The Conspiracy to End America

Interesting that Stuart Stevens, a long-time Republican political consultant has come down so strongly on the side of the Democrats for the upcoming election.  He, like a coalition of frankly not enough Republicans, is of the opinion that not only Donald Trump, but also the mainstream Republican Party are firmly set on their path to destroy democracy in America and replace it with an autocracy similar to those  in Hungary and Russia.  He lays out his theory and his proofs in The Conspiracy to End America (#1,257).

Since this book was published in 2023, a number of things that he predicted have already come to pass - questioning the integrity of elections while making it harder for non-Republicans to vote, re-shaping the judiciary in the image of the right-wing Federalist Society, and the surprising people who actually stormed the Capitol.  They're not who you might have imagined.  All this, and he didn't even have a chance to read or comment on Project 2025!

Stuart Stevens thinks everyone should read his book before the upcoming election.  He's right. 

A Woman of Pleasure

A Woman of Pleasure (#1,256) is the first English translation (by Juliet Winters Carpenter) of award-winning Japanese writer Kiyoko Murata's work.  It's not for the faint of heart.

Aoi Ichi is the daughter of a diving family from the island of Iwo Jima.  She admires her mother and older sister who both free dive to earn a meager living, far outearning her fisherman father.  She is surprised to find herself bundled aboard a ferry to a port near Nagasaki one day in 1903.  She and other girls her own age is collected there by the agent of Shinonome House, a grand house of pleasure in the licensed district.  There her life completely changes when she learns that she has been sold to the house and must work off the debt incurred by payment to her father.  She is lucky.  She has been deemed worthy of training as a higher-class courtesan.

Since the house does cater to a wealthier clientele, all the girls are also trained how to read and write, how to arrange flowers and how to dance, sing and play instruments.  But much of their time is also spent in learning the physical arts of how to best please their customers and earn a loyal following.  If they can rise to the top, they may be able to free themselves from their financial burdens and aspire even to marriage.  If not, their debt mounts at the brothel.  If they cannot pay at the end of their contract, they will be turned out and forced to work in one of the unlicensed "hells".

How Aoi Ichi manages her life, bears her training and somehow finds some small joys makes for a brutal, but worthwhile story with unforgettable characters.  

The Queen of Poisons

The Queen of Poisons (#1,255) is the third in Robert Thorogood's Marlow Mystery Club series, soon coming to a PBS/Masterpiece station near you.

This time around, Susie is actually present at the Marlow Building Council meeting when the murder takes place.  Geoffrey is beloved by everyone in town.  Nobody has a bad word to say about someone who goes out of his way to help those around him in any possible way.  Only the Building Permit Committee members plus Susie in the visitors' gallery were present when it happened.  So how, exactly, did it happen?

Malika goes right to the source and deputizes Judith, Susie and Becks as civilian advisors to the police with official lanyards and all.  But she's sorely mistaken if she thinks she's going to rein in the dynamic trio as they use their unique skills and connections to work out "whodunnit".

I've got to say, I did not see the end coming!

Arkangel

I'm continuing on the Russian roll with James Rollins' latest Sigma Force novel Arkangel (#1,254).  The folks at Sigma are still recovering from the bombing of their underground headquarters at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.  But the world doesn't stand still as the Russians seek to push their claims to the entire Arctic region by finding and claiming Hyperborea, a mythical land supposedly located somewhere near the North Pole.  

Even the Greeks and Romans wrote about their contacts with inhabitants of this land, but the Russian Empress Catherine the Great pursued it.  What is written about those explorations is used as justification in the Kremlin and the Russian military for subjugating all of Europe, starting with the Crimea and Ukraine, with the full blessing and backing of the Russian Orthodox Church.  

Sigma's formidable enemy has been recruited to aid Russia in its quest, and Valya Mikhailov intends to take advantage by destroying the agency.  Non-stop action here with the usual scientific undergirding to make the threats to mankind all the more plausible.  Throw in some despicable villains and a potential new love interest for former K-9 Army Ranger Tucker Wayne and his dogs, and what's not to like about this reliable thriller series?  At the end, as usual, Rollins separates fact from fiction in his novel, and it's always amazing to me just how much of his story is built on facts.  Though you could read Arkangel as a stand-alone novel, much of the plot does rely on events from previous books in this series.  Be warned.  Tick-tock.

Opportunity Rings

I'm not sure how I happened upon Opportunity Rings (#1,253) by Sheryl Steinberg, but it was a quite enjoyable bit of fluff set at the dawn of the smart phone era.  When it came out in 2009, the technology being discussed and explained to the reader was cutting edge stuff.  Now it's a nostalgic look back at the way things used to be before the vast majority of people of all ages became permanently welded to their phones, and multimillionaire "influencers" were still in the future.

But Erica Swift, the marketing director for one of the first mobile phones to add a few additional functions, is ahead of her time without having to actually, you know, know the tech.  That's why she has her best friend at the firm, Teddy, there to "mansplain" things to her.  Erica is going through some rocky times herself.  She's stunned when her husband announces out of the blue that he's leaving Erica for his boss, an older woman.  But her best friend Sloane is there to buck her up - she'll arrange for the best divorce lawyer in her husband's firm to handle Erica's divorce.  And in the meantime, she keeps Erica busy with a whole series of rich, eligible blind dates.  Sloane's only too happy to lend her closet full of designer dresses and shoes to the cause!  You know there's going to be a happy ending here.  The biggest question just might be: With whom?

There's no heavy lifting required in this trip down Memory Lane.  It's perfect for the beach or the bubble bath.

The Excitements

I don't know why CJ Wray's novel The Excitements (#1,252) hasn't gotten more buzz; I found it a thoroughly satisfying read.  What's not to like about two female WWII veterans behaving badly?

Josephine and Penny Williamson are being feted everywhere as two of the dwindling number of WWII vets in Britain.  Why, they've met Charles and Camilla!  But these sweet and doddering old ladies are not at all what they appear to be, and they like it that way.

The book jumps back and forth in time to tell their stories before, during and after the war.  Now they've settled into an enjoyable life with their great-nephew Andrew thinking up "excitements" to keep his beloved aunts occupied.  When they are nominated for France's Legion of Honor, Andrew takes over the planning of their trip to coincide with a business trip for his Mayfair art gallery.  His friend is hosting a black-tie exhibit for a major jewelry auction, and the aunties express an interest in attending.  Only nothing about the trip goes as planned, as in a space of a few days, secrets kept for decades are gradually spilled.  And oh, are they juicy!

It's all about the power of family and friends as the story unfolds.  Penny and Josephine are heroines unlike any others I've encountered.

I just have one minor nit.  I hated the cover art on this book.  The older women shown don't pull me in, and don't remotely resemble Josephine or Penny at various points in their lives.  But do yourself a favor and pick up this book anyway.  You'll be glad you did!

A Daughter of Fair Verona

So Christina Dodd can write romcoms!  Case in point: A Daughter of Fair Verona (#1,251), a riff on the classic Romeo and Juliet.  What if they didn't die at the end, but instead settle into becoming leading lights in Verona society, running a successful wine business and raising a passel of kids?

Lady Rosaline is their oldest daughter, and the sensible one in the family.  She's successfully matched off her three previous fiancés with their ideal mate while adroitly avoiding matrimony herself.  Until her parents match her with the infamous Duke Stephano. He's already outlived three wives, so Rosie is going to be his good luck charm.  Too bad for him when he turns out dead with a knife in his chest in the Montague's garden at the couple's betrothal party.  Since everyone suspects Rosie of wielding the knife (she didn't, as much as she would have liked to!) she has to get to the bottom of things.  To complicate matters even more, Rosie finally meets her one true love!  Could things get any worse?  Well, yes, they can!

A really fun romp of a read.  I'll read anything by Christina Dodd that comes out in this series, and lucky for us, it looks promising!

The Briar Club

I've heard mixed reviews about Kate Quinn's latest novel The Briar Club (#1,250), but I have to come down firmly in the "Loved it!" camp.  It's somewhat of a departure from her recent best-selling WWII era books, like Diamond Eye and The Rose Code.  

Set in a women's boarding house in Washington, D.C. in the early 1950s, America is still recovering from WWII.  Many of the women called to fill the positions in the Washington bureaucracy vacated by men during the war are still there, trying to scrape by.  Briarwood House caters to these single women.  The plot opens with a gory murder there on Thanksgiving Day.  If only the house could talk!  But wait, Briarwood House is a character here, adding a charming bit of whimsey to the tale.

Each section of the book is devoted to one of the women living under its roof: Grace, who fixes and feeds everybody; Nora who is proud of her position at the National Archives, but whose personal life is in turmoil; Bea can't quite get over the fact that her knee injury has knocked her out of professional baseball; Arlene, working enthusiastically for the House Unamerican Activities Committee under Joe McCarthy; Fliss, the perfect British mother who is slowly buckling under the weight of that perfection...  There are others, plus the Nilsson family who actually run the boarding house.  One thing is clear right from the start: each of these women is hiding secrets with deadly consequences.

I loved this book for the same reasons I loved Clare Pooley's two recent novels, or Sara Nisha Adams' books.  They all address the issue of community in a positive way while entertaining the heck out of the reader at the same time.  If only all the books we pick up turned out to be treasures like these!

Red Star Falling

I seem to be on a Russian kick with Red Star Falling (#1,249), the latest collaboration between Steve Berry and Grant Blackwood.  This is the second book in a series featuring Luke Daniels, a young Magellan Billet agent benefitting from his encounters with the legendary Cotton Malone.

Luke is in Europe, finishing up an assignment when he receives a cryptic message from an agent he thought was killed during a botched operation on the Ukranian/Russian border.  Could John Vincent still possibly be alive in a secret Russian prison?  Luke is determined to find out.  John has discovered a plot to unleash a deadly Soviet weapon on the Kremlin.  But who is behind the plot, and why?  More importantly, can Luke stop it?

Impossible escapes, tight and plausible plotting and nothing less than the fate of the world are stake here.  Buckle in and enjoy the ride!

The Man From St. Petersburg

The Man From St. Petersburg (#1,248) is one of Ken Follett's early novels, written more than forty years ago.  Even after I finished this book, I couldn't decide whether or not I liked it, though judging by the reaction of my other book club members, I seem to be in the minority.

In 1914, Europe appears to be on the brink of war.  One man, a Russian anarchist, is determined to hasten things along by assassinating a Russian diplomat sent to London to negotiate an Anglo-Russian alliance. Prince Orlov is a relative of both the Czar and the Earl of Walden, so a social visit to his English family for the London Season provides a convenient cover for diplomatic negotiations.   Although the twists and turns of the plot are relentless, this is very much a character-driven novel.  

Long-held secrets and thwarted passions play a huge role in the plot.  In fact, I was surprised by just how much sex drove the action.  Without giving away too much, the Earl of Walden's entire family become thoroughly embroiled in the plot, from his Russian wife Lydia, to his debutante daughter Charlotte. 

Honestly, other than the Earl himself, I did not like any of the main characters.  I thought Lydia's character was the embodiment of male sexual fantasy.  No wonder daughter Charlotte grew up so defiant!  Feliks, the assassin, has a backstory which is supposed to make him more sympathetic, but I could only see him as an amoral master manipulator.  But what bothered me the most were the incredible coincidences which kept popping up.  It got to the point where you could see the reveals coming up way in advance.

I guess after writing this, I come down more on the side of not liking this book, as much as I admire Mr. Follett's later work, but if you are one of the legion of Follett fans, you may want to judge for yourself.