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."