about having too much contact with Nazis.  After the 
War, however, she considers the Duchess of Windsor, a known Nazi sympathizer, as one of her closest friends.

 

The book was mildly interesting.  I expected to learn more about a female spy during World War II, and not the antics of a high-society partier.

 

Read:  April 26, 2023

 

3 Stars