The Woman with Two Shadows

Finished June 6

The Woman with Two Shadows by Sarah James

This historical novel is set over a few months from 1944 to 1945. Twin sisters Lillian and Eleanor live in New York City with their mother. Their father killed himself when they were very young and their mother has struggled mentally since then. Lillian has taken on the role of head of the family and is a physics student at Columbia University. She has plans to take the test for the Allerton Prize which gives the winner a scholarship to Harvard University where she wants to do her masters degree. This plan depends on Eleanor staying home to live with their mother and care for her. 

Eleanor is an actress, getting roles on Broadway, but she is applying for a part in a new Rodgers and Hammerstein play which will open in Chicago and tour. Eleanor is good at what she does, but this role worries Lillian and she makes some choices that impact both their lives. 

The military has come to the university recently and recruited physics students for a project at a site near Knoxville, Tennessee. The place is called Oak Ridges and since the students find that their deferral is no longer valid, some choose to go rather than enlist. One of them is Max Medelson, and he is not only a fellow student of Lillian's but also the boyfriend of her sister Eleanor. He also claims to be able to tell them apart, when most people cannot. Eleanor changes her plans and decides to go with Max. She gets a job there as well. 

All of these we learn as backstory. Eleanor hasn't written home since she left, and now Max has contacted Lillian with the news that Eleanor is missing and he wants her help. When Lillian gets to Knoxville, she finds things aren't what she expected and she takes on Eleanor's identity to see what she can learn. With tales of others going missing, secret projects that Lillian finds herself getting involved in, and a complicated romance, there is a lot going on.

This novel raises issues of sibling rivalry, what one is willing to do to get what one wants, and the costs that are found to be beyond enduring. An interesting read. 

The Housewife Assassin's Handbook

Finished September 23

The Housewife Assassin's Handbook by Josie Brown

First, you need to know that this book, and the series that it begins is farce, with great humorous moments. Donna Stone is a suburban housewife. The day her third child is born is also the day that she learns that her husband was undercover FBI and was killed by a car bomb. His boss is the one that informs her and asks her not to let anyone else know he is dead. So she spins stories about him being away on business trips. Donna is involved in all the usual suburban mother activities, PTA and driving kids to their various activities. As she begins to think about how she will manage without her husband's income, his boss suggests that she might be cut out to be an agent herself. 

After training, she takes on the role of a not very bright, but sexy woman in many of her agent roles. But things change when another agent, Jack, who has a reputation for being a player, shows up at her house impersonating her husband Carl. As her fellow housewives swoon over 'Carl', she tries not to resent him for gaining the trust and adoration of her children, and for making moves on her. 

But as the pair becomes involved in dealing a fatal blow to the criminal organization that supposedly killed her husband, things become trickier and it is harder to separate fact from fiction. 

Each chapter begins with a housewife tip that has an edge at the end. The scenes have lots of action and suspense, and the body count damage is mostly offscreen. 

I enjoyed this for the farcical aspects, and it reminded me of some of the action shows of my youth (such as Remington Steele). A fun read. 

The Scarlet Papers

Finished July 16

The Scarlet Papers by Matthew Richardson

This spy thriller is very intriguing. The main character, Max Archer is an intelligence historian at the London School of Economics. He's published a couple of books, but they are in no way bestsellers, and he is barely making a living as an associate professor. His wife has left him for an investment banker and although they struggled with fertility, she is now pregnant with her new partner's child. 

When he gets an invitation to meet with a legendary retired spymaster called Scarlet King, he is very interested, but also very wary. Max had applied to MI6 himself years before, but had not been accepted. So his choice of subject as an historian is personal. There are no known pictures of Scarlet, and her background information is sparse. She was active for decades during the Cold War, and getting information from her would be a ticket to a promotion and would help him write the next book he is contracted for but is facing writer's block on. But it would also be a violation of the Official Secrets Act. 

He has questions about her motive and her reasons for choosing him for this information and the timing of her request to meet. The spycraft connected to their meeting logistics is complex and intriguing, and the information that he is given as teasers is explosive. Before he knows just what he's got himself into, he is already a subject of interest to the authorities and when the situation gets him on the verge of arrest, he finds himself on the run, not knowing who to trust. 

There is an extensive bibliography to this novel, showing the research that Richardson did in terms of coming up with the plot. This attention to detail is part of what makes this a great novel, but the writing style and character development are also key. From Max and Scarlet to the MI5 agent on his trail, we see the thought processes, the choices made, and the way each choice impacted the situation. Highly recommended. 

Three Hours in Paris

Finished June 14

Three Hours in Paris by Cara Black

This novel is set during World War II, and begins in June 1940 with Kate Rees, a ranch woman from Oregon who is also a prize-winning marksman, is in Paris in an unoccupied apartment across from Montmartre, waiting to shoot Hitler. After a couple of chapters, we go back to the fall of 1939, where we learn that Kate is married to a Welsh man. They and their young daughter are living where he is stationed in the Orkney Islands. She works at a munitions factory as a tester, shooting rifles to ensure they work as they should. Her marksman skills get noticed and the government offers her a job, but she isn't interested. When an enemy bombing mission kills her husband and daughter, she initially gets lost in her grief, but by early June, she finds herself wanting to do what she can to defeat the man who took her family from her. So she calls the number of the man who made the previous offer to her. and finds herself offered a different job, this one top secret, and she must sign the Official Secrets Act before being told anything about it. 

Because of the timeliness of her mission, she is given a very sped up version of the usual training. One of her lessons emphasizes the acronym RADA, which stands for Read the Situation, Assess possible outcomes, Decide on options; Act on your decision. This is something she returns to repeatedly while on mission. 

When Kate misses and kills another man she finds herself on the run, and unknown to her, one of the reasons she is on this mission is because someone is compromised and the team she is associated with in France has had several members discovered and killed. As she follows what clues she has and makes the way around the city looking for help to get back to England, she must rely on her intuition and quick thinking. She also begins to suspect that she was never meant to succeed, and think about what that means. 

I found this book almost impossible to put down, as I had to know what happened to Kate. There is a man of Paris on the endpapers that shows all the key places that Kate either thinks of going to or actually visits. The pace is fast and the minor characters intriguing in their own ways. One of the characters that we see a lot of is a German police officer that is assigned with finding the would-be assassin and capturing her. Part of the novel is from his viewpoint, and we see that he has his own struggles as well. Excellent plot, with a character that I really cared about. 

Chains

Finished January 20

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

This award-winning children's book is set from mid 1776 through to January 1777, and is told from the point of view of Isabel a black girl. She and her sister Ruth were owned by a woman, Mary, who had promised to free them on her death, but due to upheavals from the War of Independence, Mary's lawyer is away, and her heir quickly takes the girls and sells them to a loyalist couple, the Lockton's, from Charleston who are heading to their house in New York. 

Ruth is a bit simple, but a quiet and good girl, and Isabel is very protective of her. In New York, Isabel meets Curzon a young slave whose master Bellingham is in charge at the docks and suspects that they are loyalists, and will keep an eye on them. 

When Curzon asks Isabel to spy for them, she is at first wary, but pins her hopes on promises of freedom. Isabel is a smart girl, who can read and write, and knows how to keep her thoughts to herself, except in the case of her young sister. 

As we watch the changes in New York through her eyes as the war progresses, we see the bigger picture as well, and learn about the dealings of both the Americans who fight for freedom and the loyalists that want to remain king's subjects. Isabel struggles to understand the meaning of freedom to these men who use the word with such fervor, but still have slaves. 

As she continuously looks for ways to win her and Ruth's freedom, she finds herself torn between new loyalties and old. She undergoes cruelty and hardship as well as small kindnesses from a few. This is a tale that brings history to life as well as opening the young reader to human experiences foreign to them. It is the first book in a series.

The Whalebone Theatre

Finished June 30

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn

This story start in World War I and continues past World War II. The central character is Cristabel Seagrave, a child as the book begins. Cristabel's mother died giving birth to her, and her father pushed her away in his grief. He is now remarried and hoping his new young wife can give him the son and heir he wants. Cristabel is a child that is curious and imaginative. She exists on the edges of her world, a daughter of the Chilcombe estate, but one often ignored. She is befriended by one of the younger members of staff, Maudie, who answers her questions if she can. She also waits eagerly for the letters from her uncle who is an officer in the army and tells tales of faraway places and interesting events. 

She eventually does get the long-awaited brother, Digby, after first a sister Flossie, and longs for the formal education that Digby gets, as opposed to the French governess that she and Flossie are educated by. In 1928, before Digby gets sent away to school, a whale washes up on the beach bordering the estate. Cristabel is one of the first on the scene and she claims the beast for the family. Around the same time, an interesting group of artistic people are visiting the area, and Cristabel manages, through her unorthodox manner to befriend the artist at the center of the group, and convince him to help her stage a play. This event leads to regular events and new connections, and gradually the three children grow up. 

As World War II begins, Digby is determined to sign-up, but not as an officer as his father wishes, and he sneaks away to enlist. Cristabel is also keen to help the war effort in some way and ventures off to London to offer her services. Flossie stays at the estate, but soon finds herself contributing in her own way. As the three begin their adult lives, the point of view takes turns between them, giving us insight into each experience. 

The main actions of the book take place in 1928 and during World War II, but pre-1928 also gives us a lot of background to the characters and the situation of Cristabel. 

I enjoyed the personalities of these three characters, and how each had their own strengths that carried them through the troubles they encountered. The story took a while to grab me, but once it did I was hooked. This book has mystery, romance, and suspense, and the Chilcombe estate is brought to life through the descriptions and events around it. 

The Venice Sketchbook

Finished June 28

The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen

This book caught my eye at the library when I was picking up some holds, and I ended up bringing it home and reading the whole book that same day. 

There is a short prologue in 1938 at the beginning, which sets the scene for a place and time that ends up being a key to the book's plot. From there the book follows three timelines. The first four chapters are from 1928, when 18-year-old Juliet Browning visits Venice as a gift from her aunt, and has an encounter that she will never forget. The book then moves to 2001, when Caroline Grant is facing the end of her marriage. Caroline and her husband both have degrees in fashion, but he has chosen to pursuit a career in design and recently travelled to the United States to follow that dream. As the book begins, we find that he has begun a new relationship there. The divorce is now final and Caroline will have their son Teddy during the school year, while Josh will have him for the summer and holidays. Caroline stays at her job at a women's magazine, but considers moving in with her grandmother and great aunt Lettie in the house she grew up in. When her great aunt dies, secrets get revealed and when an opportunity to investigate those secrets opens up to Caroline, her grandmother encourages her to take it. 

The story then moves back to Juliet Browning in 1938, where she returns to Venice as an art teacher accompanying her students. Several things have changed for Juliet since 1928, and while she longed to return to the city, she hasn't been able to until now. When she has a chance encounter that brings back feelings from her 1928 visit, she is once again tied to the city. Soon after, an opportunity to study abroad returns her to Venice, a move she makes despite the looming political situation.

As the 1938/39 and 2001 ones stories begin to connect, we find Caroline making interesting discoveries, and revealing possibilities that may change her own life. 

A book that encompasses romance, suspense, and intrigue, this book was one I had difficulty putting down. 

The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre

Finished May 10

The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre by Natasha Lester

This novel follows more than one timeline and moves between them. The author has done a lot of research for this book and there are notes at the end that tell us what she took from real people and events and what she created. The character at the centre of the novel is a creation, but she is placed around real events and real people as her story unfolds. 

The book opens with Alix graduating from private boarding school in Switzerland and moving on with her plan to create an independent life for herself. Alix was orphaned while still a child and taken in by a wealthy Hollywood family that her parents, costumers, had worked for. We see her going to Paris and charming her way into a job in the fashion industry. 

The book then jumps ahead nearly ten years and Alix is once again arriving in Paris for a job in the fashion industry, only this time she's been invited, and the job is heading PR for Maison Christian Dior just before the launch of his first collection in 1947. Alix has been working in New York City, and has bad memories of Europe due to her time spent there during the war. Unfortunately, it seems like she isn't able to leave those memories behind as a voice from her past seems determined to affect her present. 

The book then jumps back to 1942, where Alix worked in Bern, Switzerland as an OSS agent, where she deals with a unsupportive superior, and yet still manages to make significant impacts in Italy through her contacts there. 

The book moves back and forth between Paris (and later New York) in 1947 and Alix's time in Europe during the war, and we see how the events from the past are still affecting her emotionally and with real threats to the life she wants to live. 

This is a book that sometimes had me on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what happened next, and sometimes brought emotions as I learned of what Alix did and lived through. This illuminated a part of World War II that was less familiar to me, and the author's note really helped to clarify that. 

Definitely worth the read. 

Sisters of the Resistance

Finished September 3

Sisters of the Resistance by Christine Wells

This novel focuses on two sisters in Paris in 1944 and 1947 and jumps back and forth between the two time periods. Yvette Foucher is outgoing and exuberant. During the war she worked for the fashion House of Lelong where the designer Christian Dior worked. Her family also worked as the concierge at the building that Dior and his sister Catherine lived in. After her father's death, her mother retreated into herself and Yvette's sister Gabby took on most of the concierge duties. Gabby's young man was killed in the war before the actions of this novel, and she is just trying to keep things safe, abide by the curfews and look after the residents that are most needy. One of them is the elderly Madame LaRoq, and she is now delivering meals to her on a regular basis and visiting, as is Catherine Dior. Catherine makes frequent trip to her farm in the country and often brings back food and passes it on to others such as the Fouchers. Gabby finds more than she bargained for in Madame LaRoq's apartment one day, and finds herself involved in hiding people from the Germans. One of the women who brings people in to be hidden is Catherine Dior, and thus Gabby finds herself in ever closer connection to her.

When Yvette is bringing a cape to the actress Louise Dulac, who is a mistress to a high-ranking German officer, she is noticed by the actress and gets asked to do some additional work for her. As a result of an incident with her bicycle she also meets a young diplomat Vidar Lind. Lind takes an interest in her and seems to keep popping up in her life. But Yvette isn't sure whether she can trust him entirely.

In 1947, Yvette is back in Paris from New York to testify at the trial of Louise Dulac. She is willing to do so, but also she has been disappointed with trying to work as a model in New York as she doesn't have the look that is popular there, and she hopes to get a chance to work for Dior who is about to launch his own collection. Gabby hasn't heard from her sister since she escaped France, and is happy to see her well, but is haunted by her own losses from the war, including one that she doesn't know the fate of. When she gets a chance to deal with that unresolved situation in person, she finds she has more courage than she thought, and begins to hope for a life beyond that of being concierge with her mother. 

The two young women are different in character, but both caring individuals, and you see how that underlies their actions. Yvette is more impetuous, but she is also quick-thinking and resourceful, and figures out a way to avoid the worst of situations, yet notices anomalies in the world around her. Gabby is also one to notice, aware of the building residents habits and actions, helping where she can, and she can also summon courage more easily when she is doing it on behalf of someone else. As they navigate the difficult time of occupation, they also face adult situations headon and do what they must. After the war, they must find a future for themselves and they look forward in different ways. 

I really enjoyed this novel despite a couple of weak plot points, such as the trial. 

Hannah's War

Finished July 30

Hannah's War by Jan Eliasberg

This historical novel is set near the end of World War II in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the title character, Hannah Weiss is one of the team working on the atomic bomb. Hannah was born in Austria and was working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany before the war. Over the course of the novel we see her backstory. As a Jew, she was relegated to a lab in the basement with little support. But she had a curious mind that did well with her tasks. As the likelihood of war drew near, and the threats to those close to her grew larger, she also grew worried about what any work of hers would be used for. 

In the time in Los Alamos, the other narrator is an American agent, searching for a spy in the small community. Messages have been intercepted that have drawn attention and concern that someone may be sharing data with scientists in Germany. The search quickly narrows in on Hannah, but the agent is drawn to her in a more personal way as well that may affect how he does his investigation. 

This was another interesting story about a smart woman, and this one inspired by a real woman who was key to the development of the bomb, a scientist names Lise Meitner. 

Although inspired by her, the story is largely fictional and I found the character of Hannah a fascinating one. It was also interesting to see the dynamic between the agent and this smart, yet vulnerable woman. The gradually revealed backstory to Hannah and her activities both before the war and now was well done and made sense to me. 

A good read.

The Sentinel

Finished July 11

The Sentinel by Lee Child and Andrew Child

This episode of the Jack Reacher novels takes us briefly to Nashville, and then to a small town a ways north of the city. When Reacher arrives in Nashville, he looks for a few things, including music, and finds himself in a bar with little ambience, but with musicians who sound good to him. Unfortunately, they are just finishing up, and when he leaves he encounters them outside and finds himself in a position to assist them. 

A few days later, he is on the road and gets picked up by someone who needs help finding his way. Reacher decides to go on with him to the destination, and finds himself in this town that has recently been a target of ransomware. The IT manager, Rutherford, has been fired despite him being the one warning his bosses and trying to guard against this situation. The two men meet when Reacher prevents something happening to Rutherford, and they both get arrested. When they join forces to try to figure out why Rutherford is targeted, and start digging deeper, they find themself making a few new aquaintances.

As often happens, there is more than one group of bad guys, and somethings they cross over between groups. 

This is an interesting look a topic that is definitely a current event at publication time and still a topic of much discussion. As always, Reacher is thoughtful, empathetic to those in a bad situation, and aware of the bigger picture. 

A good read.

The Deadly Hours

Finished February 21

The Deadly Hours: An Anthology by Susanna Kearsley, C.S. Harris, Anna Lee Huber, and Christine Trent

This linked set of novellas has in common a pocket watch, one cursed from its origin in gold stolen from a church in Cartagena.

We first encounter the watch in 1733 along the Spanish coast when a fierce storm forces several ships to take shelter in a small coastal town. At the local inn, there are several players in international affairs. One has been sent to kill someone and others are on a mission to protect the same man. This first tale is by Susanna Kearsley and features her character Mary MacPherson along with her Jacobite husband Hugh. The watch is owned by Valcour, a pirate who took part in the acts in Cartagena. 

The second tale is set in the 1830s in Edinburgh and is told by Anna Lee Huber. It features her character Lady Darby and the watch seems to be linked with a number of deaths in the city, and is brought to Lady Darby's attention by a man who reappears several times in her life, the criminal leader Bonnie Brock Kincaid. She and her husband Gage track the rumours about the watch to try to save the city from the threat.

The third tale is set in London in the 1870s and is told by Christine Trent. This tale features her character the Victorian undertaker Violet Harper and her American photographer husband Samuel. Violet has been hired by a recently distinguished peer to gather his deceased relatives from wherever they are currently interred and bring them together in a new tomb. In one of the graves she opens, she finds a curious object, and it seems to bring trouble to the rich neighbourhood of her client.

The fourth and last tale is told by C.S. Harris and takes place in 1944 in a small town near Dover. The local leader of the Home Guard, and watch collector is found dead under suspicious circumstances and only one item seems to be missing from his home. When more victims are found, suspicion ranges to several foreigners living locally. The main characters here are a female historian and an MI5 agent.

I enjoyed the strong female characters in this book, and it was my first introduction to the characters in the stories. I also liked how the authors worked together to link the story of the watch over time. 

The London Restoration

Finished November 17

The London Restoration by Rachel McMillan

This novel takes place in the fall of 1945, with some flashbacks to earlier times during World War II. The two central characters are a married couple who must find their way emotionally to each other. They got married during the war and have only had a few visits since then, and have never lived together. Diana Somerville (nee Foyle) is a student of architecture, church architecture in particular. She loves the churches of Christopher Wren, but is interested in all churches. She is therefore a fount of information on the churches. Brent Somerville, her husband is a professor of theology at King's College in London. His specialty is the gospels by the apostles. The two met in a churchyard, where he was eating lunch and sketching his surrounding and she was admiring the architecture and made the first move in their relationship by approaching him. 

During the war, knowing that she would be bored by many of the tasks available to young women, one of Diana's professors recommended her for secret work at Bletchley Park. They preferred single women, so even though she recently married Brent, she signed up under her maiden name. There she worked on breaking codes, using her knowledge of German and other skills from her education. Brent knew that she worked for the Foreign Office, but wasn't aware of her secret work. He worked as a medic and orderly, transporting wounded, and near the end of the war was wounded himself. He still has trauma related to his experiences and hasn't shared the extent of his PTSD with Diana. 

At the end of the war, Diana's superior Simon asked her to do some work for him relating to a new challenge that he sees for the country, the threat of communism and Russian tactics. She has gone to Austria on this mission for two weeks, missing Brent's homecoming. 

With Brent not aware of what she has been doing, nor of what she was away in Austria for, there is a barrier that has been raised between them. With Brent not sharing his own war experiences, there is also a barrier from his end. The young couple are very much in love, and very smart people, but they must feel their way into this new phase of their relationship. 

When you add that Diana's recent actions may put them in danger, this novel offers a lot of suspense. I hadn't read this Canadian author prior to this and enjoyed the book.
 

Girl from Nowhere

Finished August 21
The Girl from Nowhere by Tiffany Rosenhan

This debut novel for teens is fast moving. Sophia Hepworth has grown up with loving parents, but constantly on the move and not really making any friends along the way. Her parents appear to be diplomats, but they are definitely more than that. Her father's public job is facilitating NGOs in developing countries, working for the State Department. He is a spy and many of the skills needed to survive in that world have also been taught to Sophia. She can handle a gun, a knife, and many other tools of defense. She is in good physical shape and can hold her breath underwater for long periods of time. She can get her bearings quickly in places she hasn't been before. She speaks quite a few languages fluently, and knows a decent amount of even more. She has been trained to survive many dangerous situations.
When her family lived in Istanbul, something bad happened to her, and she's been running ever since, and not really recovering from that incident.
Now, her family is finally back in the United States and her parents have retired. They've moved to a small town in Montana, called Waterford. Furniture and smaller items she hasn't seen in years are coming into their new home. Sophia is attending the regular town school and making friends with other girls her age. And there's a boy who she finds compelling.
Of course she stands out. In her first class, French, the discovery that she is fluent has the teacher moving to move her to a different language class, but all the ones on offer are ones that she is fluent in, so she stays. And now her classmates know this about her. They are friendly, but have lots of questions. She answers as truthfully as she feels she can. She has been told that she is no longer in danger, that the men hunting her since Istanbul are all dead, but she still can't be completely honest about her unconventional life.
The boy saves her from a dangerous situation, and only later did she learn his name, Aksel Fredericksen. Then he rescues her again. She notices that he has some of the same skills that she's learned, and that he doesn't seem fazed by her. She likes that. As their relationship grows, the situations that they find themselves up again grow more dangerous. She begins to wonder if she is really as safe as her parents have led her to believe.
This novel is fast-moving and has an edge of the seat plot interspersed with bits of normal love and some romance. It kept me engrossed.

Close Call

Finished August 12
Close Call by Stella Rimington

This novel is the eighth book in a series featuring MI5 agent Liz Carlyle. I've also read the first one, At Risk. Here she works with MI6, the CIA, and the French intelligence authorities. Liz is in a relationship that is starting to get serious with Martin Seurat, one of her French counterparts at the DGSE. He has started talking about retiring and going into private security.
The story here starts in the Syria, where an American agent has a close call while infiltrating rebel groups. He is transferred to Yemen to try and move a rumour forward to discover whether it has merit in intelligence with a government minister.
Liz is just back from vacation with Martin when she is brought up to date by her deputy Peggy Kinsolving. This includes a "watching brief" on a possible smuggled arms shipment. This involves MI6 as well as the CIA. The first thing to come up on this brief is news of a meeting in Paris. The French are running the show there of course, with other countries involved, but a young agent makes a move that unnerves those meeting and they lose contact with the men. Photos of them however bring an unexpected surprise. One of the men is a former French agent, who got in trouble and has now moved to the side of the bad guys, including running arms. They are surprised he risked his home ground of Europe, but it does make it more likely that they can nab him and try to learn more.
Liz soon finds that the drop of arms is expected to be in England, in Cheshire. When she reaches out to Special Branch to find out more about the man they suspect of being involved she learns that a man from her past is also now in Cheshire. They didn't part on good terms, and Liz isn't sure that he can be trusted based on her past experience, so she explores different routes of gathering intelligence and mounting surveillance. The man in Cheshire has been suspected of human trafficking as part of a club and prostitution service he runs, but arms would be a new venture for him.
I enjoyed the action here and also like when I learn more about the personal lives of the main characters, to humanize them more. There are several things going on here, but they all relate to each other, and offer a fast-moving plot.
The author used to head up MI5 and so writes from experience and knowledge of the real world espionage services.

The Ignorance of Blood

Finished August 8
The Ignorance of Blood by Robert Wilson

This is the last book in a series of four books featuring Javier Falcon of Seville, Spain. Javier is a busy man, involved in many things. He is an inspector with the local police, but also has ties to the intelligence community and is running a spy for them, a man he has become close friends with.
As the book opens a Russian mobster is switching from one mob to another, taking money and information with him, when he is killed in a freak accident. Falcon gets called to the scene and overseas the transfer of the information and cash to a secure location.
He has been working on a case involving a local judge who is in jail for killing his wife, who also happens to be Falcon's ex-wife. This is also tied to a construction case, where a bomb was set at a site. Falcon isn't sure of the judge's guilt, and is looking at a woman that he was having an affair with, a woman who definitely is hiding something. As he tries to trace back the woman and who she has had contact with, and put some pressure on her, things get ugly, and there seems to be government connections involved.
Meanwhile the man he is running as a spy is having a crisis that he goes to Falcon for assistance on, and Falcon wants to help but feels out of his depth.
And then the youngest son of the woman Falcon has fallen in love with is kidnapped, and he is sure that it is to put pressure on him.
So many storylines, and so much happening emotionally for Falcon as well. He is an upright and honest guy, at least mostly. And when he steps over a line, he doesn't try to blame anyone else for it. He has a good team of officers, ones that work together and are really committed to their work. But for him, when the situation became personal, he changed his feelings about things.
I really liked Falcon, and the strong woman he is in a relationship with. I will look at the earlier books in this series to get more on these characters.

Something To Remember You By

Finished February 12
Something to Remember You By: A Perilous Romance by Gene Wilder

This novella begins with a young American army medic experiencing the frontlines during the Siege of Bastogne in late 1944. Back in London, after recovering from his injuries, he is drafted into the intelligence service due to his quick thinking and his facility with languages.
While awaiting training and deployment, he meets a young woman, a Danish refugee, who is also working for the war effort. Their feelings for each other are strong despite their limited knowledge of each other. When she inexplicably disappears, he is relentless in his search to find out what happened to her, a search that coincides with his new deployment.
This story tells of an intense romance during wartime, and the risks and plots that the two engage in as they go undercover in German-occupied France.
I found it engaging and with nice touches of humour.

Who Is Vera Kelly?

Finished June 9
Who Is Very Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht

This historical novel follows a young woman through a difficult few years in her late teens, and in her early twenties as a CIA spy in Argentina as it builds to a revolution. The young Vera is in high school in 1957 in Chevy Chase Maryland struggling with her feelings and an incident when she'd taken medication from her mother's bathroom and ended up in the hospital. Things deteriorate after that between her and her mother and culminate with an argument that causes her to run away to a more sympathetic relative, but her mother calls the police saying she stole the car. Vera is relegated to a young offenders facility and finishes her high school years there with no further contact from her mother. After her release, she begins to build a life for herself in New York City, gaining skills and finding her way.
In the other timeline, Vera is in Argentina in 1966, posing as a Canadian student at the university there, and listening to the conversations captured by various bugs that she and others have planted in both government buildings and private residences. As she follows the instructions from her handler, she eventually finds herself in the middle of a revolution where she is in danger and must use whatever resources she can muster to find her way out and stay safe.
At the heart of both these situations is Vera's sexuality as a lesbian woman. She had a crush on a friend in high school, and her sexuality is part of the issue with her relationship with her mother. In her current situation, her sexuality is both a potential danger and a potential to get closer to a target. In both timelines, it is mostly hidden from those around her.
I liked Vera's resiliency and resourcefulness. She thinks ahead, and takes opportunities as they arise. I'd like to learn what her life was like after this book. She's a very interesting character.

Need To Know

Finished January 25
Need to Know by Karen Cleveland

This spy thriller has CIA analyst Vivian Miller at the verge of a breakthrough to a Russian sleeper cell. But when one of the faces in the cell is that of her own husband, she freezes, unable to process what this means.
Vivan met her husband Matt just as she was beginning her career. They now have four children, including one with special medical needs. Many decisions have been made during the course of her career, that brought her to this dilemma. Her choice to join the unit looking at Russia. Her choice to take only a short maternity leave after her first child. Her choice to have Matt stay home with the kids to keep her better health coverage. Their recent move to a bigger house in a better neighbourhood that stretched their finances. She can't afford to turn in Matt, but how can she not.
As the story develops, I saw her missteps, and her courage to not go past a certain point in her ethical dilemma. I saw how she got herself into an even more difficult situation that she was in to begin with. This is a story of espionage that I hadn't imagined before, and one that kept me reading.
And an ending I won't easily forget.

Murder, Magic, and What We Wore

Finished January 7
Murder, Magic, and What We Wore by Kelly Jones

This teen historical novel has intrigue and magic. The novel takes place in 1818, and begins in London. The main character, Annis Whitworth, is sixteen years old and lives with her aunt Cassia. Her father travels a lot, and Annis has long suspected that he was a spy. Now she has just learned that he is dead, and that his money seems to have disappeared.
Annis and her aunt, though not living extravagantly, will have to move to smaller quarters and work to earn their keep. Annis believes that following in her father's footsteps is a natural move, with her first case to find his killer, but her attempt to convince the authorities does not go well. Around the same time, Annis discovers that she has the ability to sew glamours, that is to use needle and thread and a fixed mental intent, and transform cloth into what she envisions. In some cases, this ability even extends to changing the appearance of the wearer to the appearance of another person. Annis is new to using this ability, and can't always control what the outcome will be exactly.
As she and her sister move to a small house, and take only one young girl as a servant, Millie, she works under another identity as a seamstress sewing glamours for ladies.
But her original aim to find her father's killer is still there, and she finds herself both watching others and being watched as she works toward this end. Millie too has her own secret skills, and they will come in very handy here.
This novel shows both the historical expectations for someone of Annis' situation and class, and some interesting ideas around magic in this setting.