Centroeuropa

TITLE:  Centroeuropa

AUTHOR: Vicente Luis Mora

TRANSLATOR: Rahul Bery

In the early 1800s, Repo Hauptshammer, newly widowed, arrives in a Prussian village to start a new life of a farmer. Feudalism is in decline and Repo is in possession of documents ceding a small plot of land to him, where he hopes to plant sugar beets. But first, he needs to bury his beloved wife Odra, and that's when the trouble starts. The first hole he digs yields the perfectly preserved body of a soldier. His second attempt is worse, revealing two more corpses from an earlier time. Enlisting the aid of a friendly neighbor, Repo uncovers yet more bodies, some dressed in unknown uniforms, with futuristic weapons at hand. The local authorities are at a loss as to what to do with the bodies, and while they consider the matter, Repo grows increasingly frustrated in his efforts to bury his wife and to make his farm profitable.

Repo also has a secret he alludes to in his narrative, which is the form this book takes: his memoir, written in a non-linear style, giving the reader hints and details until a full -- or near enough -- picture emerges. 

For a slim volume, there is a lot of substance here, including the discussions Repo has with his new friend, Jakob, a historian, about politics and philosophy. It's always a treat to read a book that is both thought-provoking and entertaining, and this one definitely meets that standard.

Daughter of Genoa

TITLE: Daughter of Genoa

AUTHOR: Kat Devereaux

I'm a sucker for a good historical novel and this did not disappoint. Set in Italy during a few months in 1944, this story captures the desperation and bravery of people trapped in a war that's all too relevant today. Based on the real-life Italian resistance organization DELASEM -- the Delegation for the Assistance of Jewish Emigrants -- the story is told through the perspectives of two characters: Anna, a Jewish woman living in hiding who assists DELASEM by forging identity cards, and Vittorio, a Jesuit priest working with DELASEM who rescues Anna when her home is destroyed during a bombing raid and finds her a safehouse where she can stay. A third character, Massimo Teglio, known as Mister X, is a real-life Jew whose work with DELASEM helped save most of Italy's Jewish population.

At the heart of this fictional story is an emotionally fraught love triangle that forms between Anna and the two men, complicated by Vittorio's vows and past histories that haunt all three characters. The prose is simple yet compelling and drew me in from the first page.

Coffee Trader

TITLE:  The Coffee Trader

AUTHOR: David Liss

This book is a prequel of sorts to the author's first book, A Conspiracy of Paper. The main character,  Miguel Lienzo, having escaped Spain and the Inquisition, is the trader of the title and an ancestor of the protagonist in the aforementioned first book. Living in Amsterdam, in 1659, with other displaced Jews, he is now able to practice his religion. To ply his trade, he often crosses lines set by the Ma'amad, the group of elected leaders in the Jewish community who set lifestyle rules and protect the community from anyone wishing to do them harm.

Having lost his funds and ruined his reputation in a deal gone wrong, Miguel is forced to live in his brother's flood-prone basement, a bad situation made worse by the enmity between the brothers and by Miguel's growing affection for his brother's wife. So, when a Dutch widow he's befriended wants to partner with him in a scheme to make a fortune in trading the new drink made from coffee berries, Miguel agrees, setting in motion a twisty endeavor full of intrigue and betrayal.

I haven't really read historical fiction set in this time period, so it made for an interesting read. And Lisss's pacing and plot twists kept me turning pages. 

Conspiracy of Paper

TITLE: A Conspiracy of Paper

AUTHOR: David Liss

It's a bit embarrassing to say I've had this book for two decades, but I have and now I'm trying to read my older books along with the newer ones.

The narrator/protagonist, Benjamin Weaver, is a former boxer now chasing down debtors and thieves for well-to-do clients in 1719 London. A Jew, he is estranged from his family, but when a new client hires him to investigate the suicide of his father and the accidental death of Ben's wealthy stock-jobber father, Ben is forced to make peace with his uncle in order to learn more about his father's activities.

Ben knows next to nothing about the fairly new stock market, so there is a fair amount of explanations and info-dumping in this story written in formal English to fit the time period. The more Ben learns, the more he realizes he doesn't know, but attempts on his life convince him to keep pushing for answers. The are enough plot twists, some I saw coming and a couple that surprised me, to keep the story moving and like Ben, I wasn't sure who could be trusted. With its attention to period detail, this historical novel is worth reading.

Shrines of Gaiety

TITLE: Shrines of Gaiety

AUTHOR: Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson is one of my favorite authors and she has yet to disappoint me. As always, her prose sucks me into whatever realm she's created. This time, it's 1926 and London's notorious nightclub owner, Nellie Coker, has just been released from prison. With police Chief Inspector Frobisher determined to put Nellie back in prison and enemies just as determined to steal her night clubs from her, along with trying to secure the future of her six mostly grown children, Nellie has a lot on her plate and few people she can trust. There's a nice Dickensian feel to the narration, with darkness underlying the gaiety of the clubs. Bodies of girls are being pulled out of the Thames, and other girls go missing. Gwendolen Kelling, a librarian from York, shows up at Frobisher's office, hoping the police can help her find two girls who have runaway to find fame and fortune on the London stage.  Atkinson pulls all the plot threads together in a satisfying way. As with all my favorite authors, the characters linger with me after I read the last page.

Postmistress of Paris

TITLE:  The Postmistress of Paris

AUTHOR: Meg Waite Clayton

This novel of World War II, set in France after the German invasion, was inspired by real-life American socialite Mary Jayne Gold, who used her charms, smarts, and money to help artist and writers escape European occupation. Clayton reimagines Gold as Nanee, a volunteer known as the Postmistress for her courier work with real-life journalist Varian Fry. Nanee, an adventurist at heart, is always looking for ways to help refugees sought by the Gestopo, which leads her to try to free photographer Edouard Moss, a German Jewish refugee imprisoned in Camp des Milles, a man she'd met only once previously yet is unable to stop thinking about. 

The book is a fast read, with a good sense of time and place, requisites for historical fiction. Along with the action and intrigue, there is also the compelling attraction between widowed Edouard and Nanee, complicated by Edouard's need to find and reunite with his young daughter Luki. And peppered throughout are discussions about art, the need for it and the philosophy of it. The story is straight-forward while the main characters are complex fully formed  They and the story linger in my mind, just the way I love books to end.

Glassmaker's Wife

TITLE:  The Glassmaker's Wife

AUTHOR: Lee Martin

Inspired by or based on a true crime from 1844, this slim novel (248 pages in a trade paperback with many blank pages between chapters) is either intended to fill in the blanks in the historical record (the last chapter seems lifted from a newspaper account I found by Googling the actual case) or is a story of Martin's imagination hung on the skeleton of the historical record of the crime. I really longed for an afterward where Martin might've explained his intent.

A woman, Betsy Reed, already the source of gossip due to her "witchy" ways, is accused of murdering her glassmaker husband by poisoning him with arsenic. The case against her hinges on the claim of a teenage girl who worked for the Reeds that she saw Mrs. Reed put white powder in her husband's morning coffee.

This is a simple story, simply told. more about secrets and things not said than a whodunit. Slowly, the secrets come out, but the ending seemed inevitable. With straight-forward prose and no clear protagonist (Betsy and the girl, Eveline, seem to share that role), the book was disappointing. Repetition of the known facts and opinions feels like padding, And while this was a fast read and I wanted to know the fate of all the characters, I did find it hard to truly care about any of them. Martin has much to say here about love, imperfections, adolescent yearnings, and a woman's role in society in early-19th Century US, but the message feels flat and left me with the sense that this could have been much better.

Paragon Hotel

TITLE: The Paragon Hotel

AUTHOR: Lyndsay Faye

This historical novel is also a love story and a book about finding and accepting your true, authentic self, set in 1921, with earlier flashbacks. Alice James, aka Nobody, grew up in Harlem, a half-Italian born to a now single mother turning tricks in the hotel where they live. In the book's present, Alice is on the run, nursing a festering bullet wound and carrying a suitcase full of counterfeit cash. She ends up in the Paragon Hotel, a Black-owned hotel in Portland, Oregon that caters to a strictly Black clientele. The arrival of a near-death white woman causes quite a stir. Throw in the KKK, a missing mixed-face child, Alice's attraction to the Black train porter who saved her life, and a lot of secrets, and you end up with a true page-turner as Alice forms attachments with the denizens of the Paragon Hotel and faces her own questionable past working with Italian mobsters. I fell in love with Alice and all the other characters, their warts and all. 

Carter Beats the Devil

TITLE:  Carter Beats the Devil

AUTHOR: Glen David Gold

This is a wonderful blending of fact and fiction, focusing on Charles Carter, a magician in the early part of the 20th Century. The inspiration for Gold's story, aka the jumping off point, is the somewhat suspicious death of President Warren G. Harding. From that moment of historical significance, Gold weaves an amazing tale full of wonder, as well as perseverance, grief, and hope. It also makes clear that a magic trick is not the same as an illusion, while continually reminding the reader of the importance of misdirection. 

Because Harding, in the book, attended Carter's show shortly before he died, participating in the mysterious final act of illusion, a determined Secret Service agent becomes convinced Carter is somehow involved in the president's death, a plot thread that gives the story most of its tension. A digression to Carter's childhood and early career, leading up to Harding's death and beyond, gives the story its soul. Carter quickly became one of my favorite characters, someone I couldn't help but root for, with his almost childlike sense of joy and confidence that things will work out. 

 I'd barely read the first hundred pages before turning to the "Program Notes" at the back, then Googling new characters as they appeared so I could know which characters were based on actual people. And as a Marx Brothers fan, I got a thrill when, during the time Carter worked on a vaudeville circuit, a comedy act titled "Fun in Hi Skule" and therefore, knew the Marx Brothers would show up. In fact, Julius (Groucho) does show up with a small speaking role. And that's all I'll say about the many delights found in this book. 

Writing about magic and illusions can't be easy, but Gold pulled it off spectacularly, grounding the story in believable characters, the ones based on reality and the ones created to fill out the story.  This book is one of the most entertaining books I've ever read.

Day Ends at Dawn

TITLE:  The Day Ends at Dawn

AUTHOR: David Fulmer

Reading the last book in this series (Valentin St. Cyr Mysteries) felt, to me, like watching the finale to a beloved TV show. My first thought was the hope that the author didn't screw it up. 

As with the other reprint volumes from Crescent City Books, this one was flawed with poor proofing. I wish I had access to the original volumes to compare and see if they were similarly flawed. But the missing words, grammatical errors, and other oopsies didn't hurt my enjoyment of what was a satisfying end for the series.

True, there were some plot points that seemed to really stretch things, but the return of a few characters from past books was worth it. The story is set primarily on the last day of Storyville before that New Orleans Red-Light District is legislated out of existence. On that last night, Valentin and a number of police officers are patrolling Storyville to keep violence that is likely to erupt to a minimum. In addition, Valentin has gathered info about the corruption that fueled the end of Storyville and a hired killer is stalking the District with plans to kill the private detective, but not until striking at the people Valentin cares about.

The tight timeframe leads to some indulgent character scenes that don't advance the story much, while other scenes ratchet up the tension. I was satisfied with the payoff, yet wouldn't mind reading another adventure or two about the early 20th-century Creole detective. 

Eclipse Alley

TITLE: Eclipse Alley

AUTHOR: David Fulmer

I really hadn't planned on reading the rest of this series without a break for something else, given that I prefer variety in my reading, but these are rather addictive and fast reads, even with the awful typesetting and proofreading of these later volumes from a second publisher.

In this one, set in 1916, private detective Valentin St. Cyr investigates after a prominent, wealthy man is found dead, his body mutilated, in a dark and notorious alley in Storyville, New Orleans' red-light district. Clues are hard to find, but when a priest is murdered a day later, the hunt is on to find a cunning serial killer.

There are a couple of loose ends left dangling, ones I hope will be tied up by the end of the next and final book in the series.

Iron Angel

TITLE:  The Iron Angel

AUTHOR: David Fulmer

I've been zipping through the remaining books in the Valentin St. Cyr historical mysteries series, and really wish I'd been able to buy the last four titles by the original publisher as I doubt they had all the poor typesetting issues, missing words, extra words, and other problems -- unless I missed something, one character's surname actually changed mid-book! -- that these volumes from Crescent City Books have.

The story was stronger this time than in the previous volume, with Valentin taking on the case of a missing teen while also investigating the brutal murders of prostitutes in the red light district, Storyville, in 1914 New Orleans. None of the scenes felt like filler as in the previous book, and a mysterious older woman with amnesia who becomes a pawn in the escalating feud between Valentin and corrupt police captain Picot ratchets up the suspense. And giving Justine, Valentin's wife, more to do in this book -- she pretty much takes over the missing teen case -- was a nice plus. 

Lost River

TITLE:  Lost River

AUTHOR: David Fulmer

After reading the third Valentin St. Cyr mystery, set in the early 1900s in New Orleans, I found the remaining four books in the series online and quickly ordered them. These trade paperbacks are a bit taller, published by a different press, different than the first three books, and apparently, quality control is not prioritized with regards to typesetting and proofing. Typos, poor scene breaks in a number of spots, extra words, missing words, and other oddities marred this book. 

Another strike against it is typical for many ongoing series when the author has to catch new readers up on character backstories and the events from the previous books. In this case, it comes across as filler and I hope Fulmer found more interesting ways to insert these info dumps in the remaining three titles. In addition, there are brief scenes that seem to have been included to pad the page count as they are little more than a quick check-in with a character without advancing either story or character development.

And yet, once I got to the back half of the book, I found Valentin's latest case as compelling as ever. The case revolves around the murders of three wealthy men found at or in a high level house of prostitution that have one thing in common: they're all owned by the same man. The victims were all shot and each has a long cut on his face. Is a madman on the loose in Storyvill, the red-light district, or is something more sinister at work? Valentin's efforts to solve the mystery and end the killing causes trouble between him and his live-in lover, former prostitute Justine who had thought Valentin was finished with Storyville and its problems.

I'm still enjoying this series, but the feeling of padding and a lack of freshness in the telling keep this from being as good as the earlier three.

Rampart Street

TITLE:  Rampart Street

AUTHOR: David Fulmer

The third Valentin St. Cyr mystery, set in early-20th Century New Orleans, finds the Creole detective tasked by the King of Storyville Tom Anderson to investigate the murder of a wealthy shipping magnate in that infamous red-light district. The case should be a simple one, but things don't add up. When the victim's daughter urges him to pursue the truth, no matter what, and when a business partner of the victim also turns up dead, Valentin finds himself out of his element, putting more than himself at risk.

This time, the whodunit isn't as much of a mystery as the why. With New Orleans as much a character as the people who live there, this is a quick read.  I'm enjoying spending time there with them and am happy there are four more installments in the series.

Jass

TITLE: Jass

AUTHOR: David Fulmer

I read the first Valentin St. Cyr mystery a dozen years ago and meant to read this soon thereafter, but other books claimed my attention, and I didn't get to this until now. Which does not mean I didn't find the first compelling. I loved it, and in reading this sequel, I fell in love with Valentin all over again. A Creole detective who usually passes for white in 1908 New Orleans, Valentin is coaxed by Jelly Roll Morton (one of the cast of characters based on real people) into investigating the deaths of two jass (as jazz was called back then) musicians. At first, Valentin is skeptical that there's a connection, but when a third musician is found dead, a pattern emerges. The more he investigates, the more pushback he receive from a local police lieutenant and from Valentin's boss Tom Anderson, the politically connected "King of Storyville," the district where prostitution was legal. 

Fulmer has a way of bringing both his characters and early-20th Century New Orleans to life. That I figured out one part of the puzzle before it was revealed just made the resolution of the mystery more satisfying for me. 

Secret of the White Rose

TITLE:  Secret of the White Rose

AUTHOR: Stefanie Pintoff

The third historical mystery featuring Det. Simon Ziele is better than the second, making better use of the 1906 New York City setting by tying the anarchist activity of that time into the plot. A judge presiding over the trial of an anarchist, whose bomb killed a child among other victims, is found brutally murdered in his home. Criminology professor Alistair Sinclair, a friend of the judge since they were classmates at Harvard Law School, calls on Simon, now reinstated with the NYPD, to find the killer, despite the case being outside Ziele's jurisdiction. While Ziele risks his career to help, he is increasingly aware that Alistair is keeping secrets from him, while he also must contend with the brother of his deceased fiancee, a young man involved with the anarchists. That both Simon and Alistair have something personal at stake gives the story a bit more tension than the previous book had. I figured out some of the mystery, but not all, and found this a fast, compelling read. 

A Curtain Falls

TITLE: A Curtain Falls

AUTHOR: Stefanie Pintoff

The second book by the author featuring police detective Simon Ziele, set in 1906. The story picks up a few months after the events of the first book, with Ziele brought in by his former NYPD partner to help with the murder of a Broadway actress. The book is a quick read and while I wasn't surprised when the killer was revealed, there were enough plot twists to satisfy me. My main complaint about this and its predecessor, is that NYC of that time period isn't much of a character. The time and place seemed to have been chosen because there are enough similarities to the present day, without all the technology and related complications of our time. Fortunately, that isn't much of a distraction. The characters are likeable and the mystery intriguing, enough to make me want to read the third Ziele book. 

TITLE:  The Miniaturist

AUTHOR: Jessie Burton

As a longtime collector of dollhouse miniatures, I wanted to read this book from the moment I read the first review praising it. Set in Amsterdam in the second half of 1686, the story revolves around Nella, an eighteen-year-old ready to start her life as a married woman, despite barely knowing her much older new husband, Johannes Brandt. Johannes is a successful merchant trader who travels a lot, and even when he's home, he shows no interest in intimacy or in consummating the marriage. Along with her husband's apparent lack of interest in her, Nella must also contend with his sister, Marin, who seems to view Nella as an intruder. Then Johannes gifts Nella with a dollhouse in a cabinet, leading Nella to commission the assistance of a mysterious miniaturist to furnish the dollhouse. As pieces arrive from the miniaturist whom Nella never meets -- the orders are commissioned by letter, then delivered by someone else -- Nella is struck by the exquisite craftmanship and how they eerily start to mirror her own life, almost predicting what will happen next. Curious and imaginative, Nella is determined to solve the mystery of the miniaturist and that of the aloof Brandt siblings.

I wasn't sure I'd enjoy this due to the writing style, more flowery than I usually read, but it didn't take long for me to get into the rhythm. While I wouldn't call this a page-turner -- few of the plot twists really surprised me -- it was a fast read. It's also a good exploration of a place and time where religion and conservative values ruled, a time with few options for women and a place where commerce was controlled by guilds. I also came to care deeply for all the characters, servants included, who called the Brandt townhouse their home.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

TITLE: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

AUTHOR: Michael Chabon

I'm a bit embarrassed that it took me so long to read this. The trade paperback was too heavy to carry around and there were other books to read, and now it's been a lot of years and the pages are starting to yellow at the edges. When I finally sat down to read it, I couldn't put it down. There's a reason it won the Pulitzer Prize: It's brilliant.

Clay is Sammy Klayman, a Jewish teen in Brooklyn, dreaming of a career in comic books. The year is 1939 and the success of National's new superhero, Superman, has other publishers looking for their own superheroes. Sammy can write, but his art hovers around ordinary. Enter his newly arrived cousin Josef Kavalier, from Prague. Joe has studied magic and illusion and is obsessed with bringing his parents and younger brother to safety in the US. Joe is also a brilliant artist and together, they create The Escapist, which they present to Sammy's boss at a novelty company. Suddenly, the novelty company is in the comic book business.

Though successful, the cousins make a tiny fraction of the money their comic book creations earn for their publisher, to whom they'd sold their rights for a pittance. Chabon's prose seems effortless as he takes us through hope and disappointment, telling the coming-of-age story of these two cousins against the backdrop of World War II and the Holocaust, as well as an exploration of popular culture and mid-20th Century New York City. Chabon did his research and I had to look up a number of characters to see if they were/had been real or not. This is a long book I didn't want to end. I love Sammy and Joe and Rosa, the woman Joe fell in love with. Thanks to Chabon's narrative voice, I quickly became emotionally invested in their lives and as I closed the book on the last page, I wanted to know what came next. That's the best compliment I can give a book. To anyone who hasn't yet read it, give it a try.

Transcription

TITLE: Transcription
AUTHOR: Kate Atkinson

I haven't read a Kate Atkinson book I didn't love, and this is no exception. Told in two, alternating periods of time (1940 and 1950) bookended by a scene playing out in 1981, the story focuses on Juliet Armstrong, the British transcriber of the title. Juliet is 18 years old when she joins an MI5 department keeping tabs on the Fifth Column, a group of Brits with fascist leanings who meet with a Gestopo agent in an ordinary apartment. Unknown to them, the Gestopo agent is actually a MI5 agent and the apartment is wired for sound. In the next apartment, Juliet transcribes the recordings of the debriefings. On one occasion, she's assigned a more active role investigating a particular Nazi sympathizer. The war ends and Juliet gets on with her life, working as a radio producer for the BBC, but when MI5 has need of her services, she learns that no one is ever free of the security service.

In the hands of many authors, this would be sufficient for an exciting WWII/Cold War spy adventure, but Atkinson has a bit more in mind for her readers. Juliet is an amazing creation. Even with a third person narrator, we see many of Juliet's thoughts, mostly the sardonic or ironic ones. But we're not privy to everything, not until Atkinson is ready to reveal all. The twists and turns of this historical novel and Juliet comes to realize she's never truly been in control of her decisions, and that actions have consequences. Throw in exploration of identity, loyalty, trust and suspicion, plus some philosophy, and you get a literary novel that's compelling to read.