A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue, Jobb - B+

              "Arthur Barry was one of the most brazen and successful jewel thieves in history." He was an impostor, con man, and cat burglar who robbed throughout metropolitan New York, from a  Rockefeller to many, many others. 

              He was born into a large family in Worcester in 1896. By the time he was 13, he was a full time criminal. He went to jail at 17, was paroled to work in a Remington factory, and joined the army. He was a combat medic who served with distinction and bravery in France. He returned to the US in the summer of 1919 and decided to become a jewel thief. His first job netted $2,500, twice the annual wages of a laborer. A string of successful robberies in Yonkers and Ardsley added to his haul. He expanded his pursuits to Long Isand's north shore. The key to Barry's success was preparation. He studied the social pages, went to endless public places where well-dressed ladies flaunted their jewelry, and diligently studied their homes and habits. His preferred time to strike was during dinner. By the middle of the 1920's, he was stealing jewelry worth $500,000 per year and making $100,000. He also became "an expert at crashing Long Island's most exclusive parties." He even had the Prince of Wales join him on a night spent clubbing in Manhattan. Indeed, he stole $130,000 of Edwina Mountbatten's jewelry while she and Louis were in the US with the prince. He once stole a $700,000 necklace at the Plaza. 

           At this stage, Barry was considering retiring, and those on his trail now included a private detective, insurance companies, and the Nassau County police. Someone, never identified, tipped the police to his whereabouts and he was arrested getting off a LIRR train. He confessed in order to protect his wife, who knew noting about his work. A judge in Mineola sentenced him to 25 years at hard labor. He was thirty when he entered Sing Sing. Two years later, he was moved further upstate to Auburn. Soon, he broke out, went to Manhattan, and hid with his wife's assistance. They moved to Newark and he kept out of the public eye. For the next few years, every theft in New York was attributed to him, and in 1933, it was surmised by some that Barry and his wife, Anna, were the Lindbergh baby kidnappers. His luck eventually ran out, the Newark police arrested him, and returned him to Auburn. Seven years more were added to his sentence. For the next four years, he was in solitary confinement. He was sent to Attica, then a new prison and one considered a "prisoner's paradise." His wife died in 1940. He was paroled in 1949, and moved in with a sister in Worcester. He went to work in a diner. His fame attracted writers and he even appeared on television, interviewed by Mike Wallace, and later appeared on the Tonight Show. He spent his remaining years doting on the younger members of his extended family and serving the veterans of Worcester. He died in 1981.

Guide Me Home, Locke - B+

                 Darren Matthew's life has completely unraveled. He hands in his gun and badge and resigns from the Texas Rangers, where he was only the second Black in its history. He's drinking too much, his girlfriend has left him, and he's about to be indicted. On top of this mess, his mother with whom he's had maybe two conversations with in his life, shows up, and encourages him to look into a Black girl missing from a white sorority house. He makes a connection with his mother,  and unearths a great deal of unpleasantness behind the community the missing young girl is from. His indictment falls apart and he's offered a chance to return to the Rangers. And, his girlfriend is now his fiancee. The excellence of these novels is the brilliant exposition of Black life in East Texas. The author does an excellent job of laying before us the steps and pain of poverty, hopelessness, and desperation, along with some biting criticism of right wing hatred.

The Waiting, Connelly - B

                  The Bosch series is moving on with Renee Ballard, and now Maddie Bosch, taking center stage. Maddie begins working for Ballard's Unsolved Cases unit as a paid volunteer one day per week. Thanks to advances in DNA technology, the unit is solving more and more cases. The primary case involves a serial rapist and killer whose DNA surfaces from a son he didn't even know he had. The son has been adopted and it takes a while to find out who his real dad is. The unit does great work, and Maddie unilaterally solves the Black Dahlia murder in her free time. Harry's role is limited to a minimal amount of help to Ballard, who has to jump through some hoops to recover her stolen badge. As always, a delight.

In Too Deep, Child - B

             Reacher is knocked unconscious in a car wreck while hitchhiking, and he winds up with a couple of bad guys who appear to be up to no good. They are a motley crew, that may include an FBI undercover agent, who despise each other. They are trying to figure out how they can knock each other off and get away with the loot, because they have something incredibly valuable about US national security that they can sell. Reacher stays one step ahead of the FBI and the bad guys and saves the day. Unfortunately, this is Reacher-lite as Andrew is not in Lee's league.

Sherlock Holmes And The Telegram From Hell, Meyer - B

             In 1916, Whitehall asks Holmes to go to the US to learn anything he can about the efforts being taken in Washington by the German Embassy to keep America out of the war. He recruits Watson and off they go. Their primary contact is Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who is having an affair with the German ambassador, and it is she who learns that he has forwarded to Mexico a telegram from Berlin - the one from hell. Holmes and Watson make for Mexico and make a copy of the infamous Zimmerman Telegram, and forward it to London. When it is made public in the US, the anger about the proposed German-Mexican alliance helps propel America into the war.

Hitler's People: The Faces Of The Third Reich, Evans - B+, Inc.

               "This book takes a close look at the people who overthrew the fragile democracy of the Weimar Republic, set up the Third Reich, kept it in power for over a decade, and drove it into war, genocide, and self-destruction." 

                  "Without Hitler, there would have been no Third Reich, no World War II, and no Holocaust..." "For the first thirty years of his life, Adolf Hitler was a nobody." He rejoined the army in 1919, tasked to reeducate soldiers after a brief communist takeover in Munich. It was at this point that he developed a rabid antisemitism, likely because many of the leftists were Jewish. He joined the German Workers' Party, suggested renaming it the National Socialist German Workers' Party, and designed its red, white, and black flag featuring the swastika. He took over the party and attracted men like Hess, Rohm, Goring, Himmler, Streicher, and Rosenberg as his lieutenants. He was jailed after the failed 1923 putsch. His nine month imprisonment afforded him the opportunity to write 'Mein Kampf,' which enhanced his fame, made him wealthy, and outlined his principles of extremism and hatred. When the Depression shook Weimar to its roots, the communists and the Nazis gained in the Reichstag elections. In an attempt to curtail the political turmoil, President Hindenburg appointed Hitler Reich Chancellor on January 30, 1933. Within a few months, he so manipulated the levers of power that by the summer, he and the Nazi Party were ruling a dictatorship. The Nazis began their long, escalating attack on Germany's Jews immediately upon assuming power. Civil rights were ignored as the SS and Gestapo murdered and imprisoned at will. Desirous of reversing the Treaty of Versailles and obtaining lebensraum in the east, he began to rearm the military. There was never any doubt in his mind that war would follow. He lied, broke every agreement he made on the international stage, and began the war in 1939. The victories of 1939-1941 confirmed in Hitler's mind his delusion of being the greatest military leader of all time, and that he was  incapable of error. His intense focus on the war led to a severe reduction in his public appearances. He completely ignored his generals. Defeats at El Alamein and Stalingrad unhinged Der Fuhrer. He became more isolated and intransigent, and the July 1944 assassination attempt, deepened his distrust of the aristocracy and the army's generals. By the penultimate year of the war, he had eliminated most of the six million Jews from Europe that he had vowed to eliminate. He was now suffering from Parkinson's Disease, a hardening of his arteries, loose teeth,  deteriorating eyesight, and living in a "fantasy world." "More than a third of all German troops killed during the war were killed between January and May 1945." He spent his last months condemning world Jewry and Bolshevism before committing  suicide on April 30. "Adolf Hitler left only death and destruction behind him."

             Herman Goring, a military school graduate and successful fighter pilot, joined the party after hearing Hitler excoriate the Versailles Treaty in 1922. He was elected to the Reichstag, became Speaker and helped Hitler outmaneuver his opponents to become Chancellor. As Prussian Interior Minister, he organized the Gestapo and spread terror far and wide. He amassed vast reservoirs of power and was the most important leader of the country's rearmament. He was also a leader in confiscating Jewish assets. However, his opposition to the war led to his fall from favor. Virtually powerless by 1942, he focused on his art collection and consumed vast amounts of para-codeine and morphine. He vigorously defended himself at Nuremberg, but was sentenced to death.

          Adolf Eichmann was an ambitious anti-semite and not the mere bureaucrat he proclaimed himself to be. He was neither educated nor bright. He grew up in a middle-class Protestant family and was a successful traveling salesman when he joined the party in 1932. He went to work for the Security Service (SD), impressed all with his thorough, efficient work, and was placed in the Jewish section. He managed the forced emigration, and expropriation of the wealth of Austria's Jews. He was put in charge of organizing the transportation of Jews for resettlement in the east.  He was at the Wannsee Conference assisting his boss, Reinhold Heydrich. He became "obsessed with carrying out the extermination of the Jews." He escaped to Argentina, but was captured, tried, and executed by the Israelis.

         "Few if any servants of the Third Reich were as widely or as vehemently reviled as Ilsa Koch. She was known as the Witch of Buchenwald. Her husband was the SS commandant of three different camps. She was tried by the SS, the Americans and W. Germany. She shot prisoners, engaged in orgies, ordered guards to kill innocents, and had gloves and lampshades made from human skin. Her trials garnered the world's attention and the Germans sentenced her to life imprisonment. She committed suicide in the 1960's.

         There are three sections of this book after the Hitler biography: the Paladins, the Enforcers, and the Instruments. Each section has at least half a dozen chapters, but I have read only the three above. I have found that the most enlightening portions of this book are the various section introductions and conclusions, rather than each mini-biography. Almost everyone written about held deep and vengeful memories of the end of the Great War, the inflation, the occupation of the Rhineland, the Depression and Germany's humiliation. Scapegoating the Jews was easy.

         "The perpetrators in this book were not psychopaths; nor were they deranged, or perverted, or insane." They were normal overwhelmingly middle class people to whom Hitler offered a way out of defeat and humiliation. The regime encouraged and enabled people to do heinous things by dehumanizing the communists, the Jews, the Roma, Slavs, and the handicapped. The executioners did their jobs because the state approved and encouraged their actions. In Germany, and in every conquered country, the Nazi's unleashed the anti-semitism lurking just below the surface. 

Maragret of Anjou, Iggulden - B+

              With Henry VI comatose, Richard of York rules as Regent. Everyone in the kingdom, waits for the king to die. Eighteen months into his illness, Henry awakens on Christmas Day 1354, and learns he has an infant son. Barely able to stand, he  mounts his steed, rides to Westminster, demands the return of his seal, and dismisses York. After a brief rest, he decides to initiate a Judicial Progress, a march with many followers, to the north to show himself, dispense the king's justice, and possibly confront York. Their forces clash at St. Albans, where Henry is gravely wounded. York asks for and receives forgiveness, swears fealty to the king, and is made Constable of England. As the next few years pass, Henry, once again, falls into periods of lassitude as the kingdom is managed by Margaret. She has the king sign a Bill of Attainder taking Lancaster's titles and lands forcing him to take up arms again. At the Battle of Ludlow, York is surrounded, escapes and flees to Ireland. Yorkists continue to fight and once again capture Henry, placing him in the Tower of London. When Richard returns to England, Margaret's forces capture him and behead his son, his loyal liege, and York himself. As I said about the first book, superb historical fiction.

Police At The Station And They Don't Look Friendly, McKinty - B+

                 This series just gets better with each reading, although I suspect the next one will be the finale. Duffy and Beth are living in his house with their infant daughter. He is very suspicious about the murder of a drug dealer with a bolt from a crossbow. He and his team begin to dig and hackles are raised all over Ireland. An IRA team kidnaps him, and only his combat skills allow him to live. He suspects that there's some connection between the IRA man he is after, and a highly placed mole in the Royal Ulster Constabulary. When his house is attacked, he knows that his suspicions are correct. He lays a trap, catches the two men behind it all, and negotiates a quasi-retirement from the RUC that will, in about a year, allow him, Beth, and Emma to escape to Scotland. As good as they get.

A Grave in the Woods, Walker - B+

           This is another fabulous book in the Bruno, Chief of Police series. It is also a vivid reminder that before the author semi-retired to the south of France, he was a noted historian, as this novel has the most history of any of the others. A grave is opened in an abandoned church graveyard. Two German women, with their Wehrmacht id's, are found naked, and it is obvious that they were raped by the Resistance and murdered. An Italian naval officer who was shot was buried with them. The grave has been expertly sealed in cement. The findings bring the press, German and Italian diplomats, and French forensic officers to St. Denis. Bruno and the Mayor organize a superb ceremony to honor the war's dead and then protect St. Denis from a flood.

Ghosts Of Belfast, Neville - B+

                  The 'ghosts' are the twelve people Gerry Fegan murdered when he was an IRA hitman. Most of the dozen, whose faces haunt and follow him through Belfast, are Ulster paras, a few cops, and unfortunately, a few innocent civilians. The only way Gerry can expunge the visions of them is to kill again, and his first victim is an old friend now in the IRA hierarchy. Before he is buried, Fegan takes out another IRA troublemaker. As he had been with both men the night they died, he becomes a target for the party. They come after him, he is ready and bangs up the assassin. Before he leaves town, he sends the IRA's priest to his eternal reward for violating the sanctity of the confessional, among other sins. However, when the IRA kidnap another outcast, a woman and her daughter who Gerry is protecting, he turns himself in. When a different captive slows down the IRA's torturers, Gerry seizes the opportunity and escapes with Maria and Ellen. He bribes his way onto a Chinese trawler in Belfast harbor and leaves behind Ireland and its ghosts forever.

               This novel from 2009 is famous as Northern Ireland's best crime story, and one that graphically illustrates the dysfunctional horror that was the Troubles and its aftermath.

Everyone Knows But You, Ricks - B

           A young FBI agent in San Diego loses his family in a car accident and, in his demoralized state, asks to be sent as far away as possible. In Bangor, Maine, he is called out when a body shows up on the shore of federal land. Upon examination, the lobsterman's head has been bashed in. Thus, he begins his investigation into an amazingly closed island community where the lobstermen all fish areas of the ocean that have been in their families for generations. Needless to say, outsiders are not welcome. On Liberty Island, "we take care of our own." Eventually, a confession is coaxed out a leading citizen who did in one of the worst men in town who served what he got. Intriguing debut novel by a noted military historian.

The Incorruptibles: A True Story Of Kingpins, Crime Busters, And The Birth Of The American Underworld, Slater - B, Inc.

                      This story begins in Manhattan in the 1890's. It is about those "who had left the largest ghetto in the world - the Pale of Settlement - and lived in what would soon become the most crowded ghetto in history, the East Side of New York." Their children learned English and became street wise practitioners  of many skills, one of the most desired of which was mathematics, especially useful  in the gambling trades. In this world, young, ambitious Arnold Rothstein began his career as a gambler and hustler who dreamed of cracking the big time. "The East Side became an incubator of delinquency" and another young man, Abe Schoenfeld, a future reformer, "watched a Jewish underworld coalesce in real time." Rothstein so impressed Big Tim Sullivan of Tammany Hall that he granted a gambling concession to Arnold in mid-town's west side Tenderloin district. Schoenfeld attracted the attention of the wealthy and famous Jewish philanthropist, Jacob Schiff.            At the almost half-way point, nothing seems to be developing. I'm certain it will, but too slow for me.