The Widow, Grisham - C +

                Simon is an unhappily married, down-and-out lawyer in a rural Virginia town going nowhere when 85-year-old Netty walks into his office. She needs a new will and has about $20 million, with no family or friends. His ship has come in. He drafts a will naming himself executor and trustee of a charitable trust. As his gambling debts pile up, he dreams of the fees he'll soon be collecting. Netty is in a car accident, hospitalized, and in bad shape. The doctors suggest he draft a DNR, and a week later, they recommend he terminate life support. Within a day, Netty's estranged stepsons ask for an autopsy. The results show she was poisoned, and Simon is arrested. A change of venue moves the trial four hours away, where the case has not been newsworthy. After a relatively brief trial in which the state presents no real proof of poisoning, the jury finds Simon guilty. He recruits a hacker who leads him to a serial killer working in various hospitals, and soon the FBI steps in. His conviction is eventually vacated.

           By the standards of every John Grisham thriller I can remember, this is a flop. Netty, the lying widow, is not an appealing character, nor is Simon. The trial is a bore, and the resolution is so far out of left field that it feels disconnected from the rest of the story. Don’t bother.

The Proving Ground, Connelly - B+

               Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer, has moved on from the seedy world of criminal defense and is now practicing civil law. He represents a grieving mother who is suing Tidalwaiv, an AI company that created an AI companion which encouraged a sixteen-year-old boy to kill her daughter. Tidalwaiv is awaiting a major Wall Street buyout and would prefer the case go away. Unbeknownst to their lawyers, the company intimidates and surveils witnesses, jury members, and Mickey’s staff. The trial goes back and forth with each side making its case. Tidalwaiv keeps upping the settlement offer but refuses to apologize. When Mick puts their coder on the stand, their case goes completely sideways, and the good guys win.

             Earlier this year, the author introduced a new LAPD member, Det. Stillwell, on Catalina Island. Connelly published a Renée Ballard novel a year ago, and now the first Lincoln Lawyer book in years. I suspect we’ve seen the last of Harry Bosch.

A Christmas Witness, Todd -B

          A few days before the holiday in 1921, Rutledge is told to go to Kent, where a former member of Gen. Haig’s staff claims someone tried to kill him. The retired colonel remains demanding and abrupt, convinced that the man riding the horse deliberately steered into him. Rutledge can find no clues and begins to wonder if some part of the story is imagined. On his third night in town, he receives a call telling him the colonel is missing. When the colonel is found and recovers, he is a changed and reformed man who shares his deepest thoughts with his fellow front-line soldier, Rutledge.

         This is the 25th book in the series, but the first in years—and the first since the death of the mother in this mother-son authoring partnership. It is only 214 pages long and is characterized as a novella. My conclusion is that the surviving son excels at the history and the strong sense of time and place, while the mother provided the intricate plotting. Hopefully, the series can and will continue.

The Rose of Tibet, Davidson - B

            During the fall of 1949, Charles Houston is notified by authorities that his brother, Hugh, is missing and presumed dead in the Himalayas. He travels to India, where a porter tells him he saw Englishmen in Tibet after the date Hugh was believed to have died. Determined to find out more, Charles sets out for Yamdring, a community just over the border. He and his guide struggle through the mountains but eventually reach the town, known for its famed monastery, and are told that four Englishmen are hiding there. During the spring festival, Houston is imprisoned—accused of being the reincarnation of an evil invader from 200 years ago. The governor, realizing Houston poses no threat but fearing the people's reaction, declares him a saint and canonizes him as a trulku.  Uncertain of his new status, Houston is both pleased and excited when the stunningly beautiful Rose visits him in bed, claiming that the scriptures decree the two of them must escape with a small fortune in emeralds. Toward the end of the summer of 1951, the Chinese invade Tibet. The governor instructs Houston to flee with Rose, the treasure, and a small hunting party. The group is attacked by the Chinese, and only Houston and Rose survive. As the season turns, they decide to winter in a hermit’s cave with a large back room that can be kept warm. They endure the long winter, but Houston is badly injured by a bear. He later realizes he cannot remember how they made it down the mountains safely into India. He learns that Rose had to return to her people, and his arm has been amputated.  Back in London, still slipping in and out of consciousness, Houston eventually recovers and begins a nomadic life funded by the two bags of emeralds found in his baggage. It is later believed that he drowned off the coast of Tobago. His publishers decide to print his memoirs in 1962.

          Needless to say, this is a very old—and very old-fashioned—rousing tale of derring-do.

The Gales Of Novemeber: The Untold Story Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, Bacon - A*

          "Detroit was the heart of the world’s most robust economy, and Great Lakes shipping served as its circulatory system." Because of the Soo Locks, Great Lakes freighters are long, narrow, and shallow — and consequently, somewhat unwieldy in bad weather. The Edmund Fitzgerald was 729 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 39 feet tall. When fully loaded, two-thirds of its height was underwater.

           It was built to be flexible, utilizing three modular sections riveted together. The Fitz was launched on June 7, 1958, and immediately began setting tonnage records — continually breaking its own. The ship sailed between Silver Bay, Minnesota, on Lake Superior, where it loaded taconite pellets essential for making steel. From there, it traveled due east more than 350 miles to the locks leading to Lake Huron, then downriver past Detroit to deliver its freight in Toledo or Cleveland. They sailed seven days a week, continuously, for eight months of the year.

          Over the years the Fitz sailed, its owner and the Coast Guard gradually loosened freeboard regulations, allowing freighters to ride lower in the water — enabling them to carry more freight and earn more money. In the early 1970s, the locks were lengthened, larger ships were built, and the Fitz was no longer the biggest or best. But because it was captained by the esteemed Ernest McSorley and crewed by his hand-picked team, it remained the most harmonious ship in the fleet.

         On November 9, 1975, it began its final run of the season — and the last of McSorley’s storied career. The weather was a perfect 78 degrees, but the Fitz was carrying a record 26,100 tons of taconite. For a trip this late in the season, an attempt to break a record was unwise, as the ship was slightly overloaded. The Coast Guard posted a gale warning at 5 p.m., forecasting 40 mph winds. As the storm picked up, McSorley opted for the safer northern route across the lake. The thirty-hour crossing would now take forty-eight.

           Overnight, the National Weather Service upgraded the forecast again. As the Fitz plowed east through heavy waves, it was followed by a sister ship, the Arthur M. Anderson. Both captains kept in contact by radio. McSorley acknowledged the Fitz was “rolling some” in the face of the broadsides. The air temperature plummeted, and with the water unusually warm, the waves were twice their normal height. The Anderson slowed down, while the Fitz pressed on at full speed, just hours from safety, when an Alberta clipper and a storm from the south collided — making matters far worse.

         McSorley radioed that they had suffered “topside damage” and were slowing down. The Coast Guard later concluded that the most likely cause of the sinking was a hatch on deck that was never completely closed, or was forced open by the storm. At 4:10 p.m., McSorley reported that their radar was out — and, at nearly the same time, the Whitefish Point Lighthouse went dark. The Fitz was now sailing blind in a raging snowstorm. His next message was that they had a “bad list” and were experiencing “the worst seas” he had ever seen — which proved true, as the storm is now considered the worst of the century. Later analysis shows that, 15 miles out, the Fitz hit the storm’s most violent point at the precise worst moment. McSorley’s final transmission came at 7:10 p.m. - “We are holding our own.”

           The Anderson reached Whitefish Point at 9 p.m., just as the Coast Guard declared the Fitzgerald missing. The Coast Guard asked the Anderson to turn back and search — and it did. Nine other ships also went back out into the storm. The Anderson found one of the Fitzgerald’s battered lifeboats. The following morning, the bell at Detroit’s Mariners’ Cathedral rang 29 times — once for each life lost.

          Two weeks later, Newsweek opened its story with, “According to the legend of the Chippewa tribe, the lake they once called Gitchee Gumee never gives up her dead.” Sonar confirmed the ship had broken in two. Although there are multiple well-informed theories, no one knows exactly why the ship went down. The consensus is that there were multiple contributing factors. The story of the Fitz became world-famous through Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting ballad. The Canadian singer, an avid sailor himself, composed a brilliant piece that reached number one a year later. It was so heartfelt that the families of the crew embraced it, and Lightfoot once performed it at the Mariners’ Cathedral.

          Multiple safety reforms followed, including instantaneous weather transmission and enhanced electronic systems. These improvements have contributed to fifty years without a commercial sinking on the Great Lakes. Twenty years after the disaster, the ship’s bell was recovered and placed in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point. In 1999, the Canadian government consecrated the wreck as a gravesite. Until his death, Gordon Lightfoot regularly attended the families’ annual reunion at the museum.

           This is a tour de force — offering magnificent insights into the industrial history of the region, with an emphasis on all things maritime. There are vivid, incisive stories of the sailors — almost all of whom were from the region, had lived difficult lives, and were proud to serve aboard the king of the fleet. An incredible story, a magnificent song, and a great book.

Guilty Plea, Rotenberg - B+

                Terrance Wyler is found dead of seven stab wounds, his four-year-old son sleeping upstairs, the murder knife missing, and evidence suggesting his estranged wife, Samantha, had been there late that night. Although strongly encouraged by her lawyer, Samantha rejects the offered plea deal, and a trial for first-degree murder ensues. She’s convicted and sent to prison.

                Once again, this series featuring Ari Greene, Daniel Kennicott, and a few recurring lawyers is just great. The ancillary stories are compelling, the trial wonderfully tense, and the author—a noted lawyer—excels at portraying the torments of working for both the Crown and the defense. It’s also fascinating to see how the Canadian legal system differs from America’s.

Joe Country, Herron - B

           David Cartwright—once Lamb’s boss, River’s grandfather, and long ago a senior figure in MI5—dies and is buried at the security service’s preferred church. Watching from afar is Frank Harkness, River’s father, a man Jackson Lamb has long wanted for killing one of his Joes a few years back. Harkness, a former CIA operative turned completely rogue, is back in the country to assassinate a college-aged boy who witnessed things at an Epstein-like party and tried to blackmail a powerful member of the royal family. The boy, coincidentally, is the son of a man Harkness had killed at Slough House some time ago. When word of this reaches Slough House, the “slow horses” set out to stop him. The ending is a bit messy, leaving quite a few threads unresolved—not as strong as its predecessors.

Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World's Mightiest Empire, Strauss - B

          "These were two of the most dramatic and consequential centuries in history. And for the Jewish people in particular, these centuries were cataclysmic." The Jews revolted against the world's greatest empire three different times and paid a heavy price as Rome crushed them, even changing the name of the state from Judea to Palestina. "The Jewish people survived, learning how to become a religion without a state."

           In 63 BCE, Judea was conquered by Rome. The empire designated Herod as king of the Jews, and he ascended to the throne in 37 BCE. During the reign of Herod the Great, the region prospered, and among his many construction projects, the most important was the building of the Second Temple. He died in 4 BCE. Although the region remained peaceful for the next sixty years, it was never comfortably Roman. There were tensions between the monotheistic Jews and the polytheistic pagans. Local tensions in Jerusalem exploded into open revolt in 66 CE. The Roman response under Vespasian was brutal and led to the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 CE. The city was razed, with only the Western Wall left standing.

         Half a century later, in 115 CE, a series of uprisings known as the Diaspora Revolt spread throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. The fighting ranged from Libya to the Parthian border. Trajan's response was to destroy the Jewish communities of Egypt, Cyprus, and Libya. The great synagogue of Alexandria was destroyed. Two decades later, the Emperor Hadrian provoked Judea when he proposed a colony on Jerusalem's ruins. Simon Bar Kokhba led a highly successful rebellion and gained control of southern Judea. Hadrian assembled a vast army and crushed the revolt. The entire province was destroyed, and its people were either dead or enslaved. It was a complete catastrophe. From then on, the Jews of the diaspora would not rebel but follow a conservative, decentralized rabbinical approach to their lives.

A History Of The Jews III, Johnson - B

      This is a continuation of a book previously partially posted on September 23rd and October 5th.
      At the beginning of WWI, Zionism had many adherents in the British government, which led to the Balfour Declaration’s statement: “His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” Almost immediately, there was conflict between the Jews and Arabs. By the end of the 1930s, there were approximately 500,000 vastly outnumbered Jews in Palestine.

      Germany was the best-educated, most sophisticated country in Europe until the Versailles Treaty inflicted its victor’s torment on the nation. Among many reactions to the pain was the equating of Bolshevism with Judaism, leading to a rise in anti-Semitism. That anti-Semitism was fueled by the vitriolic hatred of Adolf Hitler, which led to the decimation of Europe’s Jews. “By the opening of the war in September 1939, many of the eventual horrors had already been foreshadowed, and the system to carry them out was already in embryonic existence.” The ensuing Holocaust murdered six million Jews from every country in Europe, but primarily those of eastern and central Europe. There was little sympathy for the 250,000 displaced survivors of the Shoah. “The overwhelming lesson the Jews learned from the Holocaust was the imperative need to procure for themselves a permanent refuge.”

      In 1939, Britain repudiated the Balfour Declaration. At war’s end, the Jews began fighting the British in Palestine, leading to their eventual withdrawal and the creation of Israel in 1948. The Israelis defeated an Arab attack that tried to crush the new country. The UN estimates that 650,000 Arabs fled. In the ensuing decades, the 500,000 Jews living in Arab countries left for Israel. By the end of the Six Days War in 1967, Israel had assured its security and survival. Israel again defeated the Arabs in 1973 and made peace with Egypt a few years later. The country had 3 million Jewish citizens by the time of the Camp David Accords.

      Perhaps equal in importance to the establishment of Israel was the astounding success of Jews in America, where their number reached almost 6 million at the end of the 1970s. “This aristocracy of success became as ubiquitous and pervasive in its cultural influence as the earlier elite, the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.”

       The Book of Joshua says: “Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” “The Jews believed they were such a special people with such unanimity and passion, and over a long span, that they became one. They did indeed have a role because they wrote it themselves. Therein lies perhaps the key to their story.” It goes without saying that this is an extraordinary and enlightening history. The reason I’ve struggled is that often a paragraph will encompass the point being made but divert itself back or forward a thousand years, or dally in theological musings, making it just a bit difficult to follow.

Proof, Cowan - B +

      Jake West is a talented lawyer, the son of his firm’s founder—and a drunk who’s managed to wreck his life. His wife has thrown him out, he hasn’t set foot in the office for a year, and the California Bar has censured him. The only person who still seems to care about him is his eight-year-old son. Then his best friend and law partner, Rich, is shot and killed behind the wheel of his car—with Jake sitting next to him. Jake decides to take on some of Rich’s cases. On the one case the firm handed him, the defendant claims Rich had found something that would exonerate her—just the day before he was murdered. Jake can’t understand why the prosecution is offering such a lenient deal. The deeper he digs, the more coincidences he uncovers. When someone tries to kill him, he realizes Rich must have stumbled onto something big—something tied to the firm’s most important client. As Jake begins to suspect corruption in the district attorney’s office, the county abruptly drops the case. Refusing to back down, Jake and his team of friends and misfits keep digging, ultimately unearthing evidence that topples the firm’s managing partner, destroys its biggest client relationship, and takes down both the D.A. and highly-ranked detective —all while securing justice (and serious money) for two of his wronged clients.

     This debut novel—written by a Hollywood screenwriter and producer—is well-crafted, but has enough twists and turns to carry a limited series. I'm happy to see that it's the first in a series.

What Kind Of Paradise, Brown - B+

   At some point in the mid-90s, Jane realizes there’s something terribly wrong about having spent fourteen of her eighteen years in the Montana woods, homeschooled by her dad. She can kill and dress a deer, roam far and wide through the forest, and expound on Voltaire and Tolstoy—but she has never watched TV, bought new clothes, or held hands with a boy. One day, her dad brings home a computer and an internet hookup so he can publish The Luddite Manifesto, his screed against the emerging digital age. Once a computer pioneer himself, he had rebelled against structured society, faked his and his four-year-old daughter’s deaths, and escaped to the wilderness. Using the computer to check on his former colleagues, he becomes enraged at their roles in ushering in the internet era. He and Jane travel to Seattle, where he uses a homemade bomb to blow up a Microsoft facility, killing one of his former associates. He tells his daughter to run—and for the first time in her life, she is free, though utterly unsure of her next step. After some online research and decoding a ciphered letter from her father, she realizes her life has been built on lies. Her name is Esme, not Jane; their surname is Nowak, not Williams; and most importantly, her mother is alive. She sets off for San Francisco, where it all began.

    By chance, she lands a job, but soon learns that both she and her father are wanted by the FBI. Meeting her mother proves to be far less fulfilling than she had hoped. Life in society is exhilarating and joyful yet complicated and full of challenges. After turning in her father and testifying against him, she chooses a life far removed from the world of technology.  One doesn’t expect a coming-of-age story centered on the early internet to be a page-turner—but this one is, and it’s a truly fine novel.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

The Pretender, Harkin - B+

    This fascinating novel is set in the late 15th century, during the Wars of the Roses. John Collan is a happy, curious ten-year-old farm boy when two men arrive, speak to his father, and take him away. He’s told he is, in fact, Edward, Earl of Warwick — a prince of the realm hidden by his now-dead father out of fear of his uncle, the king. A tutor takes him to Oxford, renames him Lambert, and begins the long process of educating him. Soon after, Henry Tudor triumphs at Bosworth Field, and all Yorkists are suddenly at risk. Lambert is spirited away to Burgundy under the care of his aunt and renamed Edward Plantagenet. He’s tutored in royal matters, grows accustomed to fine clothes, and learns the ways of courtly life.

    After a few years, he’s sent to Ireland under the protection of the Earl of Kildare, whose household teems with lying, cheating dissemblers and knaves — led by his eldest daughter, Joan, whom Edward longs for. A year later, the Yorkists crown him Edward VI in Dublin, and their army sails for England. The Tudors prevail easily in battle, and Edward is captured. Spared because of his youth, he is sent to work as a kitchen scullion named Simnel. One of Henry’s ministers offers him a chance to become a falconer — but only if he reveals the names of Yorkists who approach him. Desperate to escape the cellars for the open air, he accepts. When he betrays his first traitor, guilt gnaws at him, but he carries on. As the years pass, Simnel grows into a handsome young man who beds endless unhappy wives — though he dreams only of Joan. His guilt fades, replaced by cynicism and a thirst for revenge. Two men, in particular, haunt him: Kildare, who sent Joan away, and Lord Lovell, who seems to lurk in every shadow of his past — Oxford, France, and Ireland alike.

    The more Simnel learns about the Yorkists, the more he realizes Lovell was behind the deaths of those he loved. He takes revenge first on Kildare, forging a letter that leads to the earl’s downfall. Around this time, the grateful king rewards Simnel with a pension and a bag of gold. But Simnel’s vengeance isn’t complete. He travels to Edinburgh, finds Lovell in hiding, and kills him with a sword to the throat. He returns to England, once again John — unsure whether he is royal or peasant, good or evil. Restless, he travels to the Continent and beyond.

   This masterfully creative novel is based on a true story. Though little is known of Lambert Simnel, he was a real young pretender — hidden by the Yorkists, captured, pardoned, and ultimately made a falconer for the king. The author’s imagination fills in the gaps of history beautifully. Critics have praised this book enthusiastically, and I fully agree — it’s a very good read.

Class Clown: Memoirs Of A Professional Wiseass, Barry

   The Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist who wrote for the Miami Herald takes a leisurely, random stroll through his life. His articles on colonoscopies, the Clarence Thomas hearings (Strom Thurmond's hair), the ’92 New Hampshire primary (a comparison of Tsongas and Dukakis), and numerous others are laugh-out-loud funny. A book like this is impossible to summarize—just go ahead and give it a read. It’s only 239 pages.

A History Of The Jews II, Johnson - B

    The story resumes in the new millennium, at which point the Jews were primarily city and town dwellers, and their population had dropped to probably one to one-and-a-half million. Their importance in both the Christian and Muslim worlds lay in their being the most literate and numerate, and thus essential to facilitating trade. That said, they continued to be subject to random acts of prejudice and violence on both sides of the religious divide. “One can see medieval Judaism as essentially a system designed to hold Jewish communities together in the face of many perils.”

    A new type of anti-Semitism, born of the Jews’ wealth and the writings of scholars who wondered why they rejected Jesus, arose and blossomed at the time of the Crusades. Jewish communities were attacked throughout Europe and again during the following centuries of heretical suppression by the Church. The 14th-century Black Death added another layer “to the anti-Semitic superstructure.” The safest place in Latin Europe for Jews was Spain, home for centuries to Europe’s largest Jewish community. Their world succumbed to the Dominican-led Inquisition, which culminated in the expulsion of the Spanish Jews in 1492. Their destruction “was the most momentous event in Jewish history since the mid-2nd century.”

    In 1515, Venice became the first community to confine its Jews to a segregated area—a ghetto. However, the Jews of Venice thrived because there was a constancy and certainty to their lives. The rise of the world economy and the growth of international trade greatly enhanced the status of Jewish bankers and traders throughout the 15th and later centuries. The states that had expelled them soon welcomed them back. Jews financed the Habsburgs in their two great 17th-century confrontations—the defeat of the Moors at Vienna and the halting of Louis XIV’s expansionist ambitions. In England, for the first time since the Roman Empire, Jews were allowed something approximating normal citizenship. They prospered in the American colonies, where there were few laws based on religion, and they came to dominate the financial infrastructure of 18th-century London.

    In the 19th century, two Jewish boys were baptized into Christian faiths. Heinrich Heine said that “baptism was the entrance ticket to European culture.” They were Benjamin Disraeli of London and Karl Marx of Trier. A quarter of a million European Jews would follow. Disraeli went on to the British Commons and eventually became prime minister. He supported the liberalization of British society, in which Jews would rise to the top of a meritocracy. Throughout the continent, one country after another granted its Jewish citizens full rights.

   Marx, however, was fiercely anti-Semitic and condemned capitalism as the religion of money. Although Disraeli opined that Jews were natural Tories, Marx’s socialism appealed to the Jews of Europe. As their numbers grew, the Jews of central and eastern Europe moved further left. When Poland was partitioned, Jews became part of the Russian Empire for the first time and were treated as unacceptable aliens. Pogroms followed in the second half of the century. The world of Russian oppression led to the Zionist movement, which sought a Jewish place in the Holy Land.

    At about the same time, France was convulsed by the Dreyfus Affair. Although Dreyfus ultimately prevailed over the trumped-up charges, anti-Semitism took firm hold in the Third Republic. As the century in which Jews made vast strides came to a close, they still remained surrounded by suspicion and disdain. Ironically, many of the Jews of Germany believed “that Germany was the ideal place for Jewish talents.”

The Persian, McCloskey - B

    This novel features two entities locked in mortal combat: the Mossad’s Caesarea section and Iran’s Quds forces. Each side is propelled by a demonic, deep-seated hatred of the enemy. For Arik Glitzman, that hatred is driven by the Iranian drone assassination of his best friend and his wife, six colleagues, and—most painfully—his five-year-old daughter. For Col. Ghobani, it stems from the Israeli killing of his father, brother, and comrades. The narrator, a Persian Jew named Kam, is recruited by Israel and later captured by the Iranians. Kam describes Israel’s brilliance at infiltrating Iran, capturing their enemies’ signal intelligence, assassinating scientists, and deceiving their people. The Iranians, in contrast, rely on brute force and cruelty. The Israelis claim the moral high ground by attempting to avoid collateral casualties—and they succeed here.

    This is the fourth novel by this former CIA operative, and I believe it’s a notch below his previous three. Nonetheless, everything he writes is well crafted, insightful, and very realistic.

The Colonel And The King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley, And The Partnership That Rocked The World, Guralnick - B

    He was born Andreas van Kuijk in Holland in 1909. After an unhappy childhood, he illegally entered America in 1926. For three years he hoboed around until he met the Parkers, who worked in a carnival. The childless couple adopted him as Thomas A. Parker. He disappeared from their world, joined the U.S. Army in 1929, and, after his discharge three years later, went back to the circus. He reveled in every minute of the carny business. Over time, he developed his skills as a promoter and publicist and dreamed of bigger things.

    In 1939, Gene Austin, owner and star of Star-O-Rama, a tent show, called on the young man he had once met to rescue his failing business. In no time, they were fast friends, and business was booming—until the IRS shut them down. Parker then went to Nashville to manage the Grand Ole Opry’s Tent Show featuring Minnie Pearl and Eddy Arnold. He became Arnold’s manager and convinced RCA to quintuple Eddy’s royalty rate from 1% to 5%. That same year Parker was appointed an honorary Louisiana Colonel. A slight falling out led Eddy to cut ties, though they remained friends, and Parker could still book appearances for him. Parker immediately started a Country & Western Caravan for RCA. Soon after, he moved on to an exclusive relationship with Hank Snow and began touring with an undercard of different performers. The youngest of the group was a beginner from Memphis—Elvis Presley.

    Parker was astounded by the fans’ reaction to Elvis. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. Within six months of meeting him, Parker arranged to be Elvis’ new agent and for RCA to buy out his recording contract with Sun Records. In 1956, Elvis’ first full year with Parker, he sold 12 million records, was watched by 82.6% of America’s television audience on The Ed Sullivan Show, and became an international movie star. He was twenty-one.

    Before Elvis entered the Army in late 1958, Parker extracted more and more money from RCA, Hollywood, and every conceivable source—all while assuring that Elvis had total control of his music. The highlight of Elvis’ first year back from Germany was two charity shows, one in Memphis and the other in Hawaii, raising funds for the Arizona Memorial. Both were his first public performances in years, and both were resounding successes. The Colonel wanted to get Elvis back on the road because live shows invigorated him—and Elvis mesmerized the crowds. But there was so much money to be made in Hollywood, and though both men knew Elvis was unchallenged and unhappy, they had contracts to fulfill.

    Elvis fell into a bit of a funk during the mid-1960s but returned to the studio. For his comeback special, he poured his heart, soul, and energy into the performance, highlighted by If I Can Dream. Elvis was clearly still the King. He was “once again caught up in the pure joy of making music.” He excelled in his first Las Vegas residency and, starting in 1970, began touring again—bringing the house down night after night. But after about three years, it was obvious he was phoning it in, and his drug dependency was taking a toll. Around the same time, Parker’s gambling addiction consumed him.

Their last triumph together came in early 1973 with Aloha From Hawaii. Shortly after, Parker sold Elvis’ catalog to RCA for $5.4 million and took a 50% cut. Their relationship deteriorated during Elvis’ last four years, as did the King’s stage performances. After Elvis’ death, the Colonel sprang into action, fending off those who tried to profit from his name and image. The Estate severed its relationship with him in the early 1980s, though he maintained a limited and mostly amicable relationship with the heirs until his death in 1997.

    Given that the author wrote the definitive two-volume biography of Elvis, I’m somewhat surprised at his relatively benign treatment of the Colonel here. This stands in vivid contrast to Baz Luhrmann’s evisceration of him in the Elvis biopic. It is universally accepted that Parker was a whiz and that he and Elvis adored each other. Still, I agree with those who believe he deliberately kept Elvis away from talented writers and producers to maintain control. That leaves me deeply upset, because in doing so, he inhibited—if not crushed—one of the greatest talents we have ever seen.  Recently, I asked my 15-year-old granddaughter if she knew who the King of Rock ’n’ Roll was. She hesitated for a moment, then said, “Of course, Papa, Elvis."

Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, A Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy, Varon - B

    She was born in Richmond in 1818 to a conventional family that both owned slaves and hoped for abolition. She was well-educated, refined, and sympathetic to the plight of the enslaved she saw all around her. She believed in the Union and was heartbroken when Virginia seceded. She considered it “madness,” and the whole secession crisis “radicalized” her. “For the next four years, Van Lew would make a series of public displays intended to divert Confederate suspicion while she prayed, hoped, and worked for the Union.”

   She convinced Confederate authorities, in the spirit of Christianity, to let her minister to ill Union prisoners. She also assisted the Confederate wounded. She stayed in touch with Richmond’s Unionists, who had begun to help Union prisoners escape, and her home became a safe house for those fugitives. She then began running a modern intelligence network on behalf of the hated Union Gen. Benjamin Butler. Her couriers—black and white, free and enslaved—risked their lives to carry messages. As Grant advanced south in 1864, Van Lew received inquiries from the Union army, sent her agents to gather information, and passed it back to the Grand Army. In late 1864, Confederate authorities investigated her activities. The idea that a “frail spinster lady” from a wealthy family could act treasonably was a leap no one was willing to make.

    Richmond fell on April 3, 1865. She was thanked by many in the victorious army, including Grant, who visited her home “because she had rendered valuable service to the Union.” The joy of Richmond’s Unionists was short-lived, however, as they saw secessionists return to local offices and new constraints imposed on the formerly enslaved. When Grant became president, he rewarded Van Lew by appointing her postmaster general in Richmond. By then her espionage activities were known, and her appointment outraged the city’s establishment. She proved successful in the role and earned the admiration of the northern suffragette movement. Her skills as an administrator secured her a second term after Grant’s reelection, but her open support for, and hiring of, Black employees enraged the white establishment. With few friends in the Hayes administration, she lost both her position and her primary source of income in 1877. A decade later she briefly served, unhappily, in a civil service job in Washington before returning to Richmond.

   Her final years were marked by isolation and humiliation as the Lost Cause myth overwhelmed her Republican ideals and belief in Reconstruction. She died in 1900. Throughout much of the 20th century, she was ridiculed as “Crazy Bet,” an aberration among her people. In recent decades, however, she has been honored by women’s and civil rights groups.  Thank you, Wendell, for the recommendation.

The Doorman, Pavone - B

   The setting of this novel is today’s Manhattan, at the fictional Bohemia, a prestigious building on Central Park West. The principal characters are Emily Whitworth of 11C-D and Chicky Diaz, the doorman. Like Bonfire four decades ago, the story satirizes the excesses of the city’s very rich. Emily is a classy woman—educated, unselfish, stunningly beautiful—yet trapped in a marriage to a first-class skunk who happens to be extremely wealthy. She concludes the only thing she can do is carry on for the sake of her two children. Chicky is a stand-up guy whose life has fallen apart after the death of his wife and the unending bills that have left him impoverished. She appreciates his loyalty, and he is thankful that she is one of the few residents who treat the staff with genuine respect. On the night the city explodes in racial tensions and violence, the building is invaded by gun-carrying professional thieves—and one of the apartments on their hit list is 11C-D. It becomes a night of terror, but in the chaos, Emily and Chicky are able to help each other survive.

A History of the Jews I, Johnson - B

    The history of the Jewish people spans the known history of mankind and begins in the caves of Hebron, about twenty miles south of Jerusalem. Genesis describes how Abraham purchased the cave and the lands around it. Its "stones are mute witnesses to constant strife and four millennia of religious and political disputes." "No race has maintained over so long a period so emotional an attachment to a particular corner of the earth's surface." And this land has been promised to them by God, who elected them the Chosen People. Moses has been deemed the founder of the first ethical monotheistic religion, from which both the Christian and Muslim religions derive. The Mosaic Code made no distinction between the secular and the religious, rendering all crimes sins and all sins crimes.

    The Israelites unified their kingdom around 1000 BC. In the 10th century BC, "David became the most successful and popular king Israel ever had." He established "a national and religious capital" in Jerusalem and passed the kingdom on to his son, Solomon, who built the First Temple. Two centuries later, most of Israel was occupied and crushed by the Assyrians. Jerusalem survived but was captured by the Babylonians in 597 BC, and the Temple was destroyed. Many of Israel’s people were forced into captivity, and Judaism entered a phase when more Jews lived in the diaspora than in the Promised Land. The Babylonian Exile was brief, and the returnees built the Second Temple. Alexander’s Greeks occupied Judea but were ultimately expelled. A century of expansion followed, but the looming Roman Empire soon appeared, and in 63 BC, Israel became a Roman client state.

     For the thirty years prior to the Christian era, the state was ruled by Herod the Great, a ruthless, aggressive Jew who expanded the state and greatly enhanced the Temple. It is believed that as many as two and a half million of the world’s eight million Jews lived in Palestine during his reign. "The death of Herod the Great ended the last phase of stable Jewish rule in Palestine until the mid-twentieth century." The ensuing Roman oppression led to uprisings in 66 AD and 135 AD. This era coincided with the spread of the new religion of Jesus Christ, which rejected the strictures of the Mosaic Code and focused on salvation through belief and grace. Rome’s unhappiness was fueled by the Jews’ rebelliousness and their unwillingness to treat with people of other religions or adhere to Roman ways.

    "The Great Revolt of 66 AD and the siege of Jerusalem constitute one of the most important and horrifying events in Jewish history." The protracted war led to the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, when it fell to the Romans, who destroyed the Temple and most of the city. Seven decades later, the Jews again rebelled and were once again crushed. "The two catastrophes effectively ended Jewish state history in antiquity." It also ended the cooperative relationship between Judaism and Christianity, which had shared much but ultimately broke over Christ’s divinity. The Jewish population was decimated, but they survived because their leaders were able to make the Torah into "a system of moral theology and a community of extraordinary coherence." Judaism was no longer centrally focused but more localized in synagogues and led by rabbis. The religious themes remained the same as they spread throughout the Middle East and into central Europe. External peace and internal harmony "were essential for a vulnerable people without the protection of a state." The faith, as embodied in the Torah, was immutable and not subject to the countless schisms, heresies, and philosophical controversies that roiled Christianity. As for Palestine, it was Roman, then Christian, and in 636 AD conquered by the forces of Islam. Mohammed sought to destroy polytheistic paganism by "giving the Arabs Jewish ethical monotheism in a language they could understand." Jewish life in the Christian world was somewhat tenuous but safer in the Islamic theocracy.

    This is a topic of great importance and interest, but a very challenging read—one whose complexities require me to attend to it piecemeal. One of the most difficult aspects is that I am looking for the history in the secular sense and have little interest in the religious aspects. More to follow in the future.

Old City Hall, Rotenberg - B+

     This was the first book in the excellent series featuring Detectives Ari Greene and Daniel Kennicott of the Toronto PD. Kennicott, a former lawyer, was working as a beat cop when he was called out to a homicide to assist the seasoned detective. The best-known radio personality in Canada contacts the authorities and admits to killing his second, younger wife. It all looks very cut and dried. The police gather evidence, the Crown prepares its case, and the defendant refuses to speak to his lawyer. The Crown wants the well-known defendant’s head on a plate, but it may not be that easy. First-degree murder requires intent, and no one can find a motive. The deceased apparently had a major drinking problem and was secretly planning a radio career of her own. Kennicott figures out that there was someone else in the apartment on the day of the murder, and Greene comes to an audacious conclusion about the family in the only other apartment on the penthouse floor. This book also serves as a great introduction to the city of Toronto—its history, legal system, and extraordinarily diverse citizenry.

Zbig: The Life Of Zbigniev Brezinski, America's Great Power Prophet, Luce - A*

     He was a seventeen year old living in Montreal when World War II ended in Europe. He understood that Stalin and the Red Army let the Germans destroy Warsaw as they waited across the Vistula. He wrote "It was not a liberation, but simply a change in the form of terror," and spent the rest of his life "trying to hold the USSR to account." This is an excellent book about a fascinating man who was 100% correct about the paramount issue of his time - if the west pressured the Soviets, they will collapse.

  He was born in Warsaw in 1928, and grew up in a sophisticated, cosmopolitan world that was " the epitome of metropolitan glamour." It was also fiercely nationalistic and anti-Russian. His father, Tadeusz, was a diplomat who took a demotion and an assignment in Canada. That decision saved his life and the life of his family. Zbig was an outstanding student who was at the top of every class, as he absorbed languages and read everything that passed through the consulate.  "It is hard to believe there were many people in North America - let alone adolescents -better briefed on the war than Zbigniew." He attended McGill University, studied Russian and received bachelor's and master's degrees. His MA thesis pointed out that the fundamental Achille's heel of the Soviet Union was the fifteen non-Russian republics who opposed Moscow's subjugation. He attended Harvard in 1950 and received his doctorate two years later. In 1955, he married Muska Benes, a member of the prominent Czech family. He consulted with Senator Kennedy on a speech on Soviet policy, and became an American citizen in 1958. In 1960, he joined the faculty at Columbia, and published his most famous book, 'The Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict.' He obtained a grant from the Ford Foundation and created the Research Institute on Communist Affairs. He wanted to become a player in the upper echelons of the foreign policy world. Both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson consulted with him and he spent a short time in LBJ's State Department. He returned to Columbia, and worked with the Humphrey campaign.  Kissinger's appointment as Nixon's National Security Advisor opened his eyes to the idea that a European with a hard to pronounce name and an accent could rise to the heights.

    Zbig engaged continuously with his friend/rival, Henry Kissinger during the Nixon years. He began working with, and educating, Gov. Jimmy Carter, a foreign policy neophyte. The two hit it off and Carter announced that Zbig was his foreign policy advisor. During the 1976 campaign, both Reagan and Carter attacked Kissinger from different angles. Kissinger told his aides that "Brezinski's snide words " were being flung at him with a "smiling Georgia accent." Zbig was Carter's briefer for the foreign policy debate that stopped Ford's momentum. Over the objections of many about Zbig's "Polish bias," Carter appointed him as his National Security Advisor.

    Zbig and Vance fell out immediately over Zbig's Soviet hardline and indifference to SALT II. Both Carter and Zbig spoke out about human rights, which State felt was anathema to the Soviets. However, both advisors and the new president hoped to find a road to peace in the Middle East. America plans were dashed by the hardline approach of Israeli PM Menachem Begin. The press emphasized the differences between Zbig and Vance, but Carter's policy vacillations and inconsistencies were more likely due to the inner conflict between Carter "the Sunday School preacher" and Carter "the nuclear submariner." After the president prevailed with the Senate's approval of the Panama Canal Treaty, he sent Zbig to China to normalize relations. This outraged the American right and the Soviets. Carter then undertook the biggest gamble of his presidency. He brought Sadat and Begin to Camp David for two weeks of cloistered negotiations. The Camp David Accords were applauded around the world with Carter, Sadat, and Begin  hailed as peacemakers.

    Meanwhile, the regime of Shah Reza Pahlavi was imploding and no one in Washington understood why. As Iran was the arms industry's number one foreign customer and a darling of Wall Street, the US backed the regime to the hilt. The Shah left Iran in January of 1979. Many in the establishment pushed Carter to allow him to enter America for medical treatment. He finally agreed, but asked "What are you guys going to advise me if they overrun our embassy and take our people hostage?" After the Shah entered the US, Iranians occupied the embassy and took sixty-six hostages. The unfolding debacle in Iran was followed by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the following month. In the spring of 1980, an attempt to rescue the hostages failed, and Carter's response to the Soviets -  the boycotting of the Olympics was widely derided. Carter garnered the nomination over Sen. Kennedy, but the two failed to reconcile and once again, the Democratic Party was split. Carter's last hope for reelection in the fall came when Khomeni offered a deal to release the hostages.  The negotiations were never concluded, and many believed that the Reagan campaign offered Iran a more generous package of aid for their war with Iraq. After the loss, Carter and Zbig achieved a triumph, but one not recognized or acclaimed. Zbig was receiving raw intelligence from the CIA and understood that a repeat of 1956 and 1968 was at hand. Carter sent a stern warning to Moscow about invading Poland, the Pope and other western leaders did so as well, and the Soviets backed down. Zbig was fifty-two when he left Washington.

    He continued to live in McLean, Virginia, taught two days a week at Columbia, wrote his memoirs, consulted with Reagan, and had a close relationship with Pres. Bush.  He anticipated the coming demise of the USSR when he wrote, "Both glasnost and perestroika were bringing the national genie back to life." He was universally hailed for foreseeing the end when the Wall came down. He switched from Columbia to Johns Hopkins and Georgetown. He predicted that an unstable Ukraine would lead to "Russian revanchism," and the failure of economic reforms would lead to the end of Russia's brief experiment with democracy. He was instrumental in Poland's admittance to NATO. He opposed Bush's affection for Putin, the war in Iraq, and feared an anti-hegemonic coalition of China, Russia, and Iran. In his mid-80's, he began to fade and died on May 26, 2017.

   This is one of the most thought provoking books I've read in ages. That said, there is no fondness in any quarter for the Carter years, and although Zbig was adored by those who knew him well, his edgy, cutting and dismissive personality endeared him to few. Overseas, he was held in higher regard than at home. The Soviets were convinced he was the architect of their fall, and that he was the man behind the election of a Polish pope.  I am struck by his vision and agree with the subtitle's characterization of him as a prophet. I'll enumerate what I believe were some of his extraordinarily prescient observations:

1. He totally dismissed those in the 1950's who thought the Soviet economy would equal the US's.

2. Thirty years later, he made the same observation about Japan.

3.  When the USSR invaded Afghanistan, he predicted it would be their Vietnam.

4. During the interim between the Shah's abdication and Khomeni's return, some believed there would be a moderate government. Citing France and Russia, he said revolutions never go halfway.

5. Many in America believed that China would collapse after Mao. He assured them that Deng's reforms would work.

6. He understood that the USSR was the Russian Empire redux and that Gorbachev's policies would fail.

7. He believed that democracy would fail in Russia, and that Ukraine's attempt to become allied with west would lead Putin to Stalinism.

8.  Lastly, he thought that the US should worry about Eurasia coming under the sway of  China, Russia, and Iran.

Smiley's People, LeCarre- B +

    Three years after the events in Tinker, George is once again summoned to the Circus. Vladimir, a former Soviet general, Estonian, and one of George’s agents, is murdered in London. George is told that Vladimir asked for him, insisted on “Moscow Rules,” and claimed to have important information on the Sandman. George is asked to sweep things up. A few days later, an old émigré, Ostrakova—whose situation had piqued Vladimir’s interest—is attacked in Paris. She had been contacted by Russians with an offer to obtain a visa for the daughter she left behind in Moscow two decades earlier. After seeing the photo for the visa, she realized the offer was fraudulent and contacted the general.

    George walks through the murder site and finds a cigarette packet with film that Vladimir had disposed of just before he was shot. He speaks with two of Vladimir’s cronies, Toby Esterhase, the former leader of the Lamplighters, and Connie Sachs, the Circus’s keeper of old memories. He concludes that Vladimir had discovered Karla had created a legend to help someone escape to the West. There had even been rumors that Karla had an illegitimate daughter with mental health issues.

    Acting entirely on his own, George flies to Germany to contact another of Vladimir’s men, only to find him murdered. He then goes to Paris and convinces Ostrakova that she is in grave danger and should hide in a safe place far from the city. Back in London, he meets with Saul Enderby, the new C. Saul backs his plan to rein in Karla with funding but tells George he cannot officially sponsor the effort.  George travels to Switzerland and persuades Grigoriev—the man Karla tasked with delivering weekly cash payments to the institution where his daughter is treated—to defect and provide evidence to bring Karla down. Grigoriev sends a long, handwritten letter by George to Karla in Moscow. In it, George instructs the man he has battled for three decades—the man who ruined his career and marriage—to cross from East to West Berlin at 11 p.m. on a specified night.

    At the appointed hour, George watches Karla slowly cross the bridge and realizes he doesn’t even know the man’s real name. Peter Guillam says quietly, “George, you won.” In classic understated style, Smiley replies, “Did I? Yes. Yes, well, I suppose I did."

The Next One Is For You: The True Story of Guns, Country, and the IRA's Secret American Army, Watkins - B, Inc.

      Centuries of sectarian tension in Northern Ireland erupted into war in 1969. Northern Ireland's Irish Catholic residents had been marginalized, ostracized, and strategically oppressed by the mostly Protestant Unionist powers that controlled the region for the British Crown. The outnumbered minority eventually fought the British to a standstill thanks to an increase in new recruits and, most importantly, an influx of high-powered guns. The West Belfast ghetto was filled with American ArmaLite rifles.

     Vince Conlon, legendary IRA gunman living peacefully in Philadelphia, rose to the top of the American organization that aided Ireland, the Clan-na-Gael. In 1969, after Catholic riots in Derry, the government asked for help and London sent in the Royal Army. The first shots and fatalities of the Troubles were in Belfast and led to the creation of a new aggressive wing of the IRA, the Provisionals (Provos). The institutional IRA and the Provos split, and David O'Connell became chief of staff of the Provos. One of the first things he did was head to America to visit his old comrade in arms, Vince Conlon. Philadelphia had a long history of providing the IRA with weapons. Vast amounts of money were raised by NORAID, under the guise of helping the downtrodden, and a portion was siphoned off for the real need—guns. “It was a fragile arrangement, having a public-facing organization as the front for a decidedly illegal transcontinental gun-smuggling operation.” ArmaLites began to trickle into West Belfast. In 1971, both sides began accumulating casualties. “The IRA was earning a reputation as one of the most violent guerilla outfits of the twentieth century.”

      The British response to the escalation was to jail Catholics without trial, which drove a new generation of volunteers into the IRA. The fighting crippled the city’s ability to deliver services. The IRA was winning the public opinion war because of the army’s ruthless approach to civilians as well as fighters. In January 1972, the RAF massacred thirteen protestors in Derry on the day that became known as Bloody Sunday.

      The Troubles continued until 1998 and, along the way, reached unimaginable depths of vitriol and violence. In 1979, the IRA assassinated Lord Louis Mountbatten and two of his teenage grandsons. Twenty-seven-year-old Irishman Bobby Sands starved himself to death in Maze Prison in 1981. I’m not sure why I am not going to finish this book. I’m interested in the topic, find the Philadelphia connection fascinating, and the author is an accomplished journalist. I suspect it’s the grinding detail of a very good story, but one perhaps not justifying a full-length book.

A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens - A*

                   "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." It was the fall of 1775. Mr. Jarvis Lorry of Tellson's Bank advises young Lucie Manette that he is off to Paris to see one of the firm's clients—her father, long assumed dead for eighteen years. Lucie and Lorry arrive at the Defarge wine shop in Paris, where Ernest escorts them to a garret on the fifth floor. There, they find an old man making shoes. Monsieur Manette has just been released from the Bastille. Within an hour, the three are in a carriage headed for London. Five years later, the same trio sits in court, watching the treason trial of Charles Darnay, accused of helping the French aid the Americans in their war with Britain. Upon his acquittal—due to mistaken identity—Lucie rushes to him. With the trial behind them, the doctor’s and Lucie’s lives return to normal.

                       In Paris, Monsieur the Marquis St. Evremonde’s carriage charges through the streets, scattering the poor before crushing a young boy in front of Defarge’s shop. The Marquis disdainfully tosses a few coins to the grieving father, then is stunned when they come flying back at him. Madame Defarge stares coldly at the aristocrat as he drives away. Unbeknownst to him, a man from the crowd clings to the underside of his carriage. Later that evening, the Marquis’s nephew, Charles Darnay, joins him for dinner. He pleads with his uncle to abandon his cruel ways, noting how the family name is now despised. The Marquis replies, “Detestation of the high is the involuntary homage of the low.” Charles renounces the title, the property, and France. At sunrise, the Marquis is found dead, a knife in his chest with a note: “Drive him fast to his tomb, Jacques.” The assassin is quickly captured and executed.

                      Darnay settles into life as a French tutor in London and asks Manette for Lucie’s hand in marriage. The young couple is soon wed with Dr. Manette’s joyful blessing. The years pass. They are blessed with a daughter, but lose a son.

                     The summer of 1789 brings revolution to Paris. Among those storming the Bastille is Manette’s former servant, Defarge. Leading the women in acts of ferocity is Madame Defarge. Vengeance floods the streets, and the nation burns in agony for years. Over time, many aristocrats lose their homes and fortunes, fleeing to London. At Tellson’s, a packet arrives addressed to the Marquis St. Evremonde. Lorry makes inquiries, but no one claims the name. Darnay admits his identity and reads the letter at home. It is from Gabelle, the man entrusted with his estate. Darnay had instructed him to collect no rents and to aid the peasants when possible, but Gabelle has been imprisoned for helping an emigrant aristocrat. Darnay resolves to go to Paris.

                 On his return to France, Darnay learns that, as an emigrant and aristocrat, he has been condemned to death. He is taken to La Force prison and placed in solitary confinement. Manette and Lucie rush to Paris. As a former prisoner of the Bastille, Manette is hailed as a revolutionary hero. With Defarge’s help, he is allowed to write to Darnay. Manette soon gains favor with the Tribunal and secures Charles’s transfer to the general prison population. For fifteen months, Lucie and her daughter wait while Manette insists he can save Charles. Finally, he receives word: Darnay will be tried the next day at the Conciergerie. At the trial, two witnesses—Citizen Gabelle and Dr. Manette himself—sway the jury. Charles is declared free.

                  That night, however, he is re-arrested on the accusation of Madame Defarge. Before the Tribunal, Ernest Defarge testifies. He reveals that, on the day the Bastille fell, he entered Manette’s old cell and discovered a letter hidden behind a stone in the wall. Written around 1767, the letter recounts the Evremonde family’s crimes of rape, murder, and oppression in Beauvais. For these sins, the court condemns Charles Darnay to death.

                  As his execution nears, Sydney Carton enters Darnay’s cell. He has bribed the jailers and devised a daring plan. Carton, a dissolute lawyer who once helped free Darnay from the treason charge in 1775, has long loved Lucie in silence. Though wasted by drink and regret, he admires all the Manettes stand for. Because of his striking resemblance to Darnay, he offers to exchange places. By the time Carton approaches La Guillotine, the family is already safe. “It is a far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far better rest that I go to than any I have ever known.”

              

The Jackal's Mistress, Bohjalian - B+

                   This novel is set in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864. Libby, whose husband was wounded at Gettysburg and is believed to be in a Yankee prison camp, and her Black freedman, Joseph, are running the family's gristmill. At a neighbor's house, they realize someone is inside and discover Jonathan, a badly wounded Union officer left behind because he was so close to death's door. They take him to Libby's home. Libby decides to treat Jonathan the way she hopes someone in the North would have helped her husband. She and Joseph travel to Harper's Ferry to obtain medicine for Jonathan and, on the way, encounter two Rebel deserters who threatened them. Libby shoots both dead. As Jonathan recovers, he has to deal with the local doctor, who has lost two sons to the war and Jubilee, Libby's 12-year old niece, who taunts the Yankee and calls him 'Captain Jackal.' The real problem is that there's a rumor around that the Yankee's left an officer behind, and the local soldiers suspect Libby is harboring a northerner. A few inspections don't turn up Jonathan, but sooner or later they will. When half-a-dozen locals come one night, they are ready for action and kill the attackers - but they lose Joseph's wife, Sally. At dawn, Josep, Jubilee, Jonathan and Libby head north and easily reach Harper's Ferry. All ends well for the four of them.  This is a great read, and highly recommended.

The Decine And Fall of the Human Empire: Why Our Species Is on the Edge of Extinction, Gee - B

                   "Humanity will perish. The reason is because of its very success. Humanity has become so preeminent, so dominant, that it threatens the functioning of the ecosystem on which it and all other creatures depend. No other species in the history of  creation has ever posed such a threat." 

                    We are all descended from a population that at one point almost a millennium ago was reduced to no more than 1280 individuals, leaving us with limited genetic diversity, thus weakening us.  We suffer from a litany of illnesses occasioned by our domestication of animals and our reliance on a handful of foods. We are headed to extinction because of climate change that will make vast portions of the planet unlivable.  The 'Karenina Principle' says we will meet our doom in our own way.  

                     "Africa played host to many different species even as our own - Homo Sapiens - was emerging there, more than 300,000 years ago." Our knowledge of our ancestors comes from the physical evidence of their fossils, but the depth of our understanding comes from our modern ability to study their DNA. By analyzing mitochondrial DNA, we know that each and every one of us descended from one African woman who lived 200,000 years ago. As the human population grew, it slowly left Africa, traveled east all the way to Indonesia, and eventually by boat to Australia. Sapiens went north encroaching on the Neanderthals and by 40-50,000 years ago, eliminated them while absorbing some of their genes. We were the only hominin species left standing, and demographers believe that when a species succeeds in eliminating its competition, the only way left is down.

                   Approximately 10,000 years ago, mankind in the Fertile Crescent, and soon around the world, turned to farming, likely because their population growth mitigated against continuing to rely solely on hunting and gathering.  Some of the consequences of humanity turning to farming was a decrease in body size and the rise of malnutrition, tooth decay, bone deformation and infectious diseases. Diseases such as tuberculosis, plague, and influenza spread from animals to people, and then spread between people in close proximity to each other. Of course, the increase in the food supply led to increases in the population.  That said, we remain "remarkably pox ridden, worm-eaten, and lousy." 

                  Now, "for the first time in human history the human  population is on a pronounced downward trend." The species is not replacing itself, and by 2100 there will be 5 times as many octogenarians as today, and only half as many children under 5.  The future will be dominated by climate change featuring rising sea levels, and a hotter and more humid world. Major coastal cities wiil flood and millions will leave Africa for Eurasia. Humanity will likely disappear no longer than 10,000 years from now.

                   The only optimism that the author can offer is that we need to colonize space. As far-fetched as that conclusion is, the first three-fourths of this book are great.

                 

                 

Out Of Italy: Two Centuries of World Domination and Demise, Braudel - B+

               Throughout the history of Italy, there have been times of extraordinary greatness, and the years between the mid-fifteenth to the mid-seventeenth centuries qualify as one of those times. It was "an age of vigorous expansion, an age of active exploitation of the Mediterranean, by shipping, by regular traffic, by a form of capitalism, with strings of solidly attached trading posts." They established a trading supremacy over Byzantium, Islam and western Europe. There also "was one of the most dazzling sequences of displays of intelligence since the the world began."

              In 1450, Italy's city-states dominated the peninsula. The Venetians and Genoese controlled trade with Constantinople from 1204 until its fall in 1453, and continued to do so after the Muslim conquest. They traded up and down the Atlantic coast connecting those markets with those from the east. Milan and Florence joined Venice and Genoa as the paramount city-states.  They were able to keep the coalescing nation states of England, France, and Spain at arms length. The second half of the century was a time of peace throughout Italy, and Florence took the lead in the flourishing world of the arts. The poorer but burgeoning nations of Europe attacked the wealth of Italy beginning in 1494 and war would dominate the peninsula until 1559. The wars were spread out over time and place, and did not materially disturb Italy's prosperity.  Returning soldiers and traveling artisans brought the Renaissance north.  

           Peace returned to Italy in 1559 and remained for a century while the rest of the continent tore itself apart over religion. "Italy derived  substantial advantages from its religious unity and  fidelity to Rome." As the European powers developed their Atlantic navies, their ships slowly replaced the galleys from the Italian cities that had previously dominated the Mediterranean. "A prosperous Mediterranean meant a prosperous Italy." As the century ended,  Genoa reaped a fortune as the banker to Spain and its Latin American empire. "Prosperity and unquestionable wealth was the noticeable feature in Italy, as the sixteenth century turned into the seventeenth." The word 'Baroque' has been used by historians to denote the spread of Italy's influence in the seventeenth century and beyond 1650. Rome now became the center of  the widespread distribution of cultural goods. "All artists went to Rome." The paintings of the era turned from religious and mythological to realistic scenes of life in Europe. 

           By leading the Counter-Reformation, Rome took steps that imposed a heavy hand on the peninsula. The Inquisition, book burnings, and prosecuting men like Galileo all led to the end of a period of glory.  "What was now missing from the newly intolerant Italy was not only science, but economic preponderance." Economic supremacy was lost as trade moved north to Amsterdam, the economic focal point of the Protestant north. Italy was no longer competitive. "What happened in Italy is that a long, catastrophic industrial crisis followed on the heels of a long, catastrophic shipping crisis."

          Braudel is considered one of the greats of the 20th century, and is very enlightening to read. The depth of his knowledge and the breadth of his analysis can be a bit of a challenge.

The Poet's Game, Vidich - B+

                     This is the seventh novel by the former CIA agent, and it is set in 2018. Alex Matthews has retired from the agency, but is asked by the director to meet with an agent Matthews had recruited, but who hasn't been heard from in a decade. Now an international venture capitalist who frequently travels to Moscow, Matthews asks 'why' and is told his former agent, Byron, has 'kompromat' on the president. When he meets Byron, he is told that the quid for the kompromat quo is somehow getting Byron out of Russia. The same day, the FSB tells Matthew that if he gives up Byron, they'll pull the phony tax charge against his business.  Matthews flies home and Moscow issues an arrest warrant for him as he liquidates his Russian assets. He returns to Moscow under an assumed name with the false papers necessary to extract Byron. In a dazzling finish with twists, turns, and deceptions, Matthews eventually returns home. 

Paperboy, Petroski- B

                    The author was a well-known engineering professor at Duke, and also a former resident of Cambria Heights in southeastern Queens. His family moved there two years before mine did, both Catholic and from the same section of Brooklyn. After the 7th grade at PS 147 (because Sacred Heart was too crowded), he switched to SHS in the 8th grade. That summer of 1955 saw Henry begin his career as a paperboy for the Long Island Press. He learned how to fold the paper, and backhand it onto the waiting stoop. After Sacred Heart, Holy Cross High School was next, and although the three-bus commute lengthened his day, he continued his afternoon Press route. The pay was excellent, approximately $15 per week for about eight hours of work. The life lessons were incomparable. After his bike, along with most of his teeth, was banged up in a crash, Henry did what every American boy dreamed of. He bought a Schwinn Black Phantom. Eventually though, even that bike wore out and in his junior year at the Cross, he quit his paper route. With post-Sputnik America focused on science, Henry turned to engineering and furthered his education at Manhattan College. He then attended graduate school at the University of Illinois. His parents left Queens in 1974.

                 I lived in Cambria for fourteen years, from the 3rd grade until college graduation. It was a special place at a special time and to read an elegy to my hometown has been an absolute joy. A very sincere thanks to my lifelong friend, Dr. George Todd, for telling me about this book.

Ruth Run, Kaufman - B

                 Ruth is a young, brilliant woman in the tech world and an accomplished thief, with $250M hidden around the world. One night, somewhere in her extensive computer system, an alarm goes off, she abandons her apartment and follows her 'go' plan. She grabs her somewhat nitwit of a co-conspirator, Thom, and heads north from Menlo Park. They agree to go their separate ways in Sacramento. Unbeknownst to her, the man following her, Mike, met her years ago, was astounded by her criminal skills, and has been surveilling her for seven years for some unnamed government agency.  With the government on her heels, she slips into the world of cross-country truckers, religious fanatics and hard core libertarians. The chase is a full on page turner extraordinaire, but, as is so often the case with debut novels, the finale is a bit flat.

The Fatherland Files, Kutscher - B+

                  The fourth novel in the 'Babylon Berlin' series is an absolutely great police procedural and the best so far. It opens in the summer of 1932. Gereon is called to a nighttime murder in a downtown department store on the day he meets Charly upon her return from her legal studies in Paris.  She deftly defers an answer to his somewhat awkward marriage proposal, but only for a few days before she says yes. Charly reports to the Alex as a CID Cadet.  Chief Inspector Gennat sends her to Homicide on a temporary assignment to assist on the case Rath is working on, and when Gereon suggests they need someone to go undercover at the department store, Gennat recommends Charly.  It turns out that the deceased in Gereon's case was killed in a manner similar to two others, and all three were involved in a moonshine scandal in East Prussia years ago.  Gereon is sent east to investigate and suspects that he has found the connection, but can't quite sort it out. One conclusion though is obvious: that the local police are as corrupt as the day is long.  The key to the plot is found when the Berlin police realize that a witness to the murder in the department store was more that a bystander. Once again, the author blends a great story with a fascinating depiction of Prussia at a crucial time in its history, a time which saw the Nazi's step closer to power.

Stranglehold, Rotenberg - B+

          On a Monday morning when Ari Greene, senior detective in Toronto, shows up at a chintzy motel for his weekly assignation with the married Crown Prosecutor, he finds her strangled. Before he can consider his next step, he hears sirens in the distance and steps away. When the investigating detective, Daniel Kennicott, Ari's protege, tells him about the case, he decides to keep quiet, and concludes he needs to solve the case on his own. As clues start to come in, Kennicott begins to think that perhaps the mystery man seen at the motel that morning was Greene, and arrests him for murder. The trial begins, and the prosecution lays out its circumstantial evidence case. The defense counters, and slowly spreads doubt about the timeline. The court is adjourned for the weekend when the truth is spectacularly splashed all over Toronto's television news and papers on. Thrilled to find a series with a decade-and-a-half of stories to tell.

The Art Thief: The True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession , Finkel - B

             Stephane Breitwieser, "perhaps the most successful and prolific art thief who has ever lived" stole not for gain, but to "surround himself with beauty."  He was an unemployed freeloader who lived on the top two floors of his mother's house with his partner, Anne-Catherine. Those two floors were filled with a vast, magnificent $2B art collection. He was born in Alsace in 1971. The couple met in 1991, and immediately committed to each other. Three years later, he snatched a walnut pistol from a small museum, and thus began a career of consistent brazen thievery. He targeted small regional institutions, mostly in France and Switzerland, because their security was very light. One of the museums the couple stole from had a hidden security camera, and a Swiss art crimes inspector was soon on their trail. In France, a theft in Blois also attracted the attention of the authorities. They were arrested in Lucerne in May, 1997, but talked their way out of incarceration. His compulsion to constantly steal continues unabated, and he was arrested once again in Lucerne in late 2001. This time, the Swiss kept him in custody and obtained a search warrant for his house. When the authorities investigated his home, they found no art of any kind. His mother had  dumped the hard goods in a canal and burned the paintings. In Switzerland,  Breitweiser breaks down and confessed, and after a trial he was sentenced to four years in jail. He was tried in France in 2005. He was sentenced to two years, his mother a few months and Anne-Catherine was required to pay a small fine. Between the two countries, he served three years and seven and a half months.  Stephane picked up a handy $100,000 for collaborating on his story and seemed to be headed in the right direction when he was arrested for shoplifting at an airport. After a brief detention, he stole a Brueghel in Belgium and went to jail until 2015.  He eventually returned to thievery, this time for profit, and is currently under house arrest wearing an ankle bracelet.          

The Last Days Of Budapest: The Destruction Of Europe's Most Cosmopolitan City In World War II, Lebor - B+

            The end of the Great War saw the collapse of the empire, and a brief communist interregnum, followed by strongman Admiral Horthy assuming control in 1919.  Horthy's rule was nationalistic, conservative, but quasi-democratic, and totally focused, as was the entire country, on reversing the Treaty of Trianon, which had taken away two-thirds of the country's land mass and half of its population.  Almost every decision the Horthy government made was to recover its lost lands. In the late 1930's, Hungary implemented a Nazi-like series of proscriptions against its Jews. The country remained neutral when war broke out in 1939. Hungary cooperated with, and in late 1940 joined, the Axis Tripartite Pact, although it did not enter the war. Hungary did, however, assist the Germans in their invasion of Yugoslavia. And when requested to join Barbarossa, Hungary declared war on the USSR.

             The war did not go well for Hungary. Losses on the eastern front were heavy, and within a year, the Soviets were bombing Budapest. Hungary was a fully-subjugated junior partner to the Germans, but independent enough to resist Berlin's call for yellow stars and deportation, and its Jews still lived and worshipped in freedom.  Hungarians believed that the Allies would win, life would return to normal, and in the meantime, the Jews would continue to live as they had. Hungary began to explore the possibility of switching sides, but there was little appetite for the Allies to engage in Hungary.

           On March 19, 1944, Germany invaded Hungary. Liquidating the largest intact Jewish community in Europe was a very high priority, and Adolf Eichmann's finely tuned machine went into action. "Aided by his Hungarian henchmen, Eichmann knew exactly what to do and how to do it. The Jewish Council's role was to help maintain order and calm amongst its fearful co-religionists - which it did with a tragic degree of success." On April 5, the yellow stars were mandated. The deportations began in the countryside. The Nazis were soon sending 10,000 to 20,000 per day to Auschwitz. In July, Horthy removed Budapest's gendarmes from the city and crippled Eichmann's ability to continue the deportations. The Soviets were getting closer at summer's end and hope for the city's Jews to survive was high as Rosh Hoshanah was celebrated in the Great Synagogue. Knowing full well Horthy's desire to switch sides, the Germans took over the city with the help of the perfidious, right-wing Arrow Cross militia.  Admiral Horthy, Regent of Hungary, resigned on Oct. 15 and was sent to Bavaria.  He survived the war and lived out his years in Portugal. Eichmann returned and the terror resumed, this time led by the Arrow Cross. They became famous for murdering Jews on the banks of the Danube and letting their bodies fall into the river. Thousands were sent on a death march to Austria. Trains heading to concentration camps were running throughout the fall right up to year's end, notwithstanding the efforts of Spanish, Swiss and Swedish diplomats to stop them. On Dec. 26, the Soviets surrounded the city. Hitler declared it a fortress city to be defended to the last man. On Jan. 17, the Soviets liberated Pest. Buda fell a month later. The city was almost completely destroyed.

        Every year on April 16, the country honors the Jews who died in the Holocaust.  It has never come to terms with the indifference or avid particiption in those horrors by its Christian majority. Horthy is both condemned for allying with Germany, but commended for halting the deportations in the summer of 1944. Approximately 550,000 or 65% of Hungary's Jews were murdered.

                                      

An Inside Job, Silva - B+

       Gabriel Allon is enjoying retirement, living in Venice with Chiara and the children, and working on a Titian restoration. He notices something in the lagoon one afternoon, asks the police to investigate and sure enough, it's a floater. The deceased appears to be a young woman. An inquiry indicates that she was working in the Vatican's art department, and she believed she had found a DaVinci behind the relatively mundane piece she was restoring.  Someone else thinks the painting is a DaVinci because not only is the young woman dead, her apartment has been ransacked, and the painting stolen from the Vatican storage rooms. The Camorra, a Neopolitan gang, is behind the theft and murder. Gabriel tracks the painting to a vault in a sketchy Geneva bank. Knowing that there will be a private sale, Gabriel hatches a plan that involves him painting an exact copy that he will substitute for the original, and having a hacker friend reroute the money paid for the painting. With the assistance of French authorities, the substitution of Gabriel's copy for the original takes place, and with the help of the UK authorities, the ill-gotten monies are sent to Kyiv to help against the Russians.  Gabriel goes on to help the Vatican understand how their bankers were cheating them and how a cardinal had stolen the painting, He helps the Italian Police  arrest a vast proportion of the Camorra, send the disgraced cardinal off to an abbey, and place a Swiss Bank under government supervision. And to top it all off, he dominates the negotiation about the terms of the restoration of the DaVinci.  A few months later, the art world and the entire world cheer Gabriel's work on the newly found DaVinci.

    Another great one by a very talented man. As Daniel Silva is in his mid-sixties, one would conclude there'll be a few more Allon's.  Thus, I need to stop trying to figure out just how old Gabriel is.

Blue Horse, Borgos - B+

             Sheriff Porter Beck is preparing to move on to the State Police when a murder is committed in Lincoln County. The victim is a helicopter pilot under contract to the BLM, which uses copters as a means to conduct 'gatherings' of wild horses.  The next morning, Beck is faced with two more equally dramatic murders of folks involved in the gatherings. The immediate assumption is that those opposed to rounding up wild horses are behind the murders. But Beck feels otherwise. He concludes that the two people who the FBI have their sights on are not guilty, and begins to look elsewhere. He suspects it's the folks behind a very secretive lithium mine in the county. In another excellent tale, he is proven right and manages to take down the bad guys. For me, part of the attraction here is the exploraation of a place I know nothing about.  The wilds of Nevada, not unlike Duluth in the Jonathan Stride series and Maine in the Mike Bowditch series, intrigue.

Head Cases, McMahon - B

                      Gardner Camden is likely somewhere on the spectrum and is head of the Jacksonville based Patterns and Recognition unit of the FBI. There are only four agents in the unit and seldom are they ever in the field. The director calls them in as three serial killers have been killed by a new serial killer. As they investigate, Gardner concludes that the killer is a policeman, possibly FBI, and maybe even the new Quantico graduate just placed in his unit. The killer, whom they label Mad Dog, is not in the FBI, but has been able to hack into the FBI's systems. Through a tremendous effort, remarkable insight, and the resources of the agency, Gardner solves the case. This is the first of two novels and I will read the next one, but there were some slow, predictable moments in this one.

Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York And Shaped America, Shorto - B

              "The episode of our early history that gave New York its name helped set not only the city's but the country's destiny."  This is story of how New Amsterdam became New York. The English and the Dutch were rivals, but at peace, in 1664 when Richard Nicolls led a fleet to New Amsterdam. The English had realized that the harbor, and its access to the interior, was the key to the continent and they did not wish to leave it in Dutch hands. The city was a global trading outpost of 1,500 diverse souls under Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant. On August 28, four English ships anchored in Gravesend Bay at the tip of what is now Brooklyn. Nicolls was joined by John Winthrop, Jr. the governor of Connecticut. 

            A committee was sent by Stuyvesant to Nicolls to ask his intentions, and the English response was that the king wished their surrender. Neither side desired violence. The Dutch had neither the men nor the arms to resist. The English did not wish to damage the valuable trading businesses of the city. Stuyvesant pointed out that the English had no more claim than the Dutch, and that the Dutch had purchased the land from the native inhabitants. Nicolls told the Dutch he would attack in 24 hours. Although the Dutch soldiers would fight, the business community informed the English of the public's desire for a peaceful solution. Nicolls sent Winthrop to Manhattan under a white flag, as Winthrop and Stuyvesant had been working together as neighbors for fifteen years. The two friends sat down in a tavern. 

            The agreement reached was less a surrender and more of a merger. The Dutch were encouraged to continue their lives as freemen conducting sophisticated trade and financial businesses. "The Articles of Transfer were in essence a bill of rights for the people of the former New Netherland." The city was now able to trade with both the Dutch and English empires, and "was set on a course of global power." 

            The Dutch influence on New York has been profound and recognized by historians for decades. New York is incredibly diverse and tolerant, as were the 1500 people from around the world in the triangle of New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam was the home of aggressive traders, businessmen, and most importantly, creative financiers. New York has always been about pursuing profits, accepting and incorporating newcomers, growing, creating, building and paying as little attention as possible to the central government and the rest of the country. New York is different because it is a blend of the two creating cultures. It is the glue of "pluralism and capitalism" that holds the city together.

Hotel Ukraine, Smith - B

               Four and a half decades after his introduction, Arkady Renko works his final case. He is usually handed unimportant ones these days because his rebellious nature doesn't fit in Putin's Russia. On the day that Russia invades Ukraine, he is sent to the t Hotel Ukraine to investigate the death of a senior defense minister. He teams up with the FSB, but when they realize Arkady is suffering from Parkinson's, he is placed on sick leave. Of course, he continues to investigate and discerns that the minister was likely killed by someone in the 1812 Group, Russia's private army. When he is poisoned, he knows he is right. Arkady manages to stop an FSB operative on his trail and achieve a measure of satisfaction, but winds up in a Mexican standoff with the 1812 leader. 

             This series ran out of steam awhile back, but has usually delivered a story with thoughtful insights on the Russia of the past decades. The end is occasioned by a Parkinson's progression that has lead to Martin Cruz Smith's death a week after the publication of this novel.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, LeCarre - A*

           Just over fifty years old, Tinker is one of Le Carre's finest, and likely his most famous. There is a fabulous film with Gary Oldman as Smiley, but more importantly, there is Sir Alec Guinness as Smiley in one of the greatest mini-series ever. The author is the man behind significant additions to the language of spying to wit: mole, lamplighter, honey trap, watcher, juju man and baby sitter. The Oxford English Dictionary approached him to ask if he originated the word mole to describe an embedded traitor. 

          Retired unceremoniously after an operation blows up in Czechoslovakia, George Smiley is aimlessly drifting when a higher-up at Whitehall gets in touch. The Foreign Office believes there is a mole at the top of the Circus and asks George to come back, and find the traitor. In addition to the mess in Czecho, an agent in the field provided very compelling material to the Circus that could lead to the mole, but someone in London told Moscow Centre. 

         George, with Peter Guillam as his primary aide, goes to work. As Peter is still at the Circus, he checks the logbook for the night of the Czech operation that led to the capture of Jim Prideaux, and sees that it was excised with a razor blade. Clearly, someone pretty high up fiddled with the logs. As George digs in, he focuses on Operation Witchcraft, an agent run by Percy Alleline, the new C, whose secret agent has everyone in Whitehall salivating about his product. George spots some inconsistencies  in the material, leading him to believe it might be right out of Karla's playbook.  He contacts another agent fired after he and C were sacked, and sits down with him.  The other fella had heard from a Czech that the Soviets were preparing the day before Prideaux was wounded and captured by clearing the area in the woods where Jim was going to meet the escaping Brigadier General. Percy Alleline fired the agent who had heard the story for overreacting to a rumor.  At this point, the only question is who is the traitor.

       When George finally meets with Prideaux, Jim tells him that Control said it was either Tinker - Percy Alleline, Tailor - Bill Haydon,  Soldier - Roy Bland, Poorman - Toby Esterhase, or Beggarman - George Smiley. Prideaux details in depth his capture, months of interrogation, brief chat with Karla, and return to the UK. The Service pensions him off without an explanation and not much of a good-bye. 

        Peter lures Toby to a meet at a safehouse, where to Toby's surprise, George sets out his theory about how Operation Witchcraft has been handled. It is an unparalleled lecture on spycraft - utterly brilliant. Toby provides George with the address of the safehouse where the Russian providing the Witchcraft material, Alexi Polykov, meets his handler, and George has the signal sent to Polykov for a meet. As George sits in the basement, he listens to Polykov and the mole, Bill Haydon, his oldest friend, who is extremely close to Jim Prideaux and Peter Guillam, and occasionally Ann Smiley's lover, chatting upstairs having drinks. Guillam is outside with Oliver Lacon, top Foreign Officer executive. It is over. Haydon is taken away by the Inquisitors. Polykov is detained for a while, notwithstanding his diplomatic passport, Alleline is put on leave and George is put at the top. George is called to Sarratt to chat with Bill. One night, someone evades security and Bill is found with his neck broken. George does not venture to guess.

       I do not think I read this fifty years ago, but believe I did about twenty years ago. Most of my fondness for this tale rests on Alec Guiness's remarkable George Smiley. I recently watched the movie a second time and find myself putting faces to names here. I intend to watch the mini-series again in the Fall.  I did not see the point of the endless references to Ann's infidelity, until I did some research.  Karla had told Haydon to pursue Ann and the affair is intended to show George's humanity and one weakness. I read this very slowly in order to appreciate it's detail and complexity. Much of LeCarre's genius lies in the tradecraft. But I just have to quote George coming to grips with retirement. "Out of date these days, but who wasn't? Out of date but loyal to his own time. There is nothing dishonorable in not being blown about by every little modern wind. Better to have worth, to entrench, to be an oak of one's own generation." Gotta love that line.