Trying to Catch Up on Reviews

 

I'm so far behind in my book reviews that I didn't know where to start until I took a deep breath and realized that the best place to begin was with the books that have been waiting the longest. 

These catch-up reviews are going to be short and sweet, but at least you'll have an idea of what pages I've been turning the past few months! (I'll also provide links to Amazon in each title if you want to learn more about any of the books.)

Let's get started!

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths

#1 Ali Dawson mystery

Rating: A

My Thoughts: Many of you know that I love Elly Griffiths' writing so much that I pre-order the UK editions of her books. In this book, she combines two of my favorites: mystery and time travel. 

A local MP sends time traveler Ali Dawson back to 1850 to answer a question about an ancestor. Good plot twists, a good sense of humor, and a good setup for the next book in the series. I loved fifty-year-old Ali Dawson with her fire engine red hair, working class roots, three ex-husbands, her son Finn, and her Siamese cat, Terry.

Bring on the next book, Elly!

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

Standalone Golden Age thriller

Rating: A

My Thoughts: Told from the point of view of Dorothy L. Sayers, five bestselling mystery writers band together against the misogynistic males of the Detection Club to prove they're every bit (if not better) than the men.

The five women: Sayers, Baroness Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Agatha Christie. I enjoyed how these women approached the investigation and learned how to play to each other's strengths. 

Yes, this is very similar to Rosanne Limoncelli's The Four Queens of Crime, but I much preferred this one.

The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice by Simon Parkin

Non-Fiction

Rating: A

My Thoughts: In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad and began the longest blockade in recorded history, one that would ultimately claim the lives of three-quarters of a million people. 

I learned so much from this book, not only about the siege of Leningrad, but also about seed banks, their importance, and the lives of the botanists who chose to risk starvation in order to preserve those seeds. Mind-boggling history that I couldn't devour fast enough. (Somehow the pun seemed inevitable. Sorry.)

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon

Standalone Historical Mystery

Rating: B+

My Thoughts: Lawhon's The Frozen River was one of my Best Reads of 2024. I was so impressed that I wanted to read more of her work.

Once again inspired by a real-life unsolved mystery, Lawhon spins the tale of Judge Joseph Crater, a man who steps into a cab and disappears just as rumors of corruption begin to  circulate about him. Thirty-nine years later, his wife Stella is ready to reveal what she knows. It's a story that involves not only Stella herself, but a showgirl named Ritzi and the Craters' maid, Maria Simon.

This was so entertaining that I will be looking for more of Ariel Lawhon's books. She's one of my favorite discoveries of the past two years.

Well, I made a little dent in my list of reviews. Have you already read any of these books? Which ones? What did you think of them? Or... did I tempt you to add any of them to your own reading lists? Inquiring minds would love to know!

Death on the Trans-Siberian Express by C.F. Farrington

 

First Line: It was eight o'clock on Friday morning, and Olga Pushkin was weeping on the arm of her new sofa.

 

Only Dmitri the hedgehog keeps Olga Pushkin, Railway Engineer Third Class, company in her tiny rail-side hut outside the small Siberian town of Roslazny. When she's not busy taking care of the tracks, she's hard at work on her book, Find Your Rail Self: 100 Life Lessons from the Trans-Siberian Railway. She longs for escape and the opportunity to study literature at Tomsk State University, the Oxford of West Siberia.

 

But life begins to intrude on Olga. She receives a hurtful poison pen letter, Roslazny experiences a minor crime wave, and then she's knocked unconscious  by a man falling from the Trans-Siberian-- an American tourist with his throat cut and his mouth stuffed with ten-ruble coins. When another death occurs, Roslazny's new police sergeant, Vassily Marushkin, takes on the case, only to find himself arrested as the killer. Olga wants to help prove Vassily's innocence, but how will she do it?

 

~

 

Death on the Trans-Siberian Railway is a book that I wanted to like much more than I did. The mystery was intriguing and kept me guessing, and I did enjoy the setting and cultural insights into Siberian life; however, the author's writing style let his story down. There was too much tell and not enough show. In addition, the pace dragged and didn't show signs of life until past the halfway mark. The-- to me-- all-important cast of characters never really came to life either. Yes, Olga was the best of them all, and I did like getting to know her, but there were too many times when I felt that she was vying for sainthood. Her cretin of a boss, her verbally abusive father, her money pit of a best friend... Olga wants to be all things to all people whether or not they deserve it, and it was exhausting watching her tying herself in knots to please them all.

There is a second book in this series, Blood on the Siberian Snow, but I won't be reading it. I do, however, wish Olga well.

Death on the Trans-Siberian Express by C.F. Farrington

eISBN: 9781472133113

Constable © 2021

eBook, 303 pages

 

Amateur Sleuth, #1 Olga Pushkin mystery

Rating: C-

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

 

First Lines: August 27, 1942. Washington, DC. He stood with a pocketful of diamonds and a heart full of death, watching a Russian sniper shake hands with the First Lady of the United States.

 

When Hitler's troops invade Ukraine and Russia in 1937, history student Lyudmila (Mila) Pavlichenko quits her library job, leaves her beloved little boy in the care of her parents, and enlists in the army as a sniper-- becoming a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila is taken from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour. 

 

Still recovering from serious wounds and grieving the loss of loved ones, Mila feels isolated and totally out of place in the rarefied air of Washington, DC until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a fellow sniper make her think she may have a chance at happiness. 

 

But there are enemies-- both old and new-- in the shadows, and Mila finds herself in the midst of the most important battle of her life. 

~

The Diamond Eye is just the sort of historical fiction that I love to read. It's based on a true story about an incredible woman, and not only did I get a feel for the era, how women survived in the military, and what the life of a sniper is like, I fell completely under the spell of Lyudmila (Mila) Pavlichenko. 

The story is told mainly by Mila, but we also hear from Eleanor Roosevelt as well as a paid assassin. How author Kate Quinn managed to write a story from these three very different points of view and keep each one of the characters so compelling is a sign of her talent, and it will definitely keep me coming back for more. (Yes, this is the first book of hers that I've read.) I also appreciated her Author's Notes as well as the bibliography at the end. The notes showed me how the author blended fact and fiction, and the bibliography will help me find the books I need for further reading.

And Lyudmila Pavlichenko is definitely a person worth reading more about. Strong, determined, smart, yet flawed, she is just the type of person to prove that you should never turn your back on historians or librarians.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

eISBN: 9780062943521

William Morrow © 2022

eBook, 448 pages

 

Historical Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

 

First Line: On the morning of the worst, most earth-shattering day of Ray McMillian's life, he ordered room service: scrambled eggs for two, one side of regular bacon (for Nicole), one side of vegan sausage (for him), one coffee (for Nicole), one orange juice (for him).

 

Young Ray McMillian is determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing is going to stand in his way. Not the fact that his mother wants him to stop all that noise, get his GED, and start earning money for a 60-inch color television. Not the fact that he's Black and wants a career in a predominantly white profession. Not the fact that he's never had private lessons. Not the fact that he doesn't even have a decent violin to play.

Given a beat-up old family fiddle by his beloved grandmother, Ray's fortunes begin a meteoric rise when he discovers that the old fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius. All his dreams are suddenly within reach, and he qualifies for the renowned Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Then tragedy strikes. His violin is stolen; the thieves wanting five million dollars before they will return it. As the time for the competition approaches, Ray not only has to try to recover his violin but he also has to prove that-- regardless of the outcome-- there is a truly great musician within him.

~

I don't remember why I decided to pick up Brendan Slocumb's The Violin Conspiracy and read it, but I'm certainly glad I did. Slocumb's story grabbed me by the throat almost from the beginning, and it didn't let me loose until I'd turned the last page.

The story isn't new. Boy has talent. Boy needs violin. Boy gets violin. Boy works hard. Boy starts to get some breaks. Boy's violin is stolen. Can boy's dreams still come true? But if the only books that mattered were those with completely new plots, very few books would matter at all. Some stories are universal and deserve to be told over and over again.

Some of the characters aren't new either. The self-absorbed mother who wants Ray to stop making all that racket, get his GED, and get hired on at the hospital so he can buy her that 60-inch color TV she wants. The greedy family who, when they learn that the old family fiddle none of them gave a hoot about is actually a priceless Stradivarius, see nothing but DOLLAR SIGNS and insist that Ray sell it so they can wallow in millions of dollars. The evil couple who insists that the violin is theirs. The fairy godmother of a college music professor. Even Ray isn't new. 

But guess what? Those tried-and-true characters we've seen thousands of times are just as fine as that "old" story because of the way Brendan Slocumb breathes life into it all. We care about Ray. We want him to succeed. We want to tackle every bigot the young boy has to face and get them out of his way for good. Our hearts soar as music fills every pore in Ray's body and then comes out in a brilliant torrent as he plays that old family fiddle. You don't have to love classical music to enjoy this book, but-- if you do-- it's going to add that extra Something Special. 

The identity of the violin thief is easy to deduce, but how the theft was accomplished and what happened to the thief made up for that. The author explains how much of The Violin Conspiracy actually happened in his notes and acknowledgments, and I also watched a video of one of his appearances on Youtube in which Slocumb stated, "I want to be the Stephen King of musical thrillers!" After falling head over heels into this first book of his, all I can say is that I hope his wish comes true.

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

ISBN: 9780593315422

Vintage Books © 2022

Trade Paperback, 368 pages

 

Standalone Thriller

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from The Poisoned Pen.

The Final Fabergé by Thomas Swan

 

First Lines: Petrograd, December 16, 1916. On the table was a box.

 

It is up to Scotland Yard art crime detective Jack Oxby to prove-- or disprove-- the rumor that a mysterious Fabergé Easter egg disappeared during the last days of the reign of Nicholas and Alexandra... and may still be in existence today.

 

It's not going to be an easy task. For one thing, everyone who may have information about the egg turns up dead, and Oxby's investigation is putting him right at the top of the hit list. The way Oxby sees it, if someone's that determined to hide all knowledge of the art treasure, chances are good that it does, indeed, exist... and he's going to find it.

 

~

 

I have a weakness for the beauty and brutality of Tsarist Russian history, especially in the fields of art and architecture. Combine that with a love of art history mysteries like Iain Pears' Jonathan Argyll series, and it was inevitable that I would read Thomas Swan's The Final Fabergé. 

 

Scotland Yard art crime detective Jack Oxby has figured in two other books by Swan. He's been in this division of the Yard for fifteen years. He's savvy, he's got all sorts of contacts he can ask for help, and he's more than willing to jump on a plane and fly to who-knows-where in order to track down information.

 

From a promising beginning, The Final Fabergé rapidly devolved into a standard thriller: dashing from one location to the next to showcase Oxby's expertise in dodging bullets and knives while learning about power-hungry baddies and soulless henchmen. While not bad by any stretch of the imagination, the book would have been improved by spending more time in the historical aspect of the story-- in Fabergé's workshop and in the houses of the rich and titled. So much time was spent in chases and ambushes that it was easy to forget-- or to really understand-- what all the commotion was about. Yes, I would have loved to have spent more time immersed in the mystique of Fabergé and the treasures he and his artists created. 

 

Will I be looking to meet Jack Oxby again? I rather doubt it. 

The Final Fabergé by Thomas Swan

ISBN: ‎ 9781557049698

William Morrow © 1999

Paperback, 320 pages

 

Thriller, #3 Jack Oxby mystery

Rating: C+

Source: Purchased from Book Outlet.

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

First Line: Sophia, sandals off, was standing at the water's edge.

One August afternoon in Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka peninsula, two sisters aged eight and eleven go missing. Weeks pass, then months, and the police turn up nothing. During the next year, echoes of the disappearances reverberate throughout a close-knit community, the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women.

Julia Phillips' enthralling Disappearing Earth is told from many points of view, and it is a mother lode of riches for readers who aren't put off by the fact that the narrator changes with each successive chapter.

I learned so much about the Kamchatka peninsula-- and was led to discover even more information through additional reading. The setting, containing three active volcanoes within sight of the major town of Petropavlovsk, is stark and memorable. Traveling through a fire-ravaged wooded area, the mother of the two missing girls looks out the car window and sees her grief transformed into landscape: "The long tracks of dead forest looked like thousands of bones pushed up from their graves."

As the story runs its course from one person to the next-- all connected by the abduction of the two little girls-- we learn how the area has changed since the collapse of the USSR, how poaching has affected the ecology, how the indigenous peoples and LGBT are treated, and how difficult it can be for native people to live outside their own culture.

So far, I've concentrated on how much I learned from reading this book. Now it's time to concentrate on the story itself. Since each successive narrator is connected in some way to the missing girls, the sisters were never far from my mind. The scene describing their abduction was chilling, and as the months passed, any hope I had for their safe return died an agonizing death. There was what I call a "light bulb" moment when I knew the identity of the kidnapper, but of course, everyone in the book ignored it. And the ending? I can't decide whether to call it "jaw-dropping" or a "punch in the gut." Totally unexpected.

Disappearing Earth is an amazing piece of storytelling, one that I highly recommend you to try.

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

eISBN: 9780525520429

Alfred A. Knopf © 2019

eBook, 272 pages

Literary Mystery, Standalone

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon. 

The Rat Catchers' Olympics by Colin Cotterill

First Line: There were occasional relaxed periods of what the Lao called sabai.

It's 1980. Half the world is boycotting the Moscow Summer Olympics to protest the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, but that has made room for athletes from other countries that are usually too small or too poor to be competitive-- like Laos. Laos is thrilled to be competing in its first-ever Olympics, and Dr. Siri Paiboun and his wife Madame Daeng would love to visit Moscow. To that end, Dr. Siri does a little finagling and has the two of them named medical advisors to the Laotian Olympic team. 

Once in the Olympic Village, Siri begins to suspect that one of the athletes on the team is not who he says he is, so a little investigation is called for. Fearing some sort of conspiracy, Siri and his friends liaise in secret with Inspector Phosy back home in Vientiane to see if the suspect is an assassin, but everything is derailed when one of the Laotian athletes is accused of murder. Dr. Siri is right in the middle of an international incident with not one but two paranoid governments to navigate around to ensure justice is done.

Colin Cotterill's book titles always catch the eye and the imagination, and The Rat Catchers' Olympics is no exception. Many times there are double meanings to these titles as there is here, with both two- and four-legged rats that need to be caught. No matter where you live, elderly Dr. Siri and his wife Madame Daeng are good people who know how to get so much enjoyment out of life even though they have very little in the way of material goods. Take for example Siri's skill in wrangling free vacations to interesting places. No one's better at it, and readers are always guaranteed an adventure when he reaches his destination.

I love Cotterill's gentle sense of humor that can be turned toward anyone or anything, and his cast of characters is one of the best in crime fiction. Everyone has a role in solving this excellent mystery. Between many of the characters' advanced ages and the paranoia of the Communist governments involved, these characters may not move quite like a well-oiled machine, but they get the job done, they get it done right, and they do it with a smile. You can't ask for better.  I have said that the mystery is excellent, and it is. My radar must have been in fine working order when I read this because I did figure out whodunit, but Cotterill is so wily that he kept me worried. Was I right, or did I fall for a red herring? I like that.

The sense of place is marvelous in The Rat Catchers' Olympics; I really did feel as though I was walking through the Olympic Village and attending events along with the cast of characters. The best part about it is that the Laotian athletes-- many of whom are young people from tiny villages who've never worn running shoes-- remind readers of what the Olympics are really all about.

This is a book to be enjoyed from first page to last. If you haven't experienced a Dr. Siri mystery before, I hope you'll give one a try. This series is really something special.

The Rat Catchers' Olympics by Colin Cotterill

ISBN: 9781616958251

Soho Crime © 2017

Hardcover, 288 pages

Historical Mystery, #12 Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery

Rating: A

Source: the publisher

The Voices Beyond by Johan Theorin

First Line: The ghost ship came gliding out of the darkness across the black waters of the Sound, giving way to nothing and no one.

It is summer on the beautiful Swedish island of Öland, and visitors are arriving in their thousands to enjoy the sun and the water. Among the visitors is young Jonas Kloss, who's looking forward to staying with his aunt and cousins. But one moonlit night when he takes a small boat out on the water, a ship looms out of the darkness and the horror the young boy finds on board has him fleeing for his life.

Jonas finds himself on the doorstep of elderly Gerlof Davidsson, a man of the sea and native to Öland. Once Gerlof is able to convince Jonas to talk to him, the old man knows that this summer will be like no other. The Homecomer has returned, and he's waited a lifetime to exact his revenge. 

I loved the previous three books in Theorin's Öland Quartet. The man is a master at creating complex characters and building suspense. Unfortunately The Voices Beyond fell flat for me. Gerlof was still his charming curmudgeonly self with his loneliness and painfully aching legs, and young Jonas was wonderfully complex as well. And that setting! Theorin is also a master at building a setting so vivid and detailed that it counts as one of the characters in his books.

Where the book fell flat was in its pacing. The point of view was constantly shifting from Gerlof to Jonas to a young musician named Lisa to the Homecomer himself who spoke both from the present day and from the time of Stalin's reign of terror. The constant shifting didn't confuse me at all, but the very short chapters moving from one character to the next actually slowed the pace down to a crawl and made the book a chore to read.

As a whole, would I still recommend the Öland Quartet? Yes, I would. The first three  (Echoes from the Dead, The Darkest Room, and The Quarry) are superb, and who knows? The slow pace of The Voices Beyond may not bother you at all. For anyone with a fondness for Scandinavian crime fiction, evocative settings, and complex characters, Johan Theorin's Öland Quartet should not be missed.
   

The Voices Beyond by Johan Theorin

Translated from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy

ISBN: 9780857520067

Doubleday © 2015

Paperback, 475 pages

Suspense, #4 Öland Quartet

Rating: C+

Source: Purchased from Waterstones, Cambridge, UK

 

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

First Line: He sent his mind in search of me that morning.

Margaret Ross brings a family heirloom into the London art gallery where Nicola Marter works. Ross has been told that the small wooden bird was given to a member of her family by the Empress Catherine of Russia. It doesn't take much imagination to realize that the woman hopes the heirloom is worth a lot of money, but with no proof there's really nothing the gallery can do but send the disappointed woman on her way. 

However, the problem really lies with Nicola. She has master's degrees in Russian studies and art history. She speaks fluent Russian. And she has another ability that she doesn't speak of: she can hold an object and see past events. Nicola has held the little bird, and she knows Margaret Ross was telling the truth. She's also glimpsed into the woman's life, and since she's traveling to St. Petersburg in a few days, she feels she must do what she can to authenticate the object. But first she has to travel to Scotland to enlist the aid of Rob McMorran, the young man she met in a psychic study whose powers are even stronger than hers.

I have enjoyed every novel of Susanna Kearsley's that I've read. She has a talent for writing romantic suspense set in two different timelines. In The Firebird, we have Nicola and Rob traveling first to Belgium and then to Russia in the present day in an attempt to authenticate Margaret Ross's heirloom. The second timeline involves the little girl that the wooden bird was given to-- a time shortly after the death of Peter the Great, a time when a Stuart was trying to retake the throne of England, a time when the English were doing everything in their power to prevent that from happening.

The present day timeline is a good one. Nicola and Rob are two strong, fascinating characters whom you want to see getting together. Nicola has always been afraid of her gift and hasn't really explored how far she can go with it. Rob on the other hand is the "old hand" (and the old soul) whose patience and steadiness are exactly what Nicola needs. But as strong as their story is, it's not the heart of this book.

No, the heart of the book belongs to young Anna Logan, who spent the first years of her life unaware that she was living with a foster family. When the political situation takes a deadly turn, Anna is told a portion of the truth of her heritage, and she's spirited away to a convent in Belgium before finding herself in St. Petersburg. This girl will steal your heart. She's smart, she's observant, and she's incredibly brave. She may be old beyond her years, but she's still a little girl whose naivete has dire consequences.  After all she's been through, you just want things to go right for Anna.

Kearsley put me right smack in the middle of that Belgian convent and before I knew it, I found myself in Russia. Anna Logan's story is compelling, and Kearsley does an excellent job of showing what happened to so many of the Jacobites who fought on the losing side. If I have any quibble about The Firebird it's that this historical storyline is so strong that the one in the present day pales by comparison. I really liked the characters of Nicola and Rob, so I do wish their story had been beefed up a bit. But that is a very small quibble indeed because each time I picked up this book, I lost myself in Kearsley's marvelous story.

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

eISBN: 9781402276644 

Sourcebooks, Inc. © 2013

eBook, 544 pages

Romantic Suspense, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon. 

The Kill Switch by James Rollins and Grant Blackwood

First Line: Doctor Paulos de Klerk packed the last of the medical supplies into the wooden trunk and locked the three brass clasps, mumbling under his breath with each snap.

Sigma Force is given a vital mission that must be carried out immediately, and Tucker Wayne and his partner, the retired war dog Kane, are the only ones close enough to get in quickly and get it done. Escorting the pharmaceutical magnate out of Russia and into the United States isn't easy from the first second Tucker and Kane set foot in Siberia. Someone knew he was coming, and now Tucker has to try to outfox the group that wants to keep Abram Bukolov in Russia. Bukolov holds the secret to a deadly bioweapon that's going to take them on to South Africa and Namibia before the billionaire ever has a chance to see America.

James Rollins knows how to take interesting tidbits from history and science and turn them into an adrenaline-fueled thriller. In the case of The Kill Switch, the history is the Boer War and the science involves something that could very well be the stem cells of the plant world. Add to the history and science the intriguing duo of Tucker Wayne and Kane, and the enjoyment factor increases tenfold.

Having already read a bit about this man and his dog, I was looking forward to a little background on the two of them, and I was not disappointed. Tucker's childhood and his service in the military have led him to make rules for himself that can cause problems. One of those rules is that he won't kill a dog. Dogs have given him the love, the friendship, and the loyalty that humans never have, and although his "rule" makes sense to him, it is something that does put him and the others at risk. Kane, the Belgian shepherd, is just as devoted to Tucker as Tucker is to him. He is intelligent, extremely well-trained, and I can see some readers turning the pages of The Kill Switch and thinking that Kane is Super Dog, a fantasy of Rollins' imagination. Truth is, anyone who knows what these war dogs are capable of doing says that Rollins downplays their abilities.

I enjoyed this book for increasing my knowledge about Tucker and Kane, and I found the tie-in to the Boer War and the science fascinating. The action is almost non-stop, but if there is a weakness in this book it is the fact that too much of that action is predictable. However, I look forward to seeing what's in store for these two.

The Kill Switch by James Rollins and Grant Blackwood

ISBN: 9780062135254

William Morrow © 2014

Hardcover, 388 pages

Thriller, #1 Tucker Wayne

Rating: B+

Source: Amazon Vine

The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas

First Line: "What does it mean when someone calls you swine?" Simon Horowitz asked suddenly, as his father's black Mercedes-Benz rolled to a stop at the top of a blind alley off the Friedrichstrasse.

Simon is about to find out exactly what that means, as his world rapidly descends into nightmare. Instead of learning to play his father's priceless and beloved 1742 Guarneri del Gesú violin, he and other members of his family are sent to Dachau, and the precious violin finds its way into other hands.

In the present day, a fourteen-year-old violin prodigy has a chance to make a name for himself on the world stage, and renowned conductor Rafael Gomez wants to help young Daniel Horowitz realize the dream. When Daniel rebels and refuses to play, Gomez is determined to do whatever it takes to make the boy play again. When the conductor learns that Daniel's family once owned an incredible violin, he thinks he has the answer: the story of what happened to the Horowitz family and their Guarneri del Gesú violin.

Although I've never been a real fan of the violin, I do enjoy stories about a house or an object that has survived through the centuries passing through various owners. The Keeper of Secrets is a welcome addition to this literary tradition.

The cast of characters is an interesting one. Simon Horowitz and his family react too slowly for most to survive the Holocaust. Simon has the character, the intelligence and the strength of will to do so, and he must use all of that in order to walk out of the infamous concentration camp known as Dachau. Daniel Horowitz, who has a once-in-a-lifetime talent, wants to be an ordinary boy who plays baseball with his friends. Daniel's mother is a woman who insists everything be sacrificed to Daniel's talent. The boy's father is a man who's torn between wanting his son to have a normal childhood and wanting his son to use his gift to its full potential. Rafael Gomez  is a man whose love of music has ruled his life, and he wants Daniel to be a sort of gift to the profession he loves.

All these characters blend together very well within the author's framework. Germany in the 1930s came to life as I read; the burgeoning power of the Nazis, the people who saw what was happening and got out, those who refused to see and stayed. Two elements in particular impressed me. One was the inclusion of various German characters who helped those being persecuted in whatever ways they could. The second was the fact that the chapters of the book involving Simon's internment in Dachau were horrible without being graphic. Thomas didn't candy coat anything, but she didn't feel the need to bury readers in the details of all the atrocities.

Perhaps music was the most profound element of The Keeper of Secrets, and I'm not just talking about learning the business aspects behind world-class orchestras. I've never read another book that made me feel even the tiniest bit like a gifted musician would feel as he played, what a piece of music can tell him, and how different instruments playing the same piece of music can sound differently. Somehow Thomas managed to convey all that and more.

The power of good characterization, of a good story, and of music combined to make Julie Thomas's book a virtuoso performance.

The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas

ISBN: 9780062240309

William Morrow © 2013

Paperback, 384 pages

Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewers program 

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

Eye of the Red Tsar by Sam Eastland

Title: Eye of the Red Tsar
Author: Sam Eastland
ISBN: 9780553807813, Bantam Books, 2010
Genre: Historical Mystery, #1 Inspector Pekkala mystery
Rating: A
Source: Amazon Vine

First Line: The man sat up with a gasp.

At one time, Pekkala was The Emerald Eye-- Tsar Nicholas II's most trusted personal investigator. For the past nine years, he has been Prisoner 4745-P in a Siberian prison camp. Given the job of tree marker which carried with it a life expectancy of six months, Pekkala has proven much tougher than anyone expected, and that is a good thing for Stalin.

Human remains have been found in an abandoned mine shaft, and Stalin wants Pekkala to identify them. If they are indeed the bodies of the Romanov family, Stalin wants Pekkala to find the royal family's killers. Even before spending nine years in a Siberian prison camp, Pekkala is no fool, and he knows that Stalin's agenda has more on it than that, but even The Emerald Eye isn't prepared for all the twists and turns this investigation will throw at him. All he knows for sure is that he will investigate because Stalin has promised Pekkala his freedom if the case is concluded successfully.

For anyone who loves tsarist Russian history, the beginning of this novel is memorable, and as I read the opening pages, I hoped that this new perspective would mean that I was in for a reading treat. Even so I was surprised by how much I didn't want to stop reading this book. If I could have ignored all obligations, I would've happily read Eye of the Red Tsar in one sitting, proving without doubt that I can be the worst biblio-glutton.

As I learned more about Pekkala's childhood in Finland, as I learned how he met Tsar Nicholas, as I watched him follow each lead and talk to anyone who might have the slightest bit of information, I was in Siberia in 1929. The plot moved quickly and was full of switchbacks, only some of which were easily deduced, and when I read that Eastland's next Inspector Pekkala novel is expected in 2011, I got a huge smile on my face.

Even the thought of another Pekkala novel makes me smile right now.