Against The Wind: Edward Kennedy And The Rise Of Conservatism 1976 - 2009, Gabler - A*

                      This is the second volume of the author's masterful biography of the Massachusetts senator. In the first, the theme was Ted's contribution to the causes of liberalism that dominated the 60's. This book, however, is about how the wind shifted in the 70's, "and how Ted Kennedy attempted to defy it, then bent into it, charged into it, even as he realized that the moral moment had passed and the nation's values had changed..." Under Nixon and Reagan, America abandoned "the ideals that had held the liberal consensus together." The Republican Party was now about "the politics of anger and resentment." This story is about the flawed senator's battle to protect liberalism and its political morality. 

                    When Jimmy Carter ran in 1976, both Ted and the liberal establishment showed little enthusiasm for the conservative Georgian. Ted continued to plug away at his senatorial responsibilities with the thoroughness and modesty that had impressed all since his arrival a decade and a half earlier. He was considered the hardest-working senator and everyone agreed that he had the best staff, one fiercely loyal to him. Knowing full well that his presidential prospects had materially dimmed, he focused on becoming a legislative maestro in the style of Lyndon Johnson. He understood the institution as well as anyone, knew how it worked and worked to make it work for him and his causes. He was polite to all, never, ever made enemies and excelled at bringing people into his circle. 

                   Carter's objective was to govern as a moralistic technocrat, not an ideologue. Tip O'Neill observed that he wanted to change everything, but didn't understand anything. He had a meaningful majority in both houses but squandered it by insulting and ignoring the leadership. The first sign of discord with Ted was Carter's apparent indifference to universal health care. As they proceeded to talk and talk, it was apparent to Ted and big labor that Carter would never really pursue healthcare legislation. By the end of 1978, there was a clear break and Carter feared Ted would challenge him in 1980. At year end, Ted achieved a major goal when he became Chair of the Judiciary Committee. He worked very hard to create and pass the Criminal Code Reform Action effort that the Washington Post called "one of the greatest legislative feats of modern times." He then tacked to the right and passed both airline and trucking deregulation laws. Everyone expected Ted to run, particularly in late summer 1979 when Cater's approval ratio dropped to 19%. He felt he had to run to uphold the legacy of his brothers and to protect the liberal wing of the party. He made a lackluster announcement on Nov. 7th that had been preceded by a Roger Mudd interview that was so horrid, it is remembered as having scuttled his campaign before it began. Immediately afterwards, Carter's approval rating skyrocketed as America rallied behind him when the embassy hostages were taken in Tehran. The campaign was rudderless and lacking a message. Ted was a better senator than his brothers, but totally lacked their campaigning abilities. Furthermore, the moral mission of liberalism was not on the minds of a people facing 12% inflation, 8% unemployment, and unheard of interest rates. Carter beat him in Iowa. Ted switched the focus from Carter's leadership to time honored liberal values, but those issues failed to resonate as they once had. Ted won enough primaries to keep going and fight over the platform. Speaking to the Platform Committee, he closed the best speech of his life with "the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." He now was, in the words of Ted Sorenson, "the conscience of the party, the hope of the nation."

                  Reagan convinced "Americans that they had no civic obligations to Americans in distress." Ted's objective was to fight in the minority against the Reagan agenda. He was disillusioned, drinking and newly divorced. He found his footing when he worked the Voting Rights Act extension through the senate with Republican help and no support from the White House.  However, day after day battling the turn to the right was a losing cause. Under Nixon, the Republicans had taken a portion of the Democratic base on the issue of race. Reagan took the Catholics on the issue of abortion. Equally important, fewer and fewer of the old coalition were as poor as they once had been. They were middle class and inclined toward the Republican status quo. With the economy booming in 1984, Reagan was a shoo-in.  Ted visited South Africa and championed an American refutation of apartheid. When apartheid ended, Sen. Lowell Weicker said that Ted more than anyone in the world was responsible for the accomplishment. Ted embraced arms control and acted as a critical go-between for Reagan and the Soviets. When the Dems took back the senate in 1986, he left Judiciary and became chair of the Labor Committee. Realizing the presidency would not be in reach at any point, he recommitted to the Senate. In 1987, the Labor Committee introduced forty-five bills that became law. He passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act over Reagan's veto. That summer, the president nominated Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. In addition to his extreme views, Bork had also fired Kennedy-family friend Archibald Cox in 1973.  Ted came out swinging in what is known as his 'Robert Bork's America' speech, heatedly eviscerating the nominee. He organized a nationwide opposition, personally made thousands of phone calls, and his staff created the 'Book of Bork' with the jurists extreme positions detailed. Ted went after him with a ferocity that surprised his colleagues. In the end, Bork's arrogance at the hearing did him in. In Bush's first year, Ted worked diligently with any and all in Congress who had a connection to the disabled, and passed the A.D.A. which was essentially a civil rights act for forty million disabled Americans. In 1990, he forged the coalition that passed the Ryan White Act. In the first two years of the new administration, his committee passed fifty-four bills. 

                    Nonetheless, the late 80's and early 90's were a difficult time for a man approaching 60. Battling from the minority was wearing. He had a vast set of responsibilities to Bobby's eleven and Jack's two children. His own sons and Bobby's seemed to be in constant trouble. On a daily basis, he was reminded of the loss of his brothers. He dated, but never overcame the loneliness. And, he drank - a lot. After a night of bar-hopping in Palm Beach over Easter in 1991, his nephew William was accused of rape and Ted was investigated for obstruction of justice. The tabloids and the mainstream press crucified him as the man who had turned the Kennedy myth from a "brief shining moment" to a "sordid aftermath." He was mocked on the late night shows and became an object of national derision. The tide began to turn that summer when he started dating Victoria Reggie, a family friend and recently divorced lawyer. Although Ted believed Anita Hill and not Clarence Thomas, he was relatively quiet that fall during the hearings, and was accused by many for letting Thomas on the court because he had been unwilling to fight the way he had against Bork. His marriage to Victoria significantly changed his life for the better. He was now a devoted husband and a superb step-dad.

                 With Bill Clinton in the White House, Ted began to put through many bills that George Bush had vetoed. The press began to report that America's "liberal titan" was back. He was concerned about what he considered Clinton's tepid approach to health care, an approach that ignored the congress. With Finance chair Moynihan opposed, and the bill not presented until 1994, matters did not look promising. As much effort as Ted and Majority Leader Mitchell put into it, it failed.  For the first time in thirty-two years, Ted also faced a Republican opponent who could possibly unseat him. Mitt Romney was charming, good-looking and totally without any personal baggage. Romney had money to spend and he did. Polls in September showed them neck and neck. Ted looked old, overweight and worn out.  He called in an army of old Kennedy hands. Ted's campaign found Romney's weakness and hammered away on it. His company took over a business, laid off people and cut benefits, and they did it to a company that had been in Holyoke for a century. Ted pulverized him in their debate with his knowledge of the Senate and the details of legislating. Ted won by 18 points, but for the rest of the party, 1994 was a disaster. Republicans won both houses and a number of governorships. The new Republican leadership declared war on civility and on the US government. Ted set "the democratic strategy against Gingrich's dismantling of the government." The Republican budget made massive cuts to Medicare and other programs for people in need in favor of benefitting major corporations. Clinton vetoed them, and then when the government was shuttered, the public blamed Gingrich. Ted was the "spine stiffener" in the senate, and Clinton was the "executioner" of the Gingrich revolution. Ted spent the first half of 1996 tying Bob Dole up in knots over a minimum wage bill, which Dole could not support as the Republican nominee. Ted so masterfully "ran the senate" with amendment after amendment that Dole eventually resigned his senate seat. That summer he passed HIPPA and medical savings accounts, and was being praised as one of the greatest senators of the century. Unlike LBJ's powers in the Senate forty years earlier, Ted's power was not muscular, but rather "the soft power of congeniality" and "legislative integrity." He loved the Senate, respected everyone in it, and still worked harder than anyone else. He was generous, considerate, caring and incredibly thoughtful. He had an unparalleled personal decency. "He was the master because his colleagues knew that Ted Kennedy, for all his flaws, or perhaps because of them, really cared about them and about others."

                      The second Clinton administration saw Ted working with Orrin Hatch, a Republican Mormon senator from Utah with whom he had, on the surface, little in common, but who became his great friend and colleague, to pass a bill providing health care to children under six even though both the administration and the Republican leadership were opposed. He worked on the culmination of decades of support for Ireland by collaborating with Bill Clinton and George Mitchell to establish the accords that ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He backed Clinton when his impeachment ordeal began in early 1998. As the matter dragged on, Clinton's approval ratio increased and for the first time since 1822, the party of a second term incumbent picked up seats in the mid-terms. Thus, Newt Gingrich, "the vainglorious opportunist who had always put his ego above his nation's interests" resigned from the House. 

                     Although he seldom agreed with George W. Bush, Ted initially liked him. He worked closely with the administration on No Child Left Behind. But although, "Bush was charming and congenial, he was still a hardcore conservative who was not willing to make major compromises, and his ambitions were seemingly no different from those of Reagan and Gingrich." After 9/11, Ted called the families of each of Massachussetts'  187 victims offering sympathy and more importantly, help. He obtained free legal assistance for them, and obtained a dedicated social worker for each family. Soon, the Bush administration was ginning up their war on terror to include Iraq, a godforsaken country, but not one with a connection to 9/11. Ted became the leading voice trying to stop the madcap rush to war. Bush, Cheney, et. al. wanted war, lied extensively to get it, and began shooting in March, 2003. After Bush pushed his war through and deceived Ted on funding for NCLB, and on details of the bill for Medicare prescription drugs, Ted reluctantly concluded that an institution where one could rely on a man's word was changing for the worse. Ted no longer would go to the White House or talk to the president, whom he now lambasted in public as comparable to Nixon. He raged against George Bush throughout 2003 and 2004, campaigned vigorously for John Kerry, and was crushed when Bush was reelected. He spent a vast amount of time in the new year and in 2006 working with John McCain to pass immigration reform. They passed it in the Senate, but it died in the House. The last years of Bush's presidency saw a collapse of his popularity, and Democratic control of both houses after the mid-terms. Ted was finally able to push through the first increase in the minimum wage since 1994. Ted came close in 2007, but once again immigration reform failed.

                    In January of 2008, Ted, as well as Caroline Kennedy, endorsed Obama over Clinton for the presidency. Both Kennedys thought he had the ability to inspire and compared him to JFK. Ted campaigned for Obama with an enthusiasm not seen on the campaign trail in years. But everything came apart in May when he received a diagnosis of incurable brain cancer. Although surgery was considered a long shot, he had much of the tumor removed in June. The hope was to defer the inevitable. He spoke to the Democratic convention in August. In a crowning "last hurrah" speech he spoke of the passing of the torch to new generation and closed with "the dream lives on." He brought down the house. When Obama won a clear and convincing victory, Ted returned to Washington to work on a lifetime dream - health care. He was not well enough though to go to the senate. On the day of Obama's inauguration, he had another seizure. He came to Washington for his birthday and  received the Profiles In Courage Award at the Kennedy Center. He worked from Hyannis with his staff and the Democratic majority, and felt confident that the ACA would pass. The end came on August 25, 2009.

                   This is an extraordinary and very powerful book about a very human and very special man. At 1041 pages of text, one might suggest it's a tad too long. The two books total 1773 pages, but I believe every one is worth reading. He was as focused and as committed to his beliefs and goals as anyone I have ever read about, and his beliefs have proven, and will continue to prove, that he had the wind and the long arc of history at his back. 

The Last Supper, McCarry - B+

                      This is the fifth book in the four decades old series about CIA agent Paul Christopher. On a day in the mid-60's, Paul takes off for Saigon from Paris. His live in girlfriend, Molly Benson, is run down and killed, presumably by the Vietnamese. The book then explores Paul's journey to the agency that his dad had preceded him in. His dad was Yale, and his mother a German Baroness. Paul was born in the early years of the Weimar Republic, grew up Germany and escaped just before the war began. His mother was unable to escape, and died in the camps. Paul's dad, Hubbard, was chief of station in Berlin after the war when he was run down by the Sovs. 

                       When Paul gets to Saigon , he hires a pilot to take him to Hue. The pilot falls asleep with the automatic pilot on, and before Paul knows it, they land in a barrage of bullets, and he is carted away. He is in China and imprisoned for ten years. He confesses to everything he did for the CIA, but continues to plead that he has never spied on the PRC. They eventually let him go. Back in Washington, Paul continues to  ponder some of the dots he connected in prison. He and the CIA chief conclude that an old friend and incredibly successful agent is the reason Paul was betrayed and turned over to the Chinese. The old friend was a Soviet mole for over four decades and behind endless agency failures.

                       I discovered this very old series three + years ago and apparently forgot about it.  I discovered it because of the high praise heaped on the author in his NYT obituary. He was compared to LeCarre.  And in this marvelous novel, he plots a very long story with endless twists and plots that would do the late English master proud.

                      

Haven, Donoghue - C

               In the seventh century, three Irish monks leave their abbey and sail downriver to the western ocean. The leader, Artt, has a vision that they will find an island and worship God in solitude.  On the fifth day, they land on Great Skellig. Cormac, the elder, and Trian, a youngster, work hard to secure food, water and a modicum of protection from the elements, while the messianic Arrt wishes to build crosses and copy the holy book. "God will provide" is Artt's answer to all queries about the many things they need to survive. As summer turns to autumn, the birds they eat begin to leave and they have no fuel for fire. Soon, they are eating raw fish. The winter wears them down, and Arrt banishes Trian when he learns he is a hermaphrodite. Cormac tells Arrt he is releasing himself from his vow, gathers Trian, and they row back to the mainland. Perhaps this is about religious extremism, but quite frankly, I have no idea.

Sometimes People Die, Stephenson - B

                     This novel is set in the UK at the turn of the millennium. The topic is health care serial killers. It is narrated by a young Scottish physician trying to re-establish a failed career. He has been booted from his previous hospital for abusing opioids. He goes to work for a poor East End hospital in an ancient building with poor patients and not enough staff or money. He is now clean and works diligently to toe the line. When it becomes known that a healthy elderly woman died of an opiate overdose, he comes under suspicion. However, he is soon absolved because the police conclude that the hospital is the scene of a series of murders. Within a few days, his flatmate, another physician, commits suicide, a wealthy young songwriter dies and a nurse is arrested for the murders. He's never quite comfortable with the confession that puts the nurse away. Some interesting twists and turns. 

Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921, Beevor - B

                      "The only disaster which could make life even worse for the poor in Russia was a major European conflict." That conflict was entered into without much apparent thought, and over 15 million Russian men were called to arms. "The drift to revolution was clear to all except the willfully blind." In late February 1917, the Petrograd garrison stopped following orders, shared weapons with workers, and ignited the flame of revolution. Abdication and a provisional government followed in March. Violent retribution against the wealthy spread throughout the empire. The Kerensky government insisted on continuing the war. An offensive in late June lasted but a few days before the Germans pushed them back. The Bolsheviks prepared for a takeover."Like most successful coups, the outcome in Petrograd would depend mostly on the apathy of the majority and the government's loss of confidence with itself." In October, the Bolsheviks waltzed into power in Petrograd. The country was wracked with violence from coast to coast with the aristocrats, military officers, and anyone who wasn't with the Reds the favored targets. In November, Lenin asked Germany for a cease fire. 

                       A Red terror descended on the nation with endless, indiscriminate torture and murder of 'former peoples.' Lenin stayed in power by agreeing to the humiliating Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, whereby Poland, Belarus, the Baltics and the Ukraine were ceded to the Germans. The government moved to Moscow because of the proximity of Petrograd to the Germans.  The class warfare initiated by the Bolsheviks inevitably led to a counter-revolution centered in the Don region, which became the stronghold of the Whites. The Germans occupied the center of the country, the British and Americans landed in Murmansk, and the Japanese in Vladivostok. Czech POW's thought that after Brest-Litovsk  they could return home. When they were refused, they headed east on the Trans-Siberian RR, and in Vladivostok joined the Allies in unseating the Reds. When the Czechs passed close to Yektarinburg, Lenin used it as an excuse to murder the Tsar and his family. The Reds were incredibly sadistic and violent. Russia was the scene of personal violence not seen in Europe in three centuries. People were torn apart and tossed in rivers and blast furnaces. Dzerzhinsky's Cheka set up a fake Brazilian Embassy, sold false exit visas, and then murdered the estimated 5,000 applicants. Both sides fought up and down the Volga in the summer of 1918, frequently covering the vast distances on the steppe before the Reds took control. In November, the armistice required Germany to return to its 1914 borders. The German withdrawal opened up vast regions of the interior to conflict. The Baltic states declared their independence. As the year closed, Russia was wracked with violence from one end to the other. There were Allied soldiers in the north, in the Baltics, in the Caucasus and the far east. Red and White forces battled in the Ukraine and the Don River basin, while starving people shifted their allegiance daily. It was a cauldron of desperation, poverty, chaos, violence and confusion.

                       The Allies departed the Murmansk-Arkangel region over the summer. However, the ambitious Japanese increased their forces to 85,000 in Siberia and the British continued to use naval and land forces in the Baltics. Churchill's dream of a Baltic anti-Soviet alliance failed when Moscow signed treaties granting Finland and the three Baltic countries their independence. The British also aided the White attack north from Tsaritsyn which had Moscow as its objective. The advance failed, the Cossacks went home, Britain withdrew its material help, and the Whites fled south. By year's end, even Churchill had concluded the cause of the Whites was hopeless. 

                   The Reds pursued the Whites into Siberia. In Krasnoyarsk, they encircled an army and captured 20,000 men. Unable to feed them, they murdered them. They captured Odessa while Allied ships took soldiers and civilians away leaving desperate thousands at the waterfront. As the Whites collapsed in 1920, a new force entered the fray. Under the command of Gen. Pilsudski, an army of Poles uncertain of what the boundaries of their country would be, began to fight the Reds in Poland and Ukraine. Pilsudski advanced as far east as Kiev before the Reds threw him back. In the Miracle on the Vistula, the Poles destroyed a Red army and assured themselves of their freedom. In October, the Whites made their last stand in the Crimea. It ended with 146,000 people evacuated by 126 Allied ships. The Reds slaughtered those the Whites had left behind. The author suggests the SS Einsatzgruppen took lessons from the Reds in the Crimea. For all intents and purposes, the civil war was over, but not the suffering. Reprisals and mass executions continued. Starvation soon followed.

                 "The Whites lost the civil war largely because of their inflexibility, including their refusal to contemplate land reform until it was far too late or to allow autonomy to the nationalities of the Tsarist Empire." Of equal import "an utterly incompatible alliance of Socialist Revolutionaries and reactionary monarchists had too little chance against a single-minded Communist dictatorship. All too often Whites represented the worst examples of humanity. For ruthless inhumanity, however, the Bolsheviks were unbeatable." 

                   In light of the disaster that Bolshevism was for Russia and the world, I read this with an eye on the what ifs that might have spared us from the Reds. The first was when the provisional government asked Nicholas to abdicate in favor of his son with an eye toward a constitutional monarchy. He refused. The other opportunity that spring was if Kerensky had not insisted on fighting. Perhaps Lenin might have failed. But once Lenin had power, he was so iron-willed, disciplined and inhumane that Red victory was inevitable. Only for a brief few months in 1918 did the Whites or the half-hearted Allies really pose a threat. We know that the bloodlands of Poland, the Baltics, Belarus, and Ukraine in WWII set the benchmark for 20th century horror. This tragedy was pretty close and possibly was a foreshadowing of what evildoers would later undertake . An estimated twelve million died.

On Every Tide: The Making And Remaking Of The Irish World, Connolly - B +

                      Between 1821 and 1901, six million people left Ireland. Most went to America, and many to Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. "They were migrants in an age of mass migration." Invariably, they entered the economic ladder on the bottom as unskilled laborers. "The story of the migrant Irish is of disadvantage and exploitation." In America, they became defenders of white supremacy. "In a world of racial hierarchies and ruthless territorial expansion, the migrant Irish must be recognized as both victims, and inescapably oppressors." The Irish immigration to America, particularly after 1850, uniquely included almost as many women as men. 

                      Almost all of the 17th and early 18th century immigrants to the US were Protestants from the north. They easily assimilated into America. Emigration from the south picked up after 1815, as the economy contracted, the population grew and news of the freedoms in the US became common knowledge. By 1840, there were 700,000 Irish in America, 160,000 in Canada, 48,000 in Australia and 400,000 in Britain. The 1845-51 potato famine took one million lives and sent another million overseas. Generally, 98% survived the 6 week voyage across the Atlantic. However, in the peak famine year of 1847, when immigrants were often sick and typhus was pervasive, approximately one in six died trying to reach North America. After the famine, emigration was once again was driven by economics. All in all, between 1860 and 1910, another three million left. The Irish came from a rural agrarian society, but nonetheless mostly chose to stay in America's major cities. This was likely a consequence of their not having the financial wherewithal to travel to the interior, or the fact that managing an American farm was much more complex than working as a tenant in Ireland. "By opting to stay in the industrializing eastern states Irish immigrants exposed themselves to the worst aspects of urban living, as runaway population growth outstripped the the development of basic facilities such as water supply and drainage." They were housed in jerry-built slums. They worked hard and lived in difficult circumstances, but there was one thing that was immeasurably superior to home. For even the poor, there were abundant amounts of quality food. Although they were not all unskilled laborers, they were still on the bottom of the socio-economic ladder working as waiters, sailors, miners etc. The young women were often housemaids, who learned the ways of America and were able to save their wages. They spread out throughout the country. There were many, many Irish in San Francisco,  Butte, Montana, Chicago and elsewhere, but it was the East where most remained.

                      As they poured into a Protestant country in the 1850's, they attracted the antipathy of the American Party (Know-Nothings) because of their Papist religion and preference for drink. Anti-Catholic laws were passed, immigrants lost civil service jobs, and Irish-American citizens were prohibited from voting. The absorption of the Know-Nothings into the new Republican Party partially led to the urban Irish ambivalence about the Civil War. Nonetheless, when the war came for many "service to the nation in its hour of need would be the ultimate answer to nativist slurs on the Irish population." It didn't quite work out the way many had hoped. There was resentment in the Irish community that the Irish Brigade was often the first in the line of attack. They were slaughtered at Antietam and Fredericksburg, and suffered massive casualties. Their regimental commander even resigned over the way they were used. The war ended without a material change in American society for the Irish. In the post-war years, the Irish "were able to make both the union local and the parish central pillars of their Irish-American identity." They"created their own network of institutions and associations." Working with the church, they established hospitals, schools, colleges and universities, and orphanages. "They formed clubs and associations to supplement the bonds of family and neighborhood." They did not, however, separate themselves from the mainstream. They created a place for themselves without giving up their identity. Simultaneously, the Protestants from Ireland began to feel uncomfortable about being connected to the newcomers and staked out a distinction for themselves as Scotch-Irish.

                      The Irish excelled at big city politics, were involved in the nascent labor movement and supported the push for independence at home. The Irish registered to vote at a much higher percentage than any other immigrant group. Political machines then rewarded them with patronage jobs. They constituted a disproportionately high percentage of municipal workers, particularly in NY, Boston and Chicago. Soon, they were electing mayors in those cities. The skills that helped in politics, especially their facility with English, propelled them to the top of the labor movement as well. More so than most groups, the Irish remained focused on what happened at home, taught their children and grandchildren to despise the English, and provided moral and financial support for those seeking freedom in Ireland.

                     In the 20th century, the Irish were able to assert a slight blue collar supremacy over all of the new arrivals by virtue of their positions in the labor hierarchy. Similarly, Italian and other ethnic Catholics were ruled by Irish monsignors and bishops. Irish-Americans generously supported the efforts after the First World War to free their homeland from Britain. In theory, the achievement of independence in 1921 should have halted outward emigration, but the economics of the new, but still poor, country contributed to an ongoing migration to the US. Additionally, more and more young people were opting to go to the UK. After WWII, Ireland did not participate in the general increase in European prosperity leading once again to a ratcheting up of migration to America. As time progressed the Irish made modest socio-economic advances in America. "By the mid twentieth century, the Irish had clearly improved their position. In the twenty-five years or so that followed the end of the Second World War, Irish Americans completed the last stage of their long journey from an immigrant underclass to equal participants in prosperity and status." The capstone of their success was the election of Jack Kennedy in 1960. In the last decades of the 20th century and in the new century, attendance and support for the church has precipitously declined. The labor movement has been diminished and is barely Irish at all. And since 1980, the Irish have voted Republican. The passage of a century-and-a-half has whittled away the recollections of the immigrant experience. This is a superb, but not an easy, read. Erin Go Bragh.

Desert Star, Connelly - B

                     It's hard to believe that this is already the fifth Bosch - Ballard novel. Renee is in charge of a cold case unit and Harry, now 70, volunteers to help and assist. Of course, Harry is Harry and pushes very hard to solve two cases pretty much as soon as he starts. On the first, his beloved 30+ year old Jeep is totaled and he has a bullet nip his ear lobe. But the one he wants is the second case because it's been haunting him for years. He tracks down the killer and closes the case. He advises Ballard that he won't be back to the unit. Many authors lose a step writing these lengthy series. But not Connelly.

The Rising Tide, Cleeves - B

                 A group of friends from the Northumbria region of England return every five years to Holy Island just off the coast. Fifty years ago, they all went there as high schoolers on a retreat and made a special connection. When the leader is murdered, Vera, a local detective, begins the search for the killer. As Vera assesses each story, she concludes that the motive is buried in the past of this group of mid-sixties friends. The deceased was planning a tell-all novel based on their collective story and just about everyone who knew him now has a motive. She eventually pinpoints the target and catches him. 

The Cloisters, Hays - B+

                     This fabulous novel set in what I believe is one of the most fascinating and intriguing places I have ever been, the medieval museum on Manhattan's far north side overlooking the Hudson.  It is part the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and was created by the Rockefellers in the 1930's.  In our story, a brilliant but clearly a country girl from Washington obtains a summer internship at the Cloisters. Ann works with Rachel, a young Harvard grad of considerable east side wealth and they report to Patrick the Curator, an equally wealthy scholar in his late forties. His obsession is understanding tarot cards and that is the project they collectively work on. Tarot cards have a crucial role in medieval spiritualism that scholars have been assessing for centuries. The gardening staff grows medieval herbs and Patrick decides that they can better understand the cards if they take a blend of the hallucinogens. It doesn't work out, as Patrick is found dead the following morning. The autopsy shows he was poisoned by belladonna. Was it the gardener Leo or Rachel, apparently an occasional lover of the deceased? Either way, Rachel and Ann pen an assessment of the cards that they know will make them famous. Fame is part of the astounding and astonishing ending. This is a must read. 

Swann's War, Oren - B+

                       This superb novel is set on the fictional island of Fourth Cliff off the Massachusetts coast in 1944. Mary Beth Swann, a former officer with the Boston PD, is acting as the island's only police officer because her husband, the police force's only captain, is a major in the Marines and fighting in the Pacific. There are approximately 100 Italian POW's who are imprisoned on the island. They work at various jobs and are relatively free to travel to them. Over the course of the year, four are murdered and Mary Beth cannot sort it out. Both the FBI and later the Mafia try to solve the murders and fail. Just as the war is winding down in Europe the following year, she connects the one clue she has with a member of the US Army crew acting as coastal watchers. The American is twisted by hatred for the prisoners. This book highlights the fact that, just like the Japanese-Americans in the west, throughout the country Germans and Italians were also imprisoned and placed under house arrest. One couple placed under house arrest in San Francisco were Joe DiMaggio's parents. Lastly, and amazingly, the author is the former Israeli ambassador to the US.  

Empires of the Normans, Roach - B

                      In the early 10th century, Vikings established a foothold in the lands around the lower Seine. They slowly consolidated what became the duchy of Normandy and adopted the Catholic faith. A century later, they were Francophones and culturally French. The last king of England prior to the Norman conquest was actually half-Norman. Edward the Confessor had spent most of his life in the duchy. Indeed, Duke William was a cousin. He died without an heir in January, 1066.  A rival Englishman, Harald, claimed the throne. In late September, William, Duke of Normandy crossed the Channel and defeated Harald at Hastings on Oct.14. William ravaged the Home Counties as he marched to London. He was crowned on Christmas Day. William acted quickly to assert his control as the English did not readily submit. For the next five years, William brutally suppressed his Anglo-Saxon opponents. He replaced the ruling elites with Normans loyal to him.

                     Normans, under the leadership of the de Hauteville family, came to southern Italy in the 11th century and established a state that survived for 800 years. They expelled Saracens and Byzantines from the peninsula. "For the first time in almost half a millennium, all of southern Italy stood under a single banner."  They were also an integral part of the First Crusade, which Pope Urban II called for in 1095. The Crusader state of Antioch, established in 1096 and in place for 170 years was ruled by Normans. They also expanded south into Africa in the 12th century for a short-lived occupation.

                     Over the course of the two decades the Conqueror sat on the English throne, his focus was on consolidation. Expansion was a matter left to his earls and knights. They pushed west into Wales and north into Scotland. Both regions were poor and there was little interest in conquering them. The goal was to start establishing a light-touch hegemony over them. Centuries would pass before the absorption of the two regions into a United Kingdom. In the late 12th century, Henry II invaded Ireland, beginning the long English occupation of the island. In 1202, France claimed the Norman duchy and proceeded to conquer it. The Normans no longer ruled Normandy. The descendants of  the Vikings had a broad impact on Western Europe, Italy, and the Middle East. "In the end , they were victims of their own success. They became so much a part of the fabric of European society that they scarcely occasioned note. They were gone and soon, forgotten."

Racing the Light, Crais - B

                  Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are the 21st century's embodiments of LA noir. Here, the private detective is hired to find a missing son. Things are complicated by the fact that the parents are retired from some deep and dark work for the US, but are important enough to still have extensive security. Cole eventually calls in Pike and they get to the bottom of a plot featuring Chinese criminals and crooked LA pols. Always fun.

Stay Hidden, Doiron - B+

                    Mike has been promoted to Warden Inspector and no longer cruises the backwoods of Maine. His first case is a shooting incident during the first days of deer season. It takes place on one of Maine's many offshore islands. In fictional Maquoit, there are only about 100 residents, no real services and a really unhealthy dynamic of bitterness among competing lobstermen in a place where opiod drug use is rampant. Was the shooting an accident or intentional? Mike digs in and sorts it out.

Zero Night, Freeman - B+

                     It's been over a year since Stride was shot. Maggie has taken over his job and he's not sure he even wants to go back. He and Serena are barely talking when Serena hears the devastating news that her mother has died. The floodgates of her horrible teen years with an alcoholic/drug addict parent overwhelm her and she takes a drink for the first time in 18 years. She digs into a case to try and get her focus back. Jonny shows up at the office because of his concern for her and to help with a kidnapping case. Ironically, it is Serena's work on a two year old cold case that provides the key to solve the kidnapping. This is the 11th in the series and a really good one.