The Book Spy by Alan Hlad

Melissa B. (dragoneyes)

This is a fictional account about a true event where librarians from America were sent to neutral cities to gather information from the written word via microfilm. It is quite an interesting subject and one that I have not heard of until now. The author seemed to do a good amount of research to compile this book and give us a glimpse into this part of history.

Our main character, Maria, a librarian, is determined to help the Allies in the war effort. She finally gets her chance when she and 2 other librarians are sent to Portugal to microfilm any information that can help. There she meets a bookseller named Tiago. With his help she is able to get the publications needed. He is also doing his part by helping refugees with forged papers. When Maria is asked to become a spy, she can’t say no. From there, things get chaotic and everyone’s life is changed.

Although I enjoyed the story the characters were my biggest complaint. I liked them. Who wouldn’t like them? They were perfect in every way possible. Except if you were a bad guy, then you were really, really bad. You were either flawless or flawed. There was no in-between. I couldn’t help laugh at how ridiculous it all seemed.  Especially with Maria. She was perfect in every way… strong, pretty, polite, smart, etc. She had no flaws. Characters stand out more when you can relate to them. No one is perfect. So, where the characters were likeable, they were not believable. The story itself is able to curb this fault and make it a satisfying story.

The Monkey and The Tiger by Robert van Gulik

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

This is Book #6 of the 17 historical mysteries starring Judge Dee. The unique stories are set in different Chinese provinces from about 663 to 681.

This volume contains two curious novellas whose titles are based on the Chinese zodiac and, in particular, on the characteristic differences of the Yang forces of the Tiger (might, nerve, luck) and the Yang forces of the Monkey (cleverness, wit, creativity).

Both stories have a rapid development of the plot and details about everyday life in China during one of its golden ages, the T’ang era. The beginning of the first story (The Monkey) is atmospheric in that the author sets the tale in a tropical forest, like a fairy tale, while in the second story (The Tiger) Judge Dee finds himself in a fortress besieged, like a feudal adventure story. In The Monkey, there are lessons on how to approach cases that Judge Dee imparts to his assistant Tao Gan. Although he is cunning and slick on the streets, ex-con man Tao Gan lacks the critical thinking skills of his boss and inevitably inflicts his biases on the evidence.

In The Tiger, the author successfully describes the aftermath of a flood of the Yellow River and the quick thinking of Judge Dee. He faces a dangerous situation in an isolated country manor, in a position of weakness and loneliness. His authority as a high-ranking official has no meaning against a band of desperate brigands called The Flying Tigers. The time frame of this story is only one night, so he does not have much time to conjure up a plan to save himself and other innocents from a bloody end.

Without deep psychological descriptions, van Gulik still creates vibrant characters with human interest. In The Monkey is a man in the midst of a mid-life crisis. He falls for a young beautiful bandit girl and gets the notion to walk away from his humdrum life to join a band of highwaymen. In The Tiger, by observing the portrait and belongings of the deceased, Judge Dee gets insight into a personality and identifies the great obsession – the yearning for freedom – that had dominated a life.

Recommended to mystery readers who are looking for something different.

The Beatle Bandit: A Serial Bank Robber’s Deadly Heist, a Cross-Country Manhunt, and the Insanity Plea that Shook the Nation by Nate Hendley

Review by jjares

The real strength of this book is the author’s telling this story in the light of Canada in the 1960s. Twenty-four-year-old Matthew Kerry Smith donned a Beatle wig and walked into a  North York, Ontario, bank during the Beatle craze. In a day when few Canadians owned a gun, Smith walked into the bank with a semi-automatic rifle. He had painted the end of the barrel pink and cut a hole in a guitar case, allowing the pink barrel to protrude. Anyone noticing the strange young man would think it was a joke.

However, the outcome was no joking matter. A retired military sergeant, Jack Blanc, grabbed a gun (from a bank officer)* and started shooting. Blanc didn’t know that there were only four bullets in the gun. Blanc was a sitting duck when Smith opened fire, trying to escape.

Then, the author steps back and describes Smith’s life before that disastrous day.  Smith was the son of a successful businessman and a mentally-ill mother. She was later diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Because of the erratic life in the family, the couple divorced, and Mr. Smith took the kids. Young Matt was terrified of being mentally ill. It colored everything about his life. Young Matt jumped from one interest to another until he centered on guns and revolution.

Young Matt was able to keep his life together enough to get into the Canadian Navy (and was soon discharged). Later, he connected with a young First Nations wife, a group of hangers-on, and vague plans for rebellion. Amazingly, Smith was successful in two early bank robberies, and he used the money to buy a house and support his wife and others.

After the third robbery, Smith escaped and became the object of the biggest manhunt in Toronto Police history. Called “the Beatle Bandit,” Smith was captured, tried, and sentenced to hang. However, because Smith’s mental illness was discussed extensively in court, it created a firestorm of interest. Some wanted to hang Smith, while others thought hanging a mentally ill man was wrong.

Canadians had a national debate about gun control, guns in banks (as defense weapons), the death penalty, and the insanity defense — all because of this case. Eventually, Smith was sent to prison. However, he committed suicide while in prison.

Several reviewers have mentioned that the author wrote this book in a similar vein to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. Early in the book, the author stated there wasn’t a word written that hadn’t come from court documents, magazine or newspaper articles, or interviews.

WINNER of the 2022 Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book.

* At that time, Canadian banks kept loaded guns in the bank. However, employees were told not to engage with robbers because the money was ensured. After Smith went to trial and this point was discussed widely, banks decided guns were not helpful.

Hand of Fate by Michael Underwood

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Frank Wimple made three million pounds from three hundred with ability, drive, confidence and, he said with a wolfish smile, ruthlessness. His forceful ways have made him no friends in the village. So when his wife Elspeth disappears, dark rumors fly such that the police have to ask questions about murder most foul. But with no corpus delicti they can’t be sure that Frank’s explanation – “she left me” – is a falsehood. But the hand of fate intervenes when it places in a black lab’s mouth Elspeth’s skeletal left hand.

On the fleshless finger, a wedding ring – inscription and all.

So Frank ends up in the dock, accused of murder. Though aggrieved he is not allowed out on bail and a woman judge is presiding, he’s confident no evidence connects him to Elspeth’s demise.

The trial is generally what this 1981 crime novel is about, though Underwood – for no reason except that it’s diverting and fun – examines aspects of the ordinary lives of the woman judge and members of the jury. This doesn’t advance the story but it gives a striking depth to the characters. It might be that he wants us to remember that, unseen, everybody is living a life as vivid to them as ours is to us.

I recommend this stand-alone novel because the craft is so effortless and unobtrusive. From the get-go, Underwood concisely builds well-done characters and makes action flow smoothly. The other appeal of this novel is that it’s not too long, as mysteries tended to become as the 1980s went on. Underwood carries on the “short crime novel” tradition of the 1960s and 1970s in the manner of Michael Gilbert, Andrew Garve, P.D. James and Ruth Rendell.

Michael Underwood was the penname for John Michael Evelyn (1916-1992). He was called to the Bar in 1939 and after WWII he worked in the Department of Public Prosecution. Perhaps one of those lucky people that don’t need much sleep, he wrote 48 crime novels, starring series heroes such as Martin Ainsworth (barrister spy) and Simon Manton (police inspector). Nine of this novels were stand-alones and this 1981 effort was his last stand-alone, after which he turned his attention to his successful series with the heroine Rosa Epton (lawyer) until he passed away in 1992.

Light of Impossible Stars by Gareth L. Powell

Review by Cyndi J. (cyndij)

LIGHT OF IMPOSSIBLE STARS is the final volume in the Embers of War trilogy by Gareth Powell.  For events of the first two – EMBERS OF WAR and FLEET OF KNIVES –  read my previous reviews, here and here.

The sapient warship Trouble Dog and her brother ship Adalwulf have barely escaped from the Marble Armada fleet and are now on the run. They are heading for the Intrusion, an area that both the Armada and the hyperspace “dragons” avoid.  Reality in the Intrusion is not exactly stable, and no one who’s gone there has ever come out. But they have information that leads them to believe it could be the way to survive, if not defeat the Armada. They’re critically low on fuel, though, and need to find something quick.

We are introduced to two new characters, Cordelia Pa and her brother Michael, who live on one of a number of artifical worlds known as Plates which are very close to the Intrusion. Individually the Plates are not very big, but they are arranged in a group and travel between them is easy enough, if you have the money. Cordelia and Michael have come down in the world since their childhood, and now make a living scavenging alien artifacts from the depths of one of the Plates. Cordelia has some strange abilities that she tries not to think about. But someone has been looking for Cordelia, and her situation is about to take a dramatic turn.

As before, the story is told in quick chunks of first-person POV from different characters: Trouble Dog; Sal Konstanz, the captain of Trouble Dog; Johnny Schultz who was rescued during the last book; the vile Ona Sudak; and Cordelia. Those are the main voices but there are also snippets from Nod, the Druff engineer, and Michael. Again, except for Nod, the voices are not all that different from each other.  I wish we’d seen something from Lucy, but Powell doesn’t give her much of a role here.

Arthur C. Clarke once said “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” and I feel like Powell relied on that too much. Cordelia’s abilities look like magic to me and so did the appearance of Sal’s relative. The “dragons” physical manifestation is too much like fantasy (wouldn’t it have been interesting if different races saw different monsters?).  We see the payoff from the Druff scenario that was set up earlier, but I was expecting something less mundane – I’m not sure why, because on reflection I see how Powell set that up very nicely.   As before, not every character is going to survive and that did make me sad.  I liked the ending, with the exception of Sudak’s fate – she’s so despicable I wanted her squashed like a bug. Can’t have everything I guess, and it fits with everything else we know about Sal.

It’s a relatively happy ending for our characters,  flows along briskly, and has very good imagery, but I feel this book isn’t quite as good as the previous two. The sameness of the character voices, the too-convenient appearance of saviors, and Cordelia’s “magic” abilities lead me to mark it down a bit.  Despite that, I enjoyed it and the series as a whole. It’s a good entry in the space opera genre.

The Book of Gothel by Mary McMyne

Melissa B. (dragoneyes)

This is not a retelling of Rapunzel and the tower as the cover might lead you to think but a story about the witch that put her there. As you are reading the story, you wonder how in the world Rapunzel has anything to do with this it but near the end you find out how.

The story surrounds a young girl named Haelewise. She is beautiful but has eerie black eyes and odd fainting spells. The villagers swear she is possessed by a demon. Her mother spends her time trying to find a cure for her as her father rarely shows interest. As she gets older her mother becomes ill and tells her if something should happen to seek out the witch in the forest. So, when the time comes, Haelewise sets off with a heavy heart. There she finds the old woman who is willing to take her in and long as she is willing to follow the rules. Of course, she doesn’t and it sets off another crazy turn of events.

Although the story was not quite what I expected, I very much enjoyed the book and all of the characters in it. It will be one of those stories that will stick with me for quite a while.