Trouble Island by Sharon Short

 

First Line from Prologue: Loons and gulls arc in the vast, blue-gray sky over the island below.

 

Trouble Island is a stop-off for gangsters as they travel between Canada and the United States on Lake Erie. It's also home to two women: Aurelia Escalante, maid to Rosita, who is the lady of the manor and wife of gangster Eddie McGee.  

In the freezing winter of 1932, Eddie is scheduled to arrive on the island with his right-hand man, a doctor, a cousin, a famous actor, and a rival gangster whom Rosita believes murdered her son. Aurelia, who's been hiding on the island with her own secrets, has been planning her escape and is just about to put her plan into action when Rosita disappears. Deciding to go ahead anyway, Aurelia goes to retrieve her stash of supplies and finds Rosita's body instead. 

Someone went to a great deal of trouble to ensure that Aurelia was the person who found the body. Now more than ever, Aurelia wants to escape, but an ice storm sweeps in, keeping her on the island with more than one murderer.

~

Having loved this author's Kinship historical mysteries written under the name of Jess Montgomery, I really looked forward to Trouble Island, but the book fell flat for me. The setting and the historical detail were excellent, and the winter weather on that remote island kept me frozen to the bone-- especially since Aurelia would actually go swimming in the lake almost daily. 

Where did the book fall flat? I think it was a personal reaction more than anything else. I never warmed to any of the characters. Aurelia seemed a bit too naive and unobservant, and Rosita the high-handed diva was the sort of person I'd walk ten miles out of my way to avoid. Also, I wasn't in the mood to guess the true identities of each person on the island. If I'd read Trouble Island while in a different mood, it's altogether possible I would have liked it more-- which means your mileage will probably vary from mine.

Trouble Island by Sharon Short

eISBN: 9781250292834

Minotaur Books © 2024

eBook, 336 pages

 

Historical Thriller

Rating: B

Source: Net Galley

The Housekeepers by Alex Hay

 

First Lines: Friday, June 2, 1905. Park Lane, London. Mrs. King laid out all the knives on the kitchen table.

 

Born into a world of con artists and thieves, Mrs. King is no ordinary housekeeper. She's very respectable, she's very good at her job, and she runs the grandest home in Mayfair-- a huge house packed to the rafters with treasures, with wealth, with power, and with dark secrets.

 

When Mrs. King is fired, she recruits an eclectic gang of women to join her in revenge. Her plan? On the night of the house's highly anticipated costume ball, this group of women will empty the house of every one of its treasures-- including the curtains and carpets-- right from under the noses of the guests and the host. You see, Mrs. King wants more than the money these treasures will bring; she wants the truth.

 

Never underestimate the women downstairs.

 

~

 

I've loved a good heist story since I was a teenager. There's just something about vicariously getting one over on the rich and shameless. So when I learned about Alex Hay's The Housekeepers, I grabbed a copy and tucked in with enthusiasm. 

The book has a definite Dickensian feel to it with its descriptions of the setting (the smell of dead mice under the floorboards being common, for one!), the characters' names, and the scope of the heist is incredible, too. I mean, who's ever heard of robbing a huge mansion of everything down to the floorboards? With something on such a monumental scale, setting the stage takes some time, and as the story unfolds, readers quickly learn that there's more to this story than mere theft. There are family connections to unravel, there are motivations to uncover. And as these things are revealed, the shadows in the halls of this opulent mansion take on a sinister feel. No one should linger long in these passageways.

There is so much to like about The Housekeepers, but I found the writing style so... subdued... is the only word I can think of... that I found it difficult to become fully engaged in the story. However, I do like how Alex Hays' mind works, and I will be looking for his next book.

The Housekeepers by Alex Hay

ISBN:  9781525805004

Graydon House Books © 2023

Hardcover, 368 pages

 

Historical Thriller, Standalone

Rating: B-

Source: Purchased from The Poisoned Pen.

Mother Daughter Traitor Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal

 

First Line from Prologue: "Imagine-- it's a year from now, 1941, or maybe even '42-- and Germany and the Axis have won the war," Hermann Schwinn was saying in a thick accent.

 

After a severe lapse in judgment cost her a prestigious job in New York City, Veronica Grace and her mother, Violet, find themselves in Los Angeles looking for work. Although she still wants to pursue a career in journalism, bills must be paid, so Veronica accepts a typing job from a local high school teacher.

 

It doesn't take her long to discover that this high school teacher is an ardent supporter of the Nazis and one of their chief propagandists in southern California. Veronica wants nothing more to do with the man or his agenda, but that's when she's approached with a proposition. The man was very favorably impressed with both her work, her Aryan appearance, and her German background-- she would make the perfect spy.

 

As Veronica begins her life as a spy, her mother joins her, the older woman moving easily among the wealthy wives of California's Nazi elite. When Pearl Harbor brings the United States into the war, both women find out that the plans these dangerous men are making have a lot more to do with death and destruction than they do with disseminating propaganda leaflets.

 

~

 

Based on a true story, Susan Elia MacNeal's Mother Daughter Traitor Spy is a white-knuckle ride into a life of espionage by two women you'd never think would be spies. Veronica Grace is bright, talented, and longs for a career in journalism like her hero, Martha Gellhorn. She's so bright and so talented that I still find it hard to believe the stupid error in judgment that cost her a prestigious job in New York City.

 

Another thing that was a bit difficult to accept (but I don't know why) is what a hotbed of Nazism the Los Angeles area was in World War II. So much so that the West Coast was in much more danger than the East Coast. Learning that, back then, Anaheim was called "Klanaheim" made my blood run cold. (When reading this book, do yourself a favor: read the author's notes, sources, and inspirations.)

One of the best parts of Mother Daughter Traitor Spy was how MacNeal showed the concurrent tedium and terror of being a spy. Veronica and Violet's determination and strength of character shone through all the long months they put themselves in danger. It is a life that not many people are suited for, and a life in which one of the most important lessons to be learned is that "nice isn't the same as good."

This is a strong fictional account of two remarkable women that has disturbing ties to the present day. I'm glad I met Veronica and Violet.

Mother Daughter Traitor Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal

eISBN: 9780593156964

Bantam Books © 2022

eBook, 336 pages

 

Standalone Historical Thriller

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

The Texas Job by Reavis Z. Wortham

 

First Line: The buckskin's hooves landed with soft thuds on the sandy East Texas road.

 

It's 1931 when Texas Ranger Tom Bell rides into an East Texas oil boomtown where thousands of men have flocked to find work. He's hunting for a fugitive murderer, and it's obvious that the sheriff and his men aren't going to be any help.

 

But his search for the wanted man uncovers more than he bargained for. Something's not right in this town, and since it does tie into his own search, Bell can't help but ask a few questions here and there. Unfortunately, his investigation stirs up a hornets' nest of resistance. Now Tom Bell is a wanted man himself.

 

~

 

For anyone familiar with Reavis Wortham's Red River mystery series, the name Tom Bell will be a familiar (and welcome) one. Bell is an old man in the 1960s setting of the Red River mysteries, but The Texas Job shows him as a young man in 1931 with more than a touch of Wyatt Earp-like invincibility. 

 

Wortham aptly describes the boomtown sensibility of Texas oil fields, of everyone out to make as much money as fast as they possibly can. And where there are boatloads of fast money, there are boatloads of outlaws, from petty criminals all the way up to the gangsters of organized crime. These are the days of Pretty Boy Floyd, of Ma Barker, John Dillinger, and Bonnie and Clyde. The Texas Job gives readers shootouts and ambushes and twisted, evil plots to grab control of the rights to all that oil and money. And if all that sounds a bit far-fetched, I'd suggest a little additional reading... David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon, for instance. 

But if this sounds like too much action and not enough setting and characterization, think again. The opening scene of The Texas Job is beautiful and lyrical. Wortham paints such a vivid picture that I easily found myself on horseback riding along with Tom Bell. Yes, there is beauty to be found in this book, as well as love, kindness, greed, and ugliness.

And then there's Tom Bell. A man who has to think on his feet in order to stay alive. A man who doesn't see skin color, and as a result meets unforgettable eleven-year-old Booker Johnston, and Booker's friends and family. The bad guys in this book are the types you love to hate, and you want to see them come to bad ends, but it's Bell's interactions with the marginalized there in town that bring a smile to my face and make the story come to life.

If you're a fan of Wortham's Red River mysteries, you already know you have a treat in store for you in The Texas Job. If you haven't made the acquaintance of Tom Bell, there's no time like the present. You're not only going to like him, you're going to want more.

The Texas Job by Reavis Z. Wortham

eISBN: 9781464215711

Poisoned Pen Press © 2022

eBook, 416 pages

 

Historical Thriller, Red River prequel

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

Play the Red Queen by Juris Jurjevics

First Line: On 24 August 1963, the newly arrived American ambassador to South Viet Nam, Henry Cabot Lodge, received a cable from Washington.

It's 1963, and there are military advisors in South Viet Nam working to stop the spread of Communism. Of the sixteen thousand American servicemen there, only six Army Criminal Investigation Division soldiers have been assigned to solve all the crimes. Two of them are Ellsworth Miser and Clovis Robeson. They are in charge of finding the young female Viet Cong assassin who's killing US Army officers with a single pistol shot then riding off on the back of a scooter. However, once they begin investigating, they understand that identifying the daring assassin is not going to be easy. And neither is staying alive. Too many things are at stake.

Although Play the Red Queen could have been tightened up a bit more to keep the flow of the story moving, I did like the book. One of the two investigators had what I thought was an unnecessary love affair, but perhaps the author meant to show just how many countries were interested in what was going on in South Viet Nam.

The daring young female assassin is played up in the synopsis-- and it is a good storyline-- but what I found to be more interesting was the fact that Play the Red Queen is actually a snapshot of a time and a place. As social history, the book is often fascinating (and infuriating). As is stated in A Note from the Author's Widow at the end of the book, Jurjevics wrote about "an underreported aspect of the Viet Nam war: 'the elaborate, even treasonous corruption-- and our complicity in it.'" Finding out just how elaborate that corruption was shouldn't have surprised me so much, even while the identity of the assassin wasn't surprising at all.

For some reason, I felt as though there should have been a bigger payoff at the end of the book. Perhaps that feeling of satisfaction never came because I already knew the end of the story. Yes, I did have mixed reactions to Play the Red Queen, but I am glad that I read it. Your mileage may vary.

Play the Red Queen by Juris Jurjevics

ISBN:  9781641291378

Soho Crime © 2020

Hardcover, 360 pages

Historical Thriller, Standalone

Rating: B-

Source: the publisher

 

November Road by Lou Berney

First Line: Behold! The Big Easy in all its wicked splendor!

It took a while but wiseguy Frank Guidry, a loyal lieutenant for New Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcellos, has finally learned that everyone is expendable. How? He knows too much about the crime of the century: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Within hours after the assassination, people with ties to Marcello start turning up dead, and Guidry knows he's next. He hits the road for Las Vegas to see an old associate who hates Marcello enough to help Guidry vanish. When he sees a young woman with two little girls standing by a broken down car on the side of the road, he figures they'll be good cover. Marcellos' men will be looking for a man alone.

For Charlotte, Guidry's promise of help in getting a new car in Las Vegas is all-important. That car is her escape from a stifling life in small-town Oklahoma with a hopeless drunk of a husband. What's unexpected is that these two people find each other on their journey. But they're breaking an unspoken rule: a road isn't just a road, it's a trail, and ruthless killers are closing in on Guidry... and Charlotte and her two little daughters.

With writing like "...the towel could have sanded the faces off Mount Rushmore", Lou Berney certainly knows how to turn a phrase, but that's just icing on the cake of November Road. He also is no stranger to crafting a fast-paced, spellbinding story populated with fully-fleshed, memorable characters. The story is told in three voices: Frank's and Charlotte's, the two people on the run, and a hitman most refer to simply as Barone.

The circumstances revolving around the assassination of JFK are more than plausible, and some of the scenes brought back a childhood memory or two, as well as Guidry's escape route along Route 66. The cat-and-mouse chase can make your heart pump a little faster as first we learn where Guidry and Charlotte are before switching to Barone who's rapidly closing the distance between them. Part of me wanted a fairy-tale ending for Frank and Charlotte, who begin to fall in love the closer they get to Las Vegas, but the other part of me was still in the real world. Berney proved to be skilled at leading me on.

No matter how strong the story and the writing are-- and they are-- it's the characters who make November Road something special. Theodore, a black teenager who finds himself traveling with a hitman. Charlotte, in despair over her life and the life she's giving her children, changes as she makes her escape from her sot of a husband, and her two daughters, Joan and Rosemary, are easily capable of stealing the show from time to time-- a necessary lightening of the tension that builds throughout the book. But those two children are also strong characters in their own right without becoming cloying caricatures. Even Guidry, who's spent his life living in the moment for whatever pleasure he feels like experiencing, undergoes a transformation when he comes into Charlotte's orbit.

Did I get my fairy-tale ending? That's for you to find out. November Road is a marvelous book, in turn nerve-wracking, funny, heartbreaking, and almost impossible to put down. It's going to be a long time before I forget characters like Charlotte and Theodore, and it goes without saying that I'm on the lookout for more books by Lou Berney.

November Road by Lou Berney

eISBN: 9780062663870

William Morrow © 2018

eBook, 320 pages

Historical Thriller, Standalone

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

 

Black Out by John Lawton

First Line: In the London borough of Stepney very little remained of Cardigan Street.

It's 1944, and the Luftwaffe is making its final assault on an already battered London. When children playing in an East End bomb site discover a severed arm and call the police, Scotland Yard's Detective Sergeant Frederick Troy knows the arm isn't the work of a bomb.

Troy manages to link the arm to the disappearance of a refugee scientist from Nazi Germany, and that's when America's newest intelligence agency, the OSS, decides to get involved. Troy soon finds himself up to his eyebrows in secrets, corruption, and mysterious women as he tries to solve this case.

If I'd paid a little more attention to the clues planted in the synopsis of this book, I would not have purchased it-- but more on that a little later.

Black Out covers 1944-1948 in London, and as I have been enjoying a few mysteries set in that same time period, I decided to see what this book was all about. For me, there was very little real historical flavor to the setting outside of blackout curtains, potholes in the roads, and having the occasional bomb land somewhere nearby. The major reason why I should have paid more attention to the synopsis is that I do not care for spy thrillers, and that is precisely what Black Out turned out to be. Paraphrasing the words of one of the characters: Just give me an old-fashioned murder any day, thank you very much.

However, it wasn't just the spy game element of the book that left me cold; the characters did, too. The two token women, Tosca and Brack, played their jolly nymphomaniac and tall, cool femme fatale roles to perfection, but nothing they did really surprised me. Constable Wildeve was my favorite of the lot, and he deserved a drawerful of commendations for putting up with Sergeant Troy, who seemed to believe that the young man was psychic.

Troy is the son of a titled Russian émigré, and it's a combination of this background coupled with how his schoolmates and others have reacted to it that has made him distrustful. He holds himself apart and does quite a good job of behaving like a cold fish. Troy also is the sort of police officer that I don't particularly care for. He's all about the chase, regardless of whom he puts at risk. It's not so bad when the only person in danger is himself, but he willfully throws other people under the bus, too. I like my coppers with a bit more compassion because it isn't just about the chase.

So... my opinion of Black Out isn't all that great. I can see that it is fast-paced and well-written, and it does have a story that held my interest, but Troy just isn't my sort of policeman. Keep in mind that your mileage may certainly vary. Now I just have to remind myself to pay closer attention to those synopses!

Black Out by John Lawton

eISBN: 9780802195845

Grove Press © 1995

eBook, 343 pages

Historical Mystery, #1 Inspector Troy mystery

Rating: C+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye

First Line: You're supposing that you hold in your hands a manuscript.

Suffering from an untended gunshot wound, former New York City resident Alice "Nobody" James is taken to Portland, Oregon's Paradise Hotel by Max, one of the black Pullman porters.

Her sanctuary turns out to be the only all-black hotel in the city, and its lodgers are none too happy about having a white woman on the premises. As she recuperates, she becomes acquainted with the residents and begins to understand why they dread her presence. The Ku Klux Klan has arrived in great numbers-- burning crosses, inciting violence, and brutalizing blacks. It's their presence that makes searching for a missing black child extremely difficult, but Alice insists on helping to find the boy.

The longer she stays, the more Alice learns. The Paragon Hotel is chockful of secrets, and nightclub singer Blossom Fontaine seems to be at the center of all of them.

In my travels east of the Mississippi, I'd often wondered at the proliferation of places called "Dew Drop Inn" or "Step Right Inn," mostly because there wasn't a thing about them that looked like an inn, hotel, motel, or bed-and-breakfast. All these places looked like bars or saloons to me. Well, thanks to Lyndsay Faye's The Paragon Hotel, I now know about the Raines law of 1896 and why so many bars and saloons changed their names. Other than this (and learning about Bayer's heroin tablets-- oh my), I found the book to be a mixed bag of blessings.

With sentences like "Losing a safe space...carves a canyon through a person," or "Watching like a sea captain's wife searching the shores after a storm," it's obvious that Faye certainly knows how to turn a memorable phrase. She also knows how to do her research on Harlem in New York City or the slang used in 1921 or Oregon's long association with racism. Memorable characters are also a forte. You've seldom met anyone like Alice James, who prefers to be called "Nobody," and the residents of the Paragon Hotel are fascinating, especially since they've all had to learn how to live a secretive life in a city (and state) where it is illegal for blacks to reside. You'd think that, with all those people in the hotel, you'd be constantly confused, but Faye effortlessly keeps them all straight in our minds.

The way the story is told is what tripped me up. This double-pronged tale is like two cats fighting in a bag. We have to be told Alice's backstory growing up poor in Harlem, and we have to be told the present-day story in Portland. It's too much. I could've done without all the backstory and having the sole focus be on the hotel and its residents. And the 1921 slang dialogue used throughout? While it's nice to know how many people spoke then, it was too much of a good thing even though I found none of it unintelligible. Like Alice's backstory, the slang served mainly to keep me from being drawn into the story-- and I really didn't want to be an outsider. Not at the Paragon Hotel.

There's an awful lot of good to be found in the pages of this book. If only I hadn't been put off by how the tale was put together. I seem to be in the minority with my opinion, so keep in mind that your mileage may definitely vary.

The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye

ISBN: 9780735210752

G.P. Putnam's Sons © 2019

Hardcover, 432 pages

Historical Thriller, Standalone

Rating: C+

Source: Purchased from The Poisoned Pen.


 

The Poisoned Island by Lloyd Shepherd

First Line: Near the foot of great Tahiti Nui, in the shadow of the dead volcano and beneath the hungry eyes of ancient gods, the young Englishman chased his princess through the forest, despite the best efforts of the forest to stop him.

It's the year 1812, and the Solander has just tied up to the London docks laden with plant specimens from Tahiti for Kew Gardens. From all accounts, Sir Joseph Banks is well pleased with the voyage he commissioned, but when sailors from the ship start dying, it's up to John Harriott, magistrate of the Thames River Police, and Constable Charles Horton to investigate these crimes and put an end to the killings.

Once again Lloyd Shepherd has written a deftly plotted and richly detailed book that will bring all your senses to life. Part murder mystery, part social commentary, The Poisoned Island is filled with creepy atmosphere, intriguing characters, and one very puzzling mystery. Although Harriott and Horton appear in Shepherd's previous book, The English Monster, both books can easily be read as standalones. 

In The Poisoned Island, there are several flashbacks to past voyages to Tahiti, especially in 1769. The island, the weather, the native people, the plant life... everything has combined to form a paradise that lives on in the minds of those who have been there-- and once they've been there, they want to go back. Unfortunately the fabric of Tahitian life is ripped apart as European customs and behaviors spread like poison. But Tahiti isn't the only island that has been poisoned.

Constable Charles Horton is a marvelous character who feels tainted by his past, but he's found the perfect wife to love and support him-- and she isn't the frail flower that Horton likes to think she is. Horton has also fallen on his feet with his employment. Magistrate John Harriott has had the foresight to see that policing is changing; it's no longer a matter of merely having a police presence to deter villains, men who are capable of investigating crimes are the people who are needed now. Charles Horton is the perfect man for Harriott's needs, even though almost every other magistrate in London would heartily disagree.

It's a pleasure to watch these characters walk the streets and dockyards of a London that seems straight out of Dickens. Sights, smells, sounds-- Shepherd knows how to immerse readers in them all. He also knows how to put together a fascinating mystery. At first, none of crime scenes make sense. It appears that all the victims were killed in their sleep. They have huge smiles on their faces, their throats have been slashed, and their sea chests have been gone through. But how can the killer have gotten into or out of their lodgings without being seen-- and why were none of their wages taken? Horton's investigation takes him from boarding houses to pubs, from the Solander to Kew Gardens, and many other places besides, and as he begins to piece things together, he realizes that the seeds of murder were sown in faraway Tahiti.

If I have anything negative to say about this book amidst its rich language, atmosphere, plot and characterization, it's that the pace bogs down repeatedly. As it is, I can recommend The Poisoned Island wholeheartedly. If it had been trimmed and tightened a few degrees, I'd be singing and dancing and thrusting copies of it in your hands. Ah, do it anyway-- I can still feel those Tahitian breezes caressing my skin and feel the chills running down my spine as I walk the London docks at night.

The Poisoned Island by Lloyd Shepherd

ISBN:  9781476712864

Washington Square Press © 2014

Paperback, 432 pages

Historical Thriller

Rating: B+

Source: NetGalley 

The English Monster by Lloyd Shepherd

First Line: The ancient road began at the Tower and ran east to west along a terrace of gravel.

It's 1811, and from the ancient Ratcliffe Highway to the London Dock, the district of Wapping is the throbbing heart of the British Empire's meteoric rise in trade and the accumulation of wealth. Wapping is also the scene of the gruesome murders of two families, and John Harriott, creator of the newly established Thames River Police soon realizes two important facts.

The first fact is that petty jurisdictional squabbles are getting them nowhere. The second fact is that, after close observation of his waterman-constable, Charles Horton, Harriott believes that the old methods of policing aren't going to find the killers either; it's Horton's style of "detection" that Harriott believes will bring the murderers to justice.

The English Monster isn't just a story about the hunt for the killers of two families; however, there's another story told in alternating chapters that is intertwined with the investigation throughout. It is the story of William Ablass, a young Oxfordshire man who goes to Plymouth in 1564 to board a ship and make his fortune so he can come home and buy a farm for his beloved young wife and himself. He becomes a member of Jack Hawkins' crew, sanctioned by the Queen to raid Spanish shipping. "Long Billy" (as he's often called) changes in ways he never would have foreseen.

Shepherd's tale of the quest for trade and fortune is well-told, atmospheric, and often quite chilling. The growth of Wapping and the entire area of the Docklands in London sets a perfect stage for Long Billy, John Harriott and Charles Horton-- a man with his own secrets that come back to haunt him:

Death and beer always hang heavy in the air in Wapping.... And hulking over the whole area, visible through gaps in the buildings like a canvas on which Wapping has been painted, the walls of the new dock and its surrounding warehouses.... But even Harriott must admit that there is something massively dark about the dock, something of the gaol about its walls and the warehouses between it and the river, buildings which now glower over the High Street , each of them a good storey or more higher than the older buildings which cluster around the walls like supplicants at a cathedral.

Under the observant eye of Shepherd, Wapping and its docks become just as important a character as Long Billy, Harriott, Horton, and the other people who live there.

As much as I wanted Harriott and Horton to find the killers, I have to admit that the story of William Ablass was the one I found to be engrossing... and creepy. There are things about Long Billy that I'd love to share with you all, but that would ruin the book for you. Shepherd's tale is Dickensian in its detail and atmosphere, and the only real weakness in his story is that, when he shifts the focus to the 1811 investigation of the murders in the book's later stages, I missed the gaps in William Ablass's story. In many ways, Long Billy reminded me of a great white shark, and it didn't feel natural for me to turn my back on him.

Yes, William Ablass is the the English monster of the title, but as I read, I learned that there is more than one monster in this tale, and that is what money and greed have done to us all throughout the centuries. I still feel uneasy after reading The English Monster. It is a book that stays with the reader long after the last page is read. I've since learned that Shepherd has another book, The Poisoned Island, due out next year. I definitely want to read it!

[Note: The cover, quote, and information about The English Monster refer to the UK edition of this book. It is also available in an US edition.]

The English Monster, or The Melancholy Transactions of William Ablass by Lloyd Shepherd

ISBN: 9780857205377 (UK Edition)

Simon and Schuster Ltd © 2012

Paperback, 432 pages

Historical Thriller

Rating: B+

Source: Simon and Schuster UK

Jack 1939 by Francine Mathews

First Line: "...patient's 6000 cell count at intake," Dr. George Taylor wrote, "has dropped to 3500."

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has secretly decided to run for an unprecedented third term in office. He knows that Europe is on the brink of another world war, and he believes more in his own abilities to carry the United States through than he does in any of his likely successors. But he does need someone he can trust to find out what the Nazis are up to. Since the United States does not have an intelligence service (spies), Roosevelt chooses his own-- twenty-two-year-old John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

The young Jack Kennedy is in ill health more often than not, and of all the Kennedy children, he's considered to be the least promising, the black sheep. But he's also the son of Roosevelt's ambassador to Great Britain, he's a well-traveled young man with a diplomatic passport, and he knows many people. Roosevelt sees something in Jack, something that reminds him of himself. Jack agrees to Roosevelt's proposal, and in the spring of 1939, he's off to Europe aboard the Queen Mary, ostensibly to gather material for his senior thesis at Harvard. Only Roosevelt, Jack, and the president's most trusted bodyguard know that Jack is looking for the people responsible for a flood of German money into the United States-- a monetary tsunami intended to buy the 1940 presidential election... an election that Hitler is determined Roosevelt will lose.

Former CIA intelligence analyst Francine Mathews has crafted a terrific blend of fact and fiction that drew me in from the very first page. I loved how Roosevelt skillfully tapdances around the slimy, secretive J. Edgar Hoover, who spends most of his time trying to compile blackmail-worthy dossiers on all the powerful people in the country. When the action is in Europe, time and time again the British pop up with some needed help, showing us all that they know plenty about the spy business.

But of course, the focus of the book is on the young Jack Kennedy. His constant, mysterious illnesses have made him unafraid of death and determined to live fully during the time he has got. He knows how to think on his feet, how to observe, and he learns very quickly. He falls in love with a beautiful woman during the Atlantic crossing aboard the Queen Mary, and he shadows Diana Playfair from place to place until they finally hook up to get the information that Roosevelt needs. And when the information begins to fall into place, Jack learns that his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, is right in the middle of things. Which is going to be more important to Jack-- his mission for Roosevelt or his family's integrity?

I found Jack's love interest, Diana Playfair, too cold and brittle to ever really care about, so that part of the story palled a bit for me. Besides the scenes in which Roosevelt shone, the best often showed Jack interacting with his brothers and sisters. At times it seemed that Mathews' portrayal of Rose Kennedy and Jack's elder brother Joe was too one-sided, but I have read a lot about the family, and everything that's said about all the Kennedys in Jack 1939 is pretty accurate. I think Rose and Joe Jr. were painted with the saint brush after their deaths: Joe the Golden Boy, killed too young and not allowed to fulfill his promise, and Rose, the bereaved mother who lost two sons so tragically in the 1960s.

While I'm speaking of the Kennedys, one scene that did not ring true for me at all was the scene at the end where Jack lays down the law to his father, Joe. No way, no how would that scene ever happen. However, this scene and the character of the icy Diana Playfair were not enough to ruin my enjoyment of this book.

This was a fun read from beginning to end, and I enjoyed Mathews' skillful blend of history and the storytelling art. Seeing a young JFK spying his way around a Europe on the edge of war, as a young man falling in love, learning how to use cyphers and radios, being followed by a psychotic Nazi killer, and getting himself out of one close call only to fall right into another... I read this book in a little over a day, and when I came up for air, I had a big smile on my face. 

Jack 1939 by Francine Mathews

ISBN: 9781594487194

Riverhead Books ©2012

Hardcover, 368 pages

Genre: Historical Thriller

Rating: A

Source: Publisher