The devil's alternative, by Frederick Forsyth

 

As I was organizing my fiction in recent weeks I came across this novel by Frederick Forsyth; I've owned it for ages but never got around to reading it. Back in the 80s and 90s I was an avid reader of spy fiction including Forsyth, Ludlum, and Le Carré. Forsyth books that I read back then were The day of the jackal, The fourth protocol, and The Odessa file. Unbeknownst to me, this novel, which was published in 1979 and set in 1982, is about Ukrainian nationalists who want to start an uprising against the Soviet Union by assassinating the head of the KBG. They succeed in their attempt, but their getaway goes wrong and they're arrested and jailed in West Berlin. Their fellow nationalists attempt to free them by hi-jacking an oil carrier and threatening to release a million tons of crude oil into the ocean. Told from many viewpoints, including the terrorists, diplomats, the ship's captain, the story is slow to build but around the halfway point becomes irresistible. It was ironic to be reading a book with this theme during the Russian war against Ukraine, and at the same time, watching Jack Ryan season 3, which also had a Russian theme.

The wench is dead, by Colin Dexter

 

A different approach for Colin Dexter. Inspector Morse is taken to the hospital after suffering a perforated ulcer exacerbated by his heavy drinking. Another patient there is the author of a small book about a 150 year old murder case, and Morse becomes obsessed with proving that they got the wrong men.

The secret of annexe 3, by Colin Dexter

 

Another complicated mystery from the Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter.

Maya's notebook, by Isabelle Allende

 

I loved this book about a young girl who goes astray after the death of her beloved grandfather. After being required to stay in a rehab facility for years, she leaves and faces six months of harrowing drug use and danger until she is rescued by her grandmother and spirited away to her ancestral home in southern Chile. The writing is superb and the story is remarkable.

The riddle of the third mile, by Colin Dexter

This is another twisty-turny mystery starring Inspector Morse, with a convoluted plot about a body that turns up headless, handless, and legless in a canal, and not one but two missing Oxford dons. And how does this relate to an old war story about three brothers, one of whom doesn't survive the war in North Africa, and the officer who made the call to pull back when they were attacked?
 

Confidence man, by Maggie Haberman

 

I've been a big fan of Maggie Haberman's journalism for years, and have always appreciated her appearances on cable news networks. After devoting years of her life and career to following and reporting on Trump, Haberman has deep insight into Trump's character and career. Although there isn't much new here for anyone who has been following the news over the past eight years, this book is an important record of the history and news of our time.

The summit mindset, by Scott Miller and James C. Moore

Business executive/debut author Miller and documentary filmmaker and Emmy Award winner Moore (General Equilibrium and Welfare Economics) make the case that readers can improve their chances of success in life and business by making changes to their perspectives and thought processes. The authors share how they developed their own strategies, based on positive visualizations and the refusal to be knocked down. The book offers simple tips, including practical and feasible suggestions for setting goals, identifying values, overcoming challenges, and more. Each chapter includes a set of thoughtful exercises that readers can utilize to explore their own goals. Like many other business-success books, this one uses personal anecdotes and tales about successful entrepreneurs and people to make points that bolster the authors’ claims and showcase their approaches. VERDICT A well-written and insightful exploration of strategies that will be useful for readers searching for sound career and life advice.

This review has been published previously in Library Journal 148:8 (2023): 188.
 

Mud, blood, and ghosts: Populism, eugenics, and spiritualism in the American West, by Julie Carr

 

Author and professor of English Julie Carr examines the roots of American populism through the lens of her family history and the forces of home and land ownership, racism, and eugenics. In this deeply researched and compelling narrative, Carr shares the travails of her ancestors as they moved west as homesteaders, gained and lost land and homes, became involved in politics, and influenced the development of trends such as the interest in eugenics and attempts to ensure white racial purity. Accessing archives, including her great-grandfather’s meticulously-kept journals, Carr pieces together the story of her family and ties it to the current growth in populism in today’s politics. Carr weaves into her narrative her own emotional responses to the sometimes shocking facts she was learning about her own family, bringing a personal touch to the story, and thoroughly documenting her sources in the notes and references section. Carr makes clear how high the stakes are, showing how American support for eugenics led to the Nazi adoption of the theory with such devastating results. VERDICT This is an important and moving analysis of the development of the populism movement in the U.S.

A version of this review was published previously in Library Journal here.

The dead of Jericho, by Colin Dexter

This is another confusing and complex murder mystery that can only be solved by Inspector Morse. A woman is found dead of apparent suicide and it turns out Morse had tried to pay her a visit earlier in the day. Embarrassed by his romantic motive for the visit, Morse initially tries to cover it up, but has to come clean as he is assigned to investigate the case and subsequent murders that follow.
 

Service of all the dead, by Colin Dexter

In the fourth Inspector Morse mystery, Morse takes a vacation but only travels so far as a local village where he learns that there was a murder and suicide within just a short period of time. He starts to investigate informally, but then gets asked to continue in an official manner when the lead investigator has to take time off for the flu. Once again, the plot is incredibly confusing and convoluted, but Morse figures out the details in the end, but only after going down a lot of dead end trails. Entertaining but completely implausible!
 

The bandit queens, by Parini Shroff

 

I really enjoyed this humorous first novel by Parini Shroff. Geeta's violent and abusive husband abandoned her five years ago, but the rumor mill in her village has it that she did away with him and she has been looked down upon since that time. In the intervening years, she has joined with a group of women who team up to get micro loans for their respective businesses, and Geeta's jewelry business has been very profitable. Things start to get interesting when one of Geeta's friends asks her for help getting rid of her own husband. Using a lot of humor, Shroff shows the reader how vulnerable women are in a society that doesn't treat them with respect or as equals. This is a page turner that leads up to a hilarious and satisfying conclusion.

The silent world of Nicholas Quinn, by Colin Dexter

This is the third book in the Inspector Morse series of detective novels and I have to say it is the least believable. The Inspector Morse character solves the crime through random experiences of epiphany that he later explains in great detail to his sidekick Lewis. I'm used to twists and turns and false leads, but this book takes it to another level, so much so the reader can only understand what happened after Morse explains it in meticulous detail. While entertaining, it still seems like a bit of a flaw in the writing or plotting that it is nearly incomprehensible to the reader. Either way, I do plan to continue with the series.
 

Sunset Park, by Paul Auster

 

This 2010 novel brings together an eclectic group of twenty-somethings during the period after the 2008 economic crisis. Miles is running away from his past and the truth about an accident that caused the death of his half-brother. He has dropped out of college and traveled all over the country doing odd jobs and menial labor, which he has come to enjoy and appreciate. He's fallen in love with a young Cuban American girl (she's only 17) and to avoid threats from her family, he decides to move back to New York temporarily, living in an abandoned home with the only friend he's maintained contact with (Bing) and two of his friends. I loved the writing and the characters in this book; it was looking to be a reaffirming and uplifting story of redemption before (spoiler alert) something happens at the end to derail everything and which leaves everything up in the air. I could have done without the ending; it just seems so unnecessary. In the end, I liked everything about the book except the ending.

Last seen wearing, by Colin Dexter

 

This is the second mystery in the Inspector Morse series and is similarly entertaining. If possible it has even more false leads than the first. Morse has multiple epiphanies throughout about who the culprit is, but they all turn out to be wrong. Very entertaining; I've already ordered the third one.

Last bus to Woodstock, by Colin Dexter

 

I've been watching the Inspector Morse prequel Endeavor on Prime, and was hoping to watch Inspector Morse as well; however, I can't do so without yet another streaming service, so I decided to go to the source and read all the books instead. This is the first one in the series and is a lot of fun. It's pretty dated, having been published in 1975; for example, Morse asks another character what he thinks of women's lib. There are a lot of false leads and twists and turns, but the characters are interesting and funny. I'm definitely going to keep on with the series.

The white devil, by Justin Evans

 

This was a marginally satisfying gothic thriller about a high school student who has been pushed by his father to go into a British prep school for his final year before college so that he can qualify for the better schools. Andrew is out of his element in the new school, a condition made worse by his being targeted by a ghost of someone who was a student in the early 19th century who knew Byron. Andrew has an uncanny resemblance to Byron leading to this ghost trying to kill anyone Andrew has affection for. It's a little silly but does keep the pages turning.

Under my skin, by Lisa Unger

 

This is a page-turning, suspenseful thriller in which the main character is trying to figure out what happened to her husband, who was found bludgeoned to death after running in a park near their home. Poppy has been mourning Jack's death for a year, and is paranoid and anxious. It doesn't help that she's taking sleeping medicine and anti-anxiety medicine, and mixing both with alcohol. She thinks someone's following her and is experiencing daytime blackouts. Once she decides to forego the medicine and alcohol, she begins to make progress in tracking down the clues that will lead her to the truth.

Where ivy dares to grow, by Marielle Thompson

 

Saoirse travels with her fiance to his family estate in rural England to see his mother as her health is failing. Feeling unwelcome, Saoirse wanders throughout the large and imposing house, finding herself traveling through time and falling in love with one of her fiance's ancestors. Over time she comes to realize that her relationship with her fiance is broken and she is faced with the decision of whether to try to make it work or make a change. This book reminds me of the gothic mysteries that I read as a teenager. It's well written and entertaining.

Silent thunder, by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen

This is a page-turning thriller about an international search for historical antiquities aboard a decommissioned Soviet-era nuclear submarine. Entirely implausible, but entertaining.
 

The bone code, by Kathy Reichs

 

This is another satisfying mystery solved by forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan in which she manages to solve both a contemporary crime in South Carolina and a second murder from her past in Montreal. Very enjoyable!

The lion is in, by Delia Ephron

I really enjoyed this funny, yet touching, novel about three women who are all on the run from their respective pasts. They stop one night at a closed roadside bar, intending to just sleep there, but they end up staying for months. The bar has a retired circus lion that one of the women becomes attached to and she begins to work with it and do shows for the customers. The other two help with serving and management, and the bar starts to do much better financially. Each of the women begin to makes friends with the locals, but they all know that at some point they will have to make a decision about whether to stay or return home to deal with their pasts. I've never read any of Delia Ephron's books, but I've seen some of the movies that she wrote the screenplay for. Her writing is very good and I found myself completely engrossed with the story and characters.
 

Mastering the art of French murder, by Colleen Cambridge

 

This is a fun mystery set in Cold War-era Paris. Tabitha is staying with her uncle and his friend who just happen to live across the street from the apartment building where Julia Child lives with her husband. Tabitha has befriended Julia and spends a lot of her free time learning how to cook and socializing with Julia's friends and family. After one late night, one of Julia's guests turns up dead, stabbed with one of Julia's own knives. Tabitha decides to find out who murdered her, and begins to track down clues the police have missed. 

This book was entertaining and charming. It would be fun to see adapted as a TV series or movie.

The half life of Valery K, by Natasha Pulley

 

Valery K is a prisoner in a Russian labor camp who is released early in 1963 to work on a scientific study of the effects of radiation on an entire ecosystem six years after an accident blew up a nuclear reactor. As he begins to look into the flora and fauna in the region, he realizes that there’s much more going on than he’s been told; in fact, everyone in the region is being exposed to high amounts of radiation daily, although they’ve been told it’s safe, and there are unethical secret experiments on radiation’s effects on humans also taking place.

The writing in this book is top notch. The story flows well at a good pace and never falters. The characters are well-developed and believable, and the reader empathizes with their predicament. They are forced to lie constantly and speak in code, and the strain this puts on them is huge. The author writes about the research she conducted while preparing to write this book, and the fact that most of the book is based on documented facts and circumstances is truly amazing. Even though there is a lot of tragedy and sadness in this book, with characters suffering and sometimes dying from radiation sickness, there is also a lot of humor as well. Especially enjoyable is an octopus, whose sole purpose in the novel seems to be to provide a bit of comic relief. My book club has selected this book for our March read, and I can’t wait to discuss this with them. I think there’s a lot here that will be very educational to most readers (it was for me) and it would generate a lot for people to talk about. It opened my eyes to a time in history that seems to have receded to the distant past, but which is really just yesterday, and some of the concerns raised by the book about nuclear power, are still very much relevant today.