Operation Napoleon by Arnaldur Indridason

It doesn’t take one long to be drawn into Arnaldur Indridason’s fast-paced novels. This Icelandic author catches me every time in the first few pages. After that, it is a battle whether whether to keep reading or go do something that requires my attention.

Operation Napoleon begins at the end of World War II when a German Junkers aircraft crashes in the ice fields of Iceland. One survivor attempts to walk for help but he fails. The plane seems to have been carrying both German and American officers who may have been on a secret mission. The cargo is unknown but to a few of the passengers and Allied officers who planned the mission. The first attempt to reach the crash site is led by a Colonel Miller, but he fails to locate the plane.

 
Jump to 1999 and satellite surveillance has spotted the remains. A clandestine unit within the Secret Service begins an ‘”off the books’” operation to find the plane, secure it and dispose of it; however, Elias and Johan, who are out with a winter rescue team, see the plane and the soldiers digging it out. They are not allowed to escape, although Elias manages to get out a short message to his sister Kristin with the Icelandic Foreign Ministry. Now Kristin has to be stopped from revealing anything about what is going on in the ice fields and the special cargo on the plane. It becomes a race against time and danger as Kristin attempts to save her brother and find out the secret of the ice field.

Indridason is one of my favorites in the Scandinavian mystery sub-genre. Please enjoy this terrific author.

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Murder in the Marais by Cara Black

“Is there a more romantic city than Paris?  It’s known as the city of lights and one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but PI Aimée Leduc sees a different side of the city when she unearths some deep dark truths of Paris’s past during World War II.  Aimée is a native Parisian.   She was raised by her late father, a cop, after they were both abandoned by her American mother.

When an old friend of her father’s comes asking for a favor, Aimée’s conscience and empty wallet cannot refuse. However, this case will be different from her normal assignments of background checks and corporate espionage.  Her father’s friend is a rabbi from the local synagogue, who needs Aimée to decrypt a photograph for one of his members.  One of the people in the photograph was alleged to have collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.

The assignment seems like an easy one until Aimée tries to deliver the photograph to Madame Stein only to find her dead.  There is evidence of a struggle, but is this just a robbery gone wrong or something more sinister? Aimée is determined to get to the truth of Madame Stein’s death, much to the frustration of police detective Inspecteur Morbier, her father’s old partner.  He strongly encourages Aimée to drop the case.  Instead, Aimée decides to go undercover in the Neo Nazi movement to see if she can connect them to Madame Stein’s death.  When Aimée almost gets killed she is not sure if it’s the Neo Nazis or Madame Stein’s killer, but she knows she needs to find out quickly before she’s the next one dead.

Murder in the Maris is author Cara Black’s first in the series. In subsequent novels, she works her way through ­Paris’s 20 arrondissements with each installment revealing secret byways of Paris known only to an insider.

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Best ‘New to Us’ Books in 2012: Emil S.’s Picks

Classics play a major part in my reading life, but in 2012 I mainly re-read classics (or read classics that I obtained through Inter-Library Loan). Thus, my “New to Us” books are all fairly new, no older than 16 years old, and therefore many years away from even being considered for the shelf of classics. In the meantime, they can perhaps be classified as noteworthy contemporary reads! — Emil S.

Red Gold by Alan Furst
France is occupied by German forces, but things have changed since “Case Barbarossa” – the German led attack on Soviet Union. French communists who take their orders from Moscow have been activated and now participate in a war effort that reaches from France to the heart of Soviet Union. Jean Casson, a former film producer, lets himself be pulled into the French Resistance, and he is good at getting things done. But the different sides of the anti-German movement are suspicious of each other, and while the occupying forces are being attacked, the French are preparing for the next battle – the conflict after the war.

Arguably by Christopher Hitchens
British born, American writer Christopher Hitchens was arguably one of the great public intellectuals of our time. He was fantastically prolific and (as Ian Parker once put it) wrote faster than some people read. In 2011, Hitchens passed away, and the fearless opponent of (almost) any kind of oppression was dearly missed by many. Arguably, published about two months before his death, contains 107 of Hitchens’ texts – his range is enormous and it’s a great book to carry around as it embraces so much of this strange and wondrous world.

Chango’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes by William Kennedy
William Kennedy was born in 1928 and he writes with the confidence and authority of a veteran. Chango’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes is a sprawling novel that mainly takes place in Cuba during the revolution of the late 1950s, and in an Albany, New York, that is about to explode after the killing of Robert Kennedy in 1968. When reading the novel, it is near impossible to predict where it is going, and the plot is (perhaps) hard to define. Instead, this novel is about strong, wonderful characters and about awesome dialogue – that’s the heart and soul of Chango’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes.

The Sorrow Gondola by Tomas Tranströmer
When Tomas Tranströmer’s Sorgegondolen – The Sorrow Gondola – was published in 1996, it was his first collection of poetry since the stroke that hit him in 1990. In Tranströmer’s native land, Sweden, the book instantly became a bestseller, and it’s easy to understand why, for the poet’s writing was as powerful as ever. He writes, “The sun is low now./ Our shadows are giants./ Soon, everything will be overshadowed.” But in another poem he writes, “A blue light/ radiates from my clothes./ Midwinter./ Clattering tambourines of ice./ I close my eyes./ There is a silent world/ there is a crack/ where the dead/ are smuggled across the border.”

The Submission by Amy Waldman
A jury gathers in New York, New York, to select a memorial for the victims of the massacre of September eleventh, 2001. The winner turns out to be an American Muslim, Muhammad Khan, and when media finds out, a heated debate and even acts of violence spread across the nation. The Submission is a novel about America and Islam, and about the open wounds of 9/11, but it is also a story about media and how media shape the debates in this nation (and elsewhere). And the reader has good reasons to ask, is media interested in the truth or merely in the news?

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

What drives my interest in a novel is the characters. If there is one character whom I admire or care about, I’m sold on the book. In this novel, falling in love with the characters happens to the protagonist as well as to the reader.

Juliet Ashton, a writer living in London just after World War II, is looking for a topic for a new book. She is sick of all the devastation and depression of war, but she cannot seem to leave it all behind either. In the midst of her doldrums, a letter arrives from Dawsey Adams, a stranger on the island of Guernsey who has by chance purchased a second-hand book that once belonged to her. He writes to the name and address he finds on the flyleaf to ask Juliet if she can find him any more books by this author.

In the course of their correspondence, Dawsey mentions the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and Juliet’s curiosity will not rest until she knows its history and, especially, how it got its name. What she learns convinces her that an interesting book topic may be in the offing. Dawsey asks other members of the society to write to Juliet, and they tell her how reading and discussing books has helped them make it through the terrible experiences of the war.

The novel is written in epistolary form, as a series of letters. We learn about Juliet’s life through her correspondence with her friends, and about the islanders’ lives through their correspondence with her. This is a perfect form for a novel about the transforming effect of the written word. The different voices, especially those of the island folk, are each beautiful and unique, full of their own pain, joy, and charm.

Eventually, Juliet realizes she must go to this island that has come to seem more like home than her dingy London flat. What she finds there takes her beyond a new book topic into a new life.

Also see my colleague Mary P.’s excellent blog on this book.

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Louise’s War by Sarah Shaber

Mystery, Murder & Mayhem @ your library! Wake County Libraries is hosting several mystery authors at our libraries this September. Please join us for An Evening with Sarah Shaber at the Cameron Village Regional Library on Thursday, September 6 at 7 p.m. and we are pleased to re-run this book review from Janet L. that was originally posted last year.

Award winning local mystery author Sarah Shaber is back with the first book in a captivating new series.  Our main character, Louise Pearlie, is a clerk at the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, in 1942 Washington D.C.  Run by the legendary “Wild Bill” Donovan, the OSS was America’s first intelligence agency and a precursor to the CIA.

One day, while filing top secret information, Louise comes across a document referring to Gerald Bloch, an expert on the coastline of French North Africa.  In it, Bloch asks for asylum for his family in return for assistance to the Allies.  Louise is stunned to realize this is the same Gerald Bloch married to her school friend Rachel.  Realizing that being Jewish puts Rachel at great risk as long as she remains in Europe, Louise is determined to do what she can to help get Rachel and her family to the United States.

So even though it’s a tad unusual for a clerk to take this sort of initiative she approaches her boss, Bob Holman, and tells him she thinks Gerald Bloch’s offer should be considered seriously.  Her boss agrees to review the file and Louise allows herself to hope that she may have succeeded in helping her friend.  But then Bob Holman is found murdered in his office, the file Louise left has disappeared, and because this all happened at the OSS no one is talking.  Louise is left with the sinking feeling that Rachel’s fate hinges on whether she can figure out what happened to her boss and that file.

What follows is a top notch mystery with a tight plot, interesting characters and a fascinating location.  Shaber does a marvelous job of bringing wartime D.C. to life.  Through Louise’s eyes you experience the scarcity of everything from food to living space, the changing role of women during wartime, and being part of the budding American intelligence community.  Louise is a winning heroine, a combination of small town North Carolina girl and feisty woman determined to help her friend, no matter the risk.  Add to this several wickedly funny scenes involving a French diplomat and you have a great read.  Highly recommended.

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Editor’s note: The Sequel, Louise’s Gamble, was released earlier this year.

Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow

After his father died, Stewart Dubinsky found a batch of papers that related to things about his father that Stewart had never known. So Stewart sets out to find out his father’s story in an effort to know him better. This premise sounds so familiar you might think that the book would be boring or formulaic, but that is far from the truth. The secret that Stewart’s father, David, was hiding is that he was court martialed and sentenced to prison in 1945 after serving in Europe for more than a year. Stewart is so shocked by this revelation that he is determined to find the whole story.

David was a lawyer serving in the Army’s judge advocate general office during the army’s march across Europe after D-Day. He spent most of his time prosecuting or defending soldiers accused of crimes against French citizens; but in 1944 he was assigned to the case of Robert Martin, an OSS officer who had either become a spy or gone rogue. When David met Martin he became involved in one of Martin’s covert operations. He also became involved with Martin’s companion Gita, a woman who may or may not have still been Martin’s lover. Shortly after that, Martin and Gita both disappeared.

After the German surrender, Martin was finally recaptured and David was sent to bring him to trial. Instead, Martin disappeared again David was accused of letting Martin go. Shortly after his conviction, though, David is released without serving any time. Why would they suddenly drop all charges? This is the mystery Stewart is searching for the answer to, as well as the question of whether his father released the man he spent so much time searching for and if so, why.

The story of Stewart’s father’s service in WWII is a fascinating one. He becomes involved in the Battle of the Bulge and other fighting simply because he is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is privy to some of the secrets of OSS and not to others. Turow’s novel is very different from his usual courtroom thrillers, but it is just as compelling. Even more interesting to me is the fact that many episodes of the book were based on stories Turow heard from his own father, who served as a medic in WWII.

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The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

I first read The Hiding Place when I was a teenager, and I was immediately caught up in this true story of a quaint, old-fashioned family of watchmakers in Haarlem, Holland, in the 1940s who are drawn into working for the Underground Resistance during the Nazi occupation. The story was so compelling that I don’t believe I looked up once till the book was over and dawn was streaking the sky outside my window. Fortunately, it was the weekend, and the book is only 241 pages long!

Corrie and Betsie are unmarried sisters in their fifties, living with their eighty-year-old father, when tentative knocks began to be heard at their alley door. A Jewish neighbor whose shop has been closed by the Nazis is afraid to go home to his upstairs apartment. A Jewish mother and her newborn baby need a place to stay till she is well enough to travel. Can they help?

Corrie and her family are staunch members of the Dutch Reformed Church and law-abiding citizens, but they can’t turn away the needy from their door. At first they provide a halfway house for Jews and other refugees seeking asylum in the countryside, but eventually their home becomes a “hiding place” for seven Jews who for one reason or another cannot be placed elsewhere.

As their ring of contacts grows ever larger and more complex, the chances that their activities will be discovered becomes ever greater. One night during Passover, their next door neighbor knocks on their side door: “Do you think your Jews could sing a little more softly? We can hear them through the walls . . .”

Your Jews. The family realizes that their secret isn’t really a secret at all, and it is just a matter of time before they are arrested. Despite all their drills and precautions, one night it happens. Corrie, Betsie, and their father are taken into custody, but thanks to a carefully constructed secret room at the top of the stairs, their Jews remain safe.

However, even though they are now at the mercy of their captors, their calling to be a “hiding place” becomes more important than ever. The same love and faith that led Corrie and Betsie to help those in need not only sustains them during the dark years of their imprisonment, but becomes a shining place of hope that shelters those who gather around them. They discover that even the smallest acts of kindness can plant seeds that grow and make a community among those whose pain would otherwise tear them apart.

There are so many wonderful things I could tell you about this book, but I want you to discover them for yourself. However, this story is anything but sugar-coated, I warn you — the graphic details of human cruelty and suffering are painful, but seeing how love triumphs in the midst of darkest evil makes this one of the most inspiring stories I have ever read.

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Dark Star by Alan Furst

Europe, 1937. André Szara is a Jewish, Polish-born foreign correspondent for the Soviet newspaper Pravda (“Truth”), and considering his job it is not surprising that NKVD approaches him (NKVD being the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the public and secret police that was the root of the Committee for State Security, or KGB). Just like journalists, security organizations are in the business of data and information, and surely Szara is willing to share the facts he is digging up, is he not?

Over time, the assignments get more involved and eventually the journalist finds himself drawn into deep espionage as he is obtaining information on German steel wire production, which can easily be linked to the German military build-up.

The plot evolves but it does not necessarily unfold. Much like a soldier in a big maneuver Szara lacks an overview of the big scheme of things, and the structure of the tale reflects this: order is added to order and task is added to task as Szara travels from one city to another, not always understanding the reasons for the trips, and unaware of what the powers that be – in this case especially Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin – are involved in.

The perspective is strictly street view: European city streets in darkness and rain, men and women living in decrepit hotels, having their meals in cheap restaurants and cafés, Paris gloomily anticipating another great war, and Berlin oppressive and unsettling under the iron fist of a totalitarian regime.

Alan Furst’s novels are heavy on ambiance and less concerned with action, graphic violence, and fast-paced adventures. His books could perhaps be described as existential spy novels. They are filled with contemplative reflection and deal with people who are trying to do the right thing in a world going horribly wrong. They are characters in novels, but – as Furst points out – “people like them existed; people like them were courageous people with ordinary lives and, when the moment came, they acted with bravery and determination.”

Follow them in Dark Star.

The Information Officer by Mark Mills

A little known fact:  The island of Malta was the most bombed piece of land during all of WWII. Malta’s position in the Mediterranean made it an important refueling spot for the Allied shipping and it was continually under attack from Germany and Italy because of this. The island was still a British territory in the 1940’s, but the islanders also had close ties with Italy.

Max Chadwick is the British Information Officer for Malta.  His job is to filter the news coming into the island so that the local population will continue to support the British side in the war.   Britain had already rounded up islanders that it believed to be loyal to Italy and interred them in Africa, which did not help relations with the locals. When Max discovers the murder of a local woman he is concerned about the islanders’ reactions.  Then he discovers evidence that another British officer may have committed the crime, and that the murder may only be one in a string of similar crimes.  Max knows that this information could seriously damage support for the British war effort, so he sets out to find the killer on his own. His unique position makes him ideal for the investigation since he knows most of the British officers and families stationed there.  However, the situation is getting critical.  The island is being regularly bombarded and the threat of German invasion is also rising.

The atmosphere and setting of this book were incredibly detailed.  I felt like I could see the island shrouded in fog and dark, with shadows creeping around old stone passages.  In, fact, I think it would make an excellent movie.  I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Raymond Chandler or Alan Furst.

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The Second Objective by Mark Frost

Mark Frost’s novel is a thriller based on true events that happened during World War II.  The Nazi’s are determined to strike a huge blow against the Allies in a last ditch attempt to reverse their declining fortunes.  To facilitate this attack they have devised the rather ingenious idea of rounding up their best English speaking soldiers and training them to impersonate Americans.  They then send them into Allied territory ahead of the main attack where they are to disrupt the Allied response when the full attack begins.  This was their first objective and the one to which the majority of their soldiers were assigned.  The second, secret objective was to carry on to Allied headquarters and assassinate General Eisenhower while still impersonating American soldiers.  Of the twenty soldiers assigned to this second objective, eighteen were killed or captured.  Two were never found.  These are the facts.

Frost’s fictionalized story follows the soldiers tasked with killing Eisenhower.  The kicker here is that one of these men, Bernie Oster, was born in the U.S. to German parents and raised in Brooklyn.  His family moved back to Germany when he was fourteen. The bleak economics of the Depression in the United States forced this move.  Bernie was eventually drafted into the Nazi army.  Bernie detests the Nazis and has tried to thwart their efforts whenever he has a chance to do so without getting caught.

When Bernie is brought into “Operation Greif” he falls under the immediate command of Erich Von Leinsdorf.  Von Leinsdorf is a member of the SS.  The son of a diplomat, he was raised in London from the age of ten until the war broke out.  His English, spoken with a British accent, is flawless.  He is very smooth and friendly on the surface, but Bernie senses that beneath this facade lurks a stone-cold killer.

As the Germans begin the invasion, Von Leinsdorf reveals his true nature by shooting two of his men after they are wounded by the Americans.  With his worst fears confirmed, Bernie is on high alert.  He suspects there is more to their mission than what they have been told and repeatedly tries to get Von Leinsdorf to reveal it to him.  In the meantime, Bernie does what he can to secretly sabotage Operation Greif’s efforts without getting himself killed by Von Leinsdorf.  He leaves subtle clues as he and Von Leinsdorf become aware that two American MP’s are tracking them down.

As the war continues around them, Bernie and Von Leinsdorf proceed on to their second objective with MP’s in hot pursuit.  The story continues at a hot pace straight through with the accelerator being mashed to the floor in the last few chapters.  If World War II historical fiction or fast-paced thrillers are your style, Frost’s novel is sure to satisfy.

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