The Reckoning, Airth - B

                                               This is the fourth book in a series about Inspector John Madden. The last one was five years previous; Madden is now retired and the author is eighty.  The story is somewhat haunting as it feels like something I've read recently, but can't place. The setting is post-WW2 Britain and the case involves a series of up -close-and-personal assassinations . Madden is called back because one of the victims wrote to Scotland Yard mentioning his name.  As the deaths pile up, Madden is the one who finds the thread - a WW1 court martial that was a travesty of justice.  The victims are those who condemned a shell-shocked soldier to death. They are tracked down and executed with a bullet to the back of the neck by a seasoned and skilled professional.  But, the soldier left no one in England to seek revenge and his only  daughter is believed to be in Canada. As it turns out, the daughter was  an agent for SOE during the recent war and has only just learned of her father's execution.  She indeed seeks revenge and achieves her goals before Madden stops her.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing Of The Lusitania, Larson - B +

                                                Between 1907 and May 1915, she completed 201 transatlantic crossings. The Lusitania sailed from NYC on May 1, 2015 with almost 2,000 passengers and crew. Underway, she used 1,000 tons of coal per day in 192 furnaces. Coal and it's storage are an important part of the Lusitania story. She and her sister ship the Mauritania, were built with funds loaned by the Admiralty.  They were capable of conversion to warships and as such, included a critical design. The coal was stored below the waterline in bunkers that ran the length of the ship. On the day she  sailed, the NY papers carried the story of a German advisory against travel through the war zone. Indeed, the German command dispatched six U-boats to the approach to the Irish Sea. Most travelers felt that there was little to worry about because the Lusitania could outrun any sub and, in any case the Royal Navy would come out and escort Cunard's big liners to safety. The passengers did not know that deep in the hold were 1250 cases of artillery shells and 170 tons of Remington rifle ammunition. On the day she approached the Irish coast on the way to Liverpool, there were three ships sunk by a submarine on her route. The Cunard chairman met with the Admiralty and requested help and assistance. None was forthcoming. On Friday May 7, 2015, U-20 unleashed a torpedo at the HMS Lusitania, then about 10 miles off of Old Head, Ireland. It struck at 2:10 PM. There was a second detonation either attributable to boilers blowing up or coal dust exploding. The ship sank in eighteen minutes. Only 764 of 1959 survived. Among the dead were 123 Americans.
                                                A century-long controversy has brewed over why the Admiralty did not assist the Lusitania when it knew U-boats were in the immediate vicinity. Incompetence, or conspiracy to draw in the Americans?  President Wilson sent what is known as the First Lusitania Note to Germany protesting the attack.  A year later Germany backed away from its aggressive sea campaign, only to fully reinstate 'unlimited submarine warfare' in early 1917.  That decision, combined with the Zimmerman Telegram, brought the US into the war in April.  Larson is as fine a storyteller as there is. Although I was skeptical about revisiting this well-worn topic, I am glad I did.

The English Spy, Silva - C +

                                                 I'm afraid I am disappointed in the latest book in the Gabriel Allon series.  Unsurprisingly, he is still not in the Chief's chair and is deeply involved in another operation. He works it with his Corsican resident and English friend, Christopher Keller. Keller is compelled to work for MI-6, in what I suspect is an assignment we will see more of. I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes Gabriel's right-hand man. Their opponent  is an Irish hit man hired by the Russians to kill Allon in an incredibly complex operation. The Iranians are also complicit.  Not surprisingly, revenge is obtained.
                                               This series is one of the best out there and one of my favorites. I'll be curious to see what the professional reviewers think. The amateurs have already signaled their approval.  It felt flat, redundant and  out-of-sync to me.

The Fixer, Finder - B-

                                               Down and out Rick Hoffman, who once had a future in journalism, is sleeping in his father's run-down house when he discovers $3.4M in hundred dollar bills behind a partition. His dad has been in a nursing home and unable to speak for 18 years. When Rick is seen spending a few bucks, let's say $6,000 in cash for dinner with an old flame, he attracts some unwanted attention. It seems that his dad was the 'Fixer' of the title, who while practicing law in a seedy section of Boston, had been the intermediary "cash bank" that fueled the city. The further Rick digs into his dad's story, the deeper he gets into the crime and corruption that was rampant in Boston during the construction of the Big Dig.  What he finds scares some very serious people, and all of a sudden, Rick is on the run.  He gets badly beaten and almost killed. However, he manages a wonderful expose in an on-line magazine, puts some bad guys behind bars and rescues his career and life.

The Knife, Ritchell - B +

                                               "They were the knife of the military, expressly used to hunt down and eliminate terrorist networks throughout the world."  This is a fabulous novel about a squad of men fighting in Afghanistan.  The narrator never mentions what branch of the military they are, but since the author was an Army Ranger, one assumes that that's who they are.  The five men are very, very, close as one would expect when living and fighting together on multiple deployments. One of the surprising facts is the frequency of their assignments. They are sent off on helicoptered lifts day in and day out in their pursuit of terrorists. Personal comfort, readiness or rest don't seem to be taken into consideration.  It's a short, fatalistic read and one worth looking into.

Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, Ackroyd- B

                                               Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509 at the age of eighteen. He married his late brother's wife, Katherine of Aragon, and began his reign with a full treasury and the goodwill of his people. However, like most of his predecessors, he longed for triumph on the continent. "He looked upon France as a prize to be taken. War was not only for pleasure; it was dynastic duty."  His advisor Cardinal Wolsey, both the King's Chancellor and the Papal Legate, helped garner for Henry the title Defender of the Faith by coordinating a response to Luther's Ninety-Five Thesis.  However, it was not religion or conquest that obsessed  Henry. His overwhelming need was for a male heir, as Katherine's only child to survive was the Princess Mary.  No woman had ever held the throne and Henry did not wish to risk his dynasty on the chance the country would accept one. Katherine was aging and he needed an alternative. He found that alternative in Anne Boleyn and turned the world upside down in order to put her on the throne. The Pope would not annul his marriage, ejecting Henry's argument that the Book of Leviticus proscribed a man marrying his brother's widow. Wolsey's failure on this front led his arrest and dismissal.  Henry simply replaced the Pope with himself as leader of the Church of England. The die was cast for the Protestant Reformation in England. A later historian called Henry's action the foundation of the independent nation-state. "The Act in Restraint of Appeals declared that all ecclesiastical cases should be determined within England itself with no reference to any supposed higher authority: this meant that the matter of the king's separation would be adjudicated in London and Canterbury rather than in Rome. The Act has been described as the most important statute of the sixteenth century, for it was the one that effectively destroyed the polity of the Middle Ages."  The Church would prove to be a tremendous source of wealth for the crown as Henry confiscated the monasteries and scattered their personnel.  It is estimated that the transfer of land to the crown from the control of the church, the monasteries, the friaries and nunneries, was the largest since the Norman invasion. "Within three years the life of ten centuries was utterly destroyed."
                                                 Anne became queen in 1533 and gave birth later that year to Elizabeth.  Within three years,  she was accused (with some likelihood of truth per the author) of adultery and treason and she was off to the Tower on her way to a beheading. Jane Seymour replaced her and in 1537 gave birth to Edward. She died twelve days afterwards.  Anne of Cleves was married to Henry for six months. She was followed by Katherine Howard, a woman half the king's age, whose confirmed adultery led her to the chopping block.  In his 55th year, in January 1547, Henry departed this world leaving his sixth wife, Katherine Parr and Edward, Mary and Elizabeth to succeed him.  Although the succession was established, Henry's religious inheritance was somewhat ambiguous.  His interest in reform ended when he usurped the Pope's power and took the Church's money.  He personally preferred Catholicism, but he had undermined it and had opened the way toward Protestantism.  Edward's Regents pushed very hard to lay the ground rules for a Protestant nation and fully succeeded. "It can in fact be argued that most of the defining elements of the Protestant creed and practice were formulated during the reign of Edward VI; Elizabeth I merely tinkered with them." Edward died at 15 and, unfortunately for the peace of the realm, was succeed by Mary, the staunchest advocate of the old faith in England.  Many of the nobility and the populace welcomed a return to the tried and true faith.  Although Mary was no tougher on the opposition than her father or sister, she became known as 'Bloody Mary'. She even had Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and architect of English Protestantism, burned at the stake. Her marriage to a Spanish prince was extremely unsettling amongst her people. Her death in late 1558 lead to Elizabeth's assumption of royal power and the beginning of a successful 44 year reign.
                                              Elizabeth restored the Protestant liturgy. "The nation had changed its faith four times in twenty years, and the time had come for an end to innovation. She never allowed anyone to meddle with the order she had established and, with a brief period of interregnum in the 17th century, it has remained largely unchanged ever since." Implementing the final end of Roman Catholicism was a never-ending effort and one of the issues that dominated her reign.  The succession was also in the forefront of everyone's mind for decades. She was a wary, cautious person, determined to not have to share her throne with a husband, suffer the risks of child birth or  being supplanted by a male heir.  She proclaimed she was married to her country and and so she remained for her entire reign.  To her credit, she eschewed foreign wars and overseas entanglements. England was a generally peaceful and prosperous kingdom during her reign.  The over half-a-century of contretemps between England and the Catholic powers of Europe, France, Spain and the Papacy came to a boil when Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded in 1587. The following year, the greatest Armada ever seen sailed from Spain, intent on returning the true faith to England. The royal standard had as its motto 'Rise up, oh Lord, and avenge Thy cause'.  The English thumped their enemies, thus raising Elizabeth to the heights of acclaim and success. England became a dominant sea power. "The papal curse had been lifted in the most striking possible manner."  In 1603, Good Queen Bess passed away. She had, on her death bed, approved of the crown passing to James VI of Scotland
                                            A book about the Tudors is a bit of a challenge because of their amazing familiarity and pervasive presence in modern Anglo-American culture.  Between Alison Weir's 8 history books, Hilary Mantel's two recent novels,  'A Man For  All Seasons', many Masterpiece Theatre mini-series, the 'Tudors' on Showtime,  innumerable movies featuring Henry or Elizabeth, and the ubiquitous painting of Henry by Holbein - they are alive, well and with us.  The other problem in this book, at least for me, is the endless theological disputes. I understand that a book  about major religious upheaval must deal with religious issues. Whether it is about transubstantiation, vestments, the Book of Common Prayer, excommunication, the rise of Puritanism or the latest  doctrinal disputes, I find it all trifling. That said, I'm ready for the next volume.

The Whites, Price - B +

                                               This novel is an absolutely superb cop story about the NYPD. The main character is Billy Graves, son of a noted policeman. After twenty plus years,  he is the only one of  five cops who started and worked together back in the 90's still on the Job. His crew consists of Yasmeen,  a private security officer; Whelan, a drunk working as a superintendent in run-down buildings;  Pavlicek, a wealthy real-estate developer; and Redman, a mortician.  Lurking in the background is another active duty cop, a younger man, Milton Ramos, who grew up in the same building as Billy's wife, Carmen.  Early in his career, Billy had shot a man and the bullet went through him  killing, an innocent kid. Billy wound up on the wrong end of a massive publicity circus. Although he was as high as a kite when he pulled the trigger, that fact was never more than asserted or guessed at. He lost his first wife because of this event, but his friends and colleagues stood by him. To a great extent, one of the main sub-plots here is the fierce loyalty that is created amongst police. In this novel, Billy supervises the night shift in Manhattan, and notices that all of a sudden, their 'whites' are dying mysteriously.  A 'white' is the one that got away, the cold-blooded murderer who slipped through the cracks and haunts a cop sometimes for the rest of their life. While trying to sort all of this out, Billy's family is targeted. As it turns out, Carmen is Milton's 'white' because as a 15-year-old, she intentionally gave his brother's apartment number to some guys, who happened to be very bad. All in all, this is a wonderful read, one where you feel as if you are in the middle of a very scary NYC.

Eben Kruge, Adams - B

                                               This novella is an imagining of how Charles Dickens was inspired to write 'A Christmas Carol'.  Dickens and his wife took a 5-month-long trip to America in 1842. Near the end of his trip, he stopped off at the West Point Hotel. Here, he dined with the manager who mentioned a local who had recently been transformed for the better. He decides to investigate and meets Eben Kruge, Esq.  The previous Christmas eve, Kruge had buried his wicked uncle and business partner. He tells Dickens of a midnight visit from the ghost of his uncle, a visitation from his once-betrothed, Abigail, and his renunciation of his parsimonious, wicked ways. He states that he had been "the illegitimate offspring of his uncle's avarice." In the closing chapters, he spreads his generosity far and wide. A pleased Dickens renews his trip and two years later, publishes his perhaps most famous and best loved work.

The Train To Crystal City: FDR'S Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II, Russell - C, Inc.

                                                For many in America, it was not a good war.  This is a story that goes beyond the internment of the Japanese on the west coast and deals with the wholesale incarceration of, not just the Japanese, but also Italians, Germans and even Latin Americans. Crystal City, thirty miles from the Mexican border in Texas, was opened in 1942 for the purpose of reuniting families with immigrants who'd been arrested and imprisoned as enemy aliens. Not only were American residents incarcerated, but the US had coordinated anti-Axis plans and protocols with all of the Latin American countries, except Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico. The Latin Americans arrested their Axis citizens and shipped many of them to the US.  Their assets were confiscated, and when they arrived in the US, on American troop ships, they were arrested for 'illegal entry'.  By the middle of the war, Crystal City was filled with German, Japanese, Italian and Latin American families.
                                                Unfortunately, there are too many threads running through this book and the camp for the telling of a coherent story. The incarcerated Germans consisted of those supporting the fatherland and those desirous of being Americans. All were part of a US plan to exchange Germans for US POW's. Along with the parents, the camp was filled with American-born minors. There were six German-American exchanges, including one in January 1945. One Cleveland-based construction engineer was arrested, incarcerated, sent to Crystal City, and repatriated to Germany, where the SS beat and imprisoned him. On the Japanese side of the ledger (why some families were sent to Crystal City instead of the west coast camps wasn't apparent to me although, I did start skimming), the major issue was issei v nisei. The immigrant Japanese ( under the Asian Exclusion Act, they could not become citizens) fully supported the Empire and their children did not. The American born-nisei fought in the 442nd Regiment, the most decorated in the war.  Although I do not think the book was up to the challenge, it does depict some fascinating personal stories. Throughout it all, the appalling lack of fair, decent, humane, equitable or American treatment of those considered aliens and their families is frightening and embarrassing. In the 80's, the US apologized to its Japanese-American internees and paid compensation.