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Reviews

Reviews

by Howard Blum - History, Nonfiction

The year is 1943, and the three Allied leaders --- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin --- are meeting for the first time at a top-secret conference in Tehran. But the Nazis have learned about the meeting, and Hitler sees it as his last chance to turn the tide. So a plan is devised --- code name Operation Long Jump --- to assassinate FDR, Churchill and Stalin. Immediately, a highly trained, hand-picked team of Nazi commandos is assembled, trained, armed with special weapons and parachuted into Iran. With no margin for error and little time to spare, Mike Reilly, the head of FDR’s Secret Service detail, must overcome his suspicions and instincts to work with a Soviet agent from the NKVD (the precursor to the KGB) to save the three most powerful men in the world.

by Elliot Ackerman - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Catherine has been married for many years to Murat, an influential Turkish real estate developer, and they have a young son, William. But when she decides to return home to the United States with William and her lover, Peter, Murat takes a stand. He enlists the help of an American diplomat to prevent them from going --- and, in so doing, becomes further enmeshed in a web of deception and corruption. As the hidden architecture of these relationships is gradually exposed, we move to the heart of intersecting worlds populated by struggling artists, wealthy businessmen, expats and spies. And, at the center, a child torn between his parents.

by Steven Wright - Fiction, Political Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Despite being a successful political consultant, Dre Ross’ aggressive tactics have put him on thin ice with his boss, Mrs. Fitz. She exiles him to the backwoods of South Carolina with $250,000 of dark money to introduce a ballot initiative on behalf of a mining company. The goal: to manipulate the locals into voting to sell their pristine public land to the highest bidder. Dre, an African-American outsider, can’t be the one to collect the signatures needed to get on the ballot. So he hires a blue-collar couple, Tyler Lee and his pious wife, Chalene, to act as the initiative’s public face. As lines are crossed and lives ruined, Dre’s increasingly cutthroat campaign threatens the very soul of Carthage County and perhaps the last remnants of his own humanity.

by Marina Kemp - Fiction

Marguerite Demers is 25 when she leaves Paris for the sleepy southern village of Saint Sulpice to take up a job as a live-in nurse. Her charge is Jerome Lanvier --- once one of the most powerful men in the village, now dying alone in his large and secluded house surrounded by rambling neglected gardens. Brigitte Brochon, pillar of the community and local busybody, finds her arrogant and mysterious, and is desperate to find a reason to have her fired. Local farmer Henri Brochon, Brigitte’s husband, wants to protect her from the villagers' intrusive gossip and speculation (but Henri has a secret of his own that would scandalize his neighbors, if only they knew). The sudden arrival of Jerome's three sons will upend the rhythm of their days, changing their lives forever.

by Ani Katz - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller, Women's Fiction

Thomas Martin was a devoted family man who had all the trappings of an enviable life: a beautiful wife and daughter, a well-appointed home on Long Island's north shore, a job at a prestigious Manhattan advertising firm. He was also a devoted son and brother, shielding the women in his orbit from the everyday brutalities of the world. But what happens when Thomas’ fragile ego is rocked? After committing a horrific deed --- that he can never undo --- Thomas grapples with his sense of self. Sometimes he casts himself as a victim and, at other times, a monster. All he ever did was try to be a good man, but maybe if he tells his version of the story, he might uncover how and why things unraveled so horribly.

by Tom Rosenstiel - Fiction, Political Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

It’s presidential primary season in Washington, DC, and both parties are on edge. At campaign rallies for all the candidates around the country, there are disturbing incidents of violence and protest and shocking acts of civil disobedience. When Wendy Upton, the highly respected centrist senator, receives an anonymous threat that could destroy her promising career, she hires Peter Rena to investigate her past and figure out which side is threatening her and what they are threatening her with. As Rena digs through the senator’s seemingly squeaky-clean past, he must walk the tightrope between two parties at war with each other and with themselves, an electorate that is as restive as it has ever been, and a political culture that is as much driven by money as it is by ideology.

by Alan Furst - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Occupied Paris, 1942. Just before he dies, a man being chased by the Gestapo hands off a strange-looking document to the unsuspecting novelist Paul Ricard. It looks like a blueprint of a part for a military weapon, one that might have important information for the Allied forces. As Ricard finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into anti-Nazi efforts, and into increasingly dangerous espionage assignments, he travels to Germany and along the escape routes of underground resistance safe houses to spy on Nazi maneuvers. When he meets Leila, a professional spy, they begin to work together to get crucial information out of France and into the hands of the Allied forces in London.

by Sophie Kinsella - Fiction, Women's Fiction

’Tis the season for change, and Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) is embracing it, returning from the States to live in the charming village of Letherby and working with her best friend, Suze, in the gift shop of Suze’s stately home. Life is good, especially now that Becky takes time every day for mindfulness…which actually means listening to a meditation tape while hunting down online bargains. But Becky still adores the traditions of Christmas. Things are looking cheerier than ever, until Becky’s parents announce they’re moving to ultra-trendy Shoreditch --- unable to resist the draw of craft beer and smashed avocados --- and ask Becky if she’ll host this year. What could possibly go wrong?

by Timothy Egan - History, Memoir, Nonfiction

Moved by his mother's death and his Irish Catholic family's complicated history with the church, Timothy Egan decided to follow in the footsteps of centuries of seekers to force a reckoning with his own beliefs. He embarked on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity to explore the religion in the world that it created. Egan sets out along the Via Francigena, once the major medieval trail leading the devout to Rome, and travels overland via the alpine peaks and small mountain towns of France, Switzerland and Italy, accompanied by a quirky cast of fellow pilgrims and by some of the towering figures of the faith. The goal: walking to St. Peter's Square, in hopes of meeting the galvanizing pope who is struggling to hold together the church through the worst crisis in half a millennium.

by Liza Palmer - Fiction, Humor

If there's one thing Joan Dixon knows about herself, it's that she is a damn good journalist. But when she is laid off from yet another soon-to-be-shuttered newspaper, and even the soulless, listicle-writing online jobs have dried up, she is left with few options. So she goes to work as a junior copywriter at Bloom, a Los Angeles startup where her bosses are all a decade younger. For once, Joan has a steady paycheck and a stable job. She befriends a group of misfit coworkers and even begins a real relationship. But once a journalist, always a journalist, and as Joan starts to poke beneath Bloom’s bright surface, she realizes that she may have accidentally stumbled onto the scoop of her lifetime. Is it worth risking everything for the sake of the story?