Books Read in March and April 2023

I skipped a reading summary for March so this is a combo summary for March and April. I read ten books in March and five in September. In April, all the books I read were crime fiction. In March, I read a biography, a graphic novel, two books of general fiction, and a fantasy novel, in addition to crime fiction novels. 

Nonfiction / Biography

The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family (2001) by Mary S. Lovell

After reading The Six by Laura Thompson, I felt like I could benefit from another look at the Mitford family. I hoped for more information about Jessica, Pam and Deborah. And I definitely got that. Also more about their parents, although their brother Tom was only touched on. See my full review here.

Graphic novel

A Man and His Cat, Vol. 3 (2019) by Umi Sakurai (Writer and Artist) 

There are 10 volumes in this Japanese manga series. In the first volume, a widower, Kanda, seeks a cat as a companion, and finds his perfect match at a pet store. The man falls in love with his new cat and names him Fukumaru. The stories in the first and second volume are mostly about Kanda learning to live with and take care of a cat. In the third volume, some earlier relationships in his life are explored. I will be reading more in this charming manga series. See my review of volumes 1-3.

General Fiction

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (1971) by Elizabeth Taylor

Mrs. Palfrey, a widow living on a fixed income, has just moved into an extended residence hotel in London. There are a small number of older residents who are living there permanently. She is proud and trying to fit in, and ashamed that she has no one to visit her.  It explores the time in life when people are alone and moving toward a time when they need more care, so it is not very upbeat but also not a complete downer. It was a very good book and I will be looking for more by this author.

Dear Life: Stories (2012) by Alice Munro

I started reading this book of short storied in November 2022 and finished them in March of this year. There are fourteen stories in the book. Some of them are exceptionally good and I liked the stories overall very much. Alice Munro is a Canadian author and I liked the Canadian setting. I will be reading more of her short stories. See my posts on the first eight stories and the next six stories.

Fantasy

Assassin's Apprentice (1995) by Robin Hobb

I haven't read a lot of fantasy, and certainly not a lot of high fantasy. This first book in the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb has a medieval fantasy setting.  I took  a chance on this one because of Cath's review of The Mad Ship from the Liveship Traders Trilogy by the same author. I loved it and I will be reading more of the trilogy. My review is here.

Crime Fiction

Time to Murder and Create (1976) by Lawrence Block

This is the second book in the Matthew Scudder series. I read the first book in the series back in 2011 and it took me this long to return to it. My goal is to read as many books in the series as I can; there are 17 books. In this novel, Matthew is hired by a criminal to avenge his death. The criminal, who has been supporting himself with blackmail, supplies Matthew with information on his current victims, as he suspects one of them of planning to murder him. I enjoyed this book and read it very quickly, but I suspect that the series get much better as it goes along.

Baby, Would I Lie? (1994) by Donald Westlake

This book is the second book in a two-part series about Sara Joslyn and Jack Ingersoll. Both are journalists, and they are covering the trial of country singer Ray Jones for the rape and murder of Belle Hardwick. See my review here.

The Mask of Memory (1974) by Victor Canning

The Mask of Memory is the third book in the Birdcage series. The series is about a covert security group in the UK, a branch of the Ministry of Defense. In this book, one of the top agents is leading a double life. He is married to a woman who lives in North Devon; she does not know what he does for a living and sees him infrequently. No one in his group knows that he is married, or of the existence of the home in North Devon. I enjoyed the first two books in the series and this one was also very good. I will be moving on to the fourth book in the series, The Doomsday Carrier, soon.

4:50 from Paddington (1957) by Agatha Christie

This is the 7th Jane Marple mystery. Jane Marple's friend Elspeth McGillicuddy sees a man strangling a woman in a passing train. She tells the railway officials and later the police, but no one can find any evidence of a crime, and they don't really believe her. Jane Marple decides to investigate. After finishing almost all the Hercule Poirot novels in 2021, I now want to finish up the Miss Marple series.

Murder in a Nunnery (1940) by Eric Shepherd

The first of two short novels set in Harrington Convent. I read this book for the 1940 Club organized by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings. My review is here.

Bad Faith (2002) by Aimée and David Thurlo

Bad Faith is the first book in a series about a nun who solves mysteries. The setting is in New Mexico. Sister Agatha is an extern nun who deals with the outside world for her order. I liked the mystery but the really interesting part was reading about the cloistered nuns and their daily life. There are only six in the series and I would definitely read more of them if I have the time.

The So Blue Marble (1940) by Dorothy B. Hughes

This book was Dorothy B. Hughes' debut mystery novel. It is unlike any other book by Hughes that I have read. In a Lonely Place and Ride a Pink Horse are noir novels, with a much more serious tone. This one is also on the noir side but more fantastical, and requires a good bit of suspension of disbelief. See my review here.

The Blind Man of Seville (2003) by Robert Wilson

Although I had decided earlier to stop reading Robert Wilson's novels because most of them had too much graphic violence and sex for me, I took a chance on this book, because it is set in Seville, Spain. This book did have those elements, but I was glad I took a chance on the book. The setting and character development was very good.

The Echoing Strangers (1952) by Gladys Mitchell

This is the 25th novel in Gladys Mitchell's Mrs. Bradley series. There are two plot threads. The first takes place mostly in the village of Wetwode on the River Burwater, where Francis Caux lives with his guardian, Miss Higgs. A murder victim is discovered near to the riverside bungalow that Francis lives in. The second follows a separate murder investigation in the village of Mede, where Derek Caux, Francis's twin, lives with his grandfather, Sir Adrian Caux. I read this book as part of a group read hosted at Jason Half's blog. The first of four posts about the novel is here.

Body Line (2011) by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

I used to love the Bill Slider mystery series but got side-tracked. In April, I decided to pick it up again with Body Line, the 13th book in the series. I had just finished a very violent and dark police procedural and I wanted to go in the opposite direction. There is a strong focus on the lives of the two major characters (Slider and his partner Atherton) in addition to the investigation of the crime. I will be looking for the next in the series.

My husband was on jury duty for a few days recently. The images at the top and bottom of the post were taken at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, while he was there. The courthouse building has lovely grounds and architecture. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Ruth Ozeki to Louise Penny

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book is The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki. I know nothing about this book so I am using just a few sentences from the Goodreads summary to describe it:

After the tragic death of his beloved musician father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house – a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Although Benny doesn't understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone; some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous.

This time I am using a simple approach, linking from a word in the current title to a word in the next title. 

Using "Emptiness" in the starting title, my first link is to An Empty Death by Laura Wilson. That book is the second in a historical mystery series set from the early 1940s into the late 1950s, a period I enjoy reading about. The novel provides a vivid picture of the wartime years in Great Britain, and how the war affected family life in particular. Set in 1944 after several years at war, it also focuses on the deprivation that was experienced during those years.

From An Empty Death, I move on to A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson. This book has two story lines, one set in the 1940's in Germany and Portugal, the other set in the late 1990's in Lisbon. The later time line features a police detective whose investigation of a teenage girl's murder links back to the experiences of a Berlin factory owner forced into Hitler's SS in 1941. The story is suspenseful and compelling, the characters have depth, but there was too much violence and sex for me. This book won the CWA Gold Dagger in 1999.

From A Small Death in Lisbon, I next link to The Lisbon Crossing by Tom Gabbay. Comparing the two books, this story is much lighter and very picturesque. Jack Teller is a US citizen visiting Lisbon with international film star Lili Sterne in 1940, to help her locate a childhood friend, Eva Lange. This is the 2nd in the Jack Teller series and each book is set in a different city and time period. 

The Lisbon Crossing leads me to The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths. That book takes me out of the World War II period to a more contemporary mystery. This is the first book in the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries. The main character is a forensic archeologist who often ends up working with the police when there are questions about skeletal remains. There are 15 books in the series but I have only read the first four. 

My next link is A Beautiful Place to Die (2008) by Malla Nunn, a story set in 1950s apartheid South Africa. This is the only one of the six linked books that I have not read.  And it has been on my TBR pile for five years now! 

Description at the publisher's site:

In a morally complex tale rich with authenticity, Nunn takes readers to Jacob's Rest, a tiny town on the border between South Africa and Mozambique. It is 1952, and new apartheid laws have recently gone into effect, dividing a nation into black and white while supposedly healing the political rifts between the Afrikaners and the English. Tensions simmer as the fault line between the oppressed and the oppressors cuts deeper, but it's not until an Afrikaner police officer is found dead that emotions more dangerous than anyone thought possible boil to the surface...

A Beautiful Place to Die leads me to my last link, The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny. This is the eighth book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series, set in a secluded monastery. I enjoyed the new setting. The stories set in Three Pines are charming, but I also enjoy exposure to other parts of Québec. It was interesting to get a look at the workings of a small monastery. (I am currently reading the tenth book in the series, The Long Way Home.)

All of my links are crime fiction stories, and all are set outside of the USA. Settings are in the UK, Portugal, Germany, South Africa, and Canada. 

If you are participating in the Six Degrees meme, where did your links take you? If not, have you read these books? Any comments on The Book of Form and Emptiness or A Beautiful Place to Die, which I have not read yet?

Next month (September 3, 2022), Six Degrees of Separation will begin with the book you ended with this month. (So, for me it will be The Beautiful Mystery.) For those who did not participate this month, start with the last book you read.

A Small Death in Lisbon: Robert Wilson

A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson has two story lines, one set in the 1940's in Germany and Portugal, the other set in the late 1990's in Lisbon. The later time line features a police detective whose investigation of a teenage girl's murder links back to the experiences of a Berlin factory owner forced into Hitler's SS in 1941.

The main character in the World War II section of the story is Klaus Felsen, the factory owner turned SS officer. With his manufacturing experience, Felsen is ordered to Portugal by the military, primarily to increase the supply of wolfram (tungsten) shipped back to Germany. Unfortunately none of the main characters in that part of the story were likable or sympathetic. The star of the story set in the 1990's is  Zé Coelho, a policeman in Lisbon who is just coming back to work after dealing with the death of his wife. He has a good relationship with his teenage daughter and his new partner is young and brash. Their first case together is the investigation of the brutal murder of Catarina Oliveira. This is a long book and the author has plenty of time to provide rich characterizations and explore the relationships in depth.

This book won the CWA Gold Dagger in 1999. The story is suspenseful and compelling, and I learned a lot while reading the book. I know little about Portugal, and was not aware of the status of that country during World War II, so I found all of the historical background interesting. On the whole this was a great read, but the story contained too much violence and sex for me.

This book is a standalone novel, but the author has written three series: the Bruce Medway series set in West Africa, the Javier Falcon series set in Spain, and the Charles Boxer series, based in London. My favorite novel by Wilson is another standalone novel set in Lisbon, The Company of Strangers.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:  Berkley Books, 2002. Orig. pub. 1999.
Length:     451 pages
Format:     Paperback
Setting:     Portugal, Germany
Genre:      Historical Mystery
Source:    I purchased this book.

Reading Summary for March 2018

My reading summary for March follows. It was a very good reading month.


Non-crime fiction books read:


Blackout (2010) by Connie Willis

The longest book I read in March was Blackout by Connie Willis, and it was nearly 500 pages and only half of a book. I had read that Blackout and All Clear formed one book together, but I did not realize that Blackout would end with such a cliffhanger. Given that, I won't say much more about this book but will wait until I have completed All Clear in April. The basic and brief summary for this book is that time travelers are visiting various sites during World War II, and a good portion of this book is set in London during the Blitz. I enjoyed the book immensely, had a hard time putting it down every night, but I did have some quibbles with it.

And the list of crime fiction read in March:

A Murder Is Announced (1950) by Agatha Christie

This is the fourth Jane Marple mystery novel and my fourth read in that series in the last few years. I loved it and now it is tied with The Moving Finger for my favorite Miss Marple story. The story is set in the small English village of Chipping Cleghorn. A murder announcement is placed into the Personals section of local newspaper and everyone assumes it is a clever invitation to a murder party. However, the group that gathers witnesses a real murder. Miss Marple is called in to help with the investigation. 

The Black Seraphim (1983) by Michael Gilbert

This is the fourth novel by Michael Gilbert that I have read, and it is my favorite so far. The Black Seraphim and Close Quarters, Gilbert's first novel, have the same setting, the Melchester Cathedral close. Otherwise, there is no connection between the two, and this one was published 36 years after Close Quarters. My review here.

A Small Death in Lisbon (1999) by Robert Wilson

This book has two story lines, one set in the 1940's in Germany and Portugal, the other set in the late 1990's in Lisbon. The later time line features a police detective whose investigation of a teenage girl's murder links back to the experiences of a Berlin factory owner forced into Hitler's SS in 1941. The story is suspenseful and compelling, the characters have depth, but there was too much violence and sex for me. This book won the CWA Gold Dagger in 1999. 

Murder Must Advertise (1933) by Dorothy L. Sayers

The eighth novel in the Peter Wimsey series. I have always considered this my favorite mystery by Dorothy L. Sayers, so I was glad to find that the story lived up to my memories of it. My review here.

The Lisbon Crossing (2006) by Tom Gabbay

I deliberately chose to read this book shortly after reading A Small Death in Lisbon because I wanted to see how the two books compared. This story is much lighter and very picturesque. Jack Teller is a US citizen visiting Lisbon with international film star Lili Sterne in 1940, to help her locate a childhood friend, Eva Lange. This is the 2nd in the Jack Teller series and each book is set in a different city and time period. 

Recalled to Life (1992) by Reginald Hill

This is the 13th book in the Dalziel and Pascoe police procedural series. The story takes us back to a crime committed in 1963 at a local manor during a house party including government officials and diplomats. A nanny implicated in the murder is released from prison 30 years later and Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel, who was a junior officer at the time, investigates the crime further, against the orders of his superiors. As usual, this is a compelling novel by a master storyteller.

Free Agent (2009) by Jeremy Duns

During World War II, Paul Dark was a young British agent, recruited by his father. At the end of the war, he took part in a mission to hunt down and execute Nazi war criminals. Twenty five years later a Russian defector turns up in Nigeria and reveals some information that makes him doubt everything he has been working for since the war. Paul goes to Nigeria to track down the truth. A very enjoyable spy story, the first of a trilogy, and along the way I learned a lot about Nigerian politics and history.

Reading in December 2016

I read seven novels in December.

I read one book for the Sci-Fi Experience, hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings. That was The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, an alternative history set in 1962 after Nazi Germany and Japan won World War II. Although I have planned to read this book for a long time, I was motivated to read it at this time because I have been watching the TV adaptation produced by Amazon Studios.

I will have more to say about the book in a future post but I can say the book was stunning, although it was not what I expected, especially based on the TV episodes. Having read this book, I want to try more of Philip K. Dick's novels and also his short stories.

As usual, most of my reading during the month was crime fiction. Here's the list:

• Inner City Blues by Paula L. Woods:  Quoting from The Black Female Detective in Mystery Literature at Martin Hill Ortiz's blog:  "Misogyny and racial tension are up-front and center as Det. Justice is plunged into the midst of the "Rodney King" riots and becomes involved in solving the mystery of who killed the man who killed her husband and child. The internal politics and prejudices of the LAPD make a formidable, albeit uncomfortable, backdrop to the novel which went on to win the Macavity Award and spawned three sequels."
• Christmas is Murder by C. S. Challinor:  A contemporary country-house mystery, set at Christmas. Review HERE.
• Kill Now, Pay Later by Robert Kyle:  This is the book I read for the Crimes of the Century meme for December, hosted at Past Offences. Published in 1960. Review HERE.
• Cursed to Death by Bill Crider:  The 3rd mystery to feature Dan Rhodes, Sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas. It was published in 1988. Review HERE. 
• Capital Punishment by Robert Wilson:  This is the start of a series starring Charles Boxer, former homicide detective who has becom a kidnap consultant. Set in London. The mechanics of the business of kidnap response is interesting. 
• The Alamut Ambush by Anthony Price:  The 2nd book in the Dr. David Audley series, published in 1971. Audley features in some way in each book, but some of the books are from the viewpoint of other characters who work with Audley. This time Squadron Leader Hugh Roskill is at the forefront.

Instruments of Darkness: Robert Wilson

Excerpt from synopsis for the book at the author's website:

Bruce Medway, fixer and debt collector, operates along that stretch of West African coast they used to call The White Man's Grave. He spends his time drinking hard and getting steamy with his girlfriend Heike, a German aid worker. He always needs cash but finds he's bitten off more than he can chew when the formidable Madame Severnou, having given him a bedsheet full of money for a 7000 ton cargo of rice, comes back to collect. Warned off any notion of revenge by his client, Jack Obuasi, Bruce instead directs his energies into the search for missing British expat, Steven Kershaw.

This is my capsule review: I enjoyed this book but it is not in my favorite sub-genre. This book, part of a four books series,  is described by the author as 1990's West African noir. The author admires Chandler, and it shows in his style of writing. But this novel is very gritty, very violent.

The characters in this book seem to be divided into good and bad. Very little in between. Most of the characters are very bad people, either very evil or very crazy. There are a few "good" people among the protagonist's friends and acquaintances: his girlfriend Heike, his driver Moses, the policeman who works with him and becomes his ally.  Bruce Medway and the policeman, Bagado, are the characters with the most depth in this novel.

I read this book at this time primarily because of the setting. Medway lives in Benin, but some of the action also occurs in Togo, Nigeria and Ghana. Because of Robert Wilson's background (he has lived and worked in Africa), I believe the depiction of the area and the people to be accurate. This article, Crime Beat: Ayo Onatade on the African crime novels of Robert Wilson, also indicates that he has done a good job of describing the situation in this part of Africa.

This book is the type of thriller that requires a lot of suspension of disbelief. But most thrillers are like that and for the most part that is OK. The good guys escape from impossible situations, and go on living to save another day.

As soon as I finished this book, I was ready to jump into The Big Killing, the second book in the series. So, yes, it is a very readable book, and I do want to know what happens to the characters. But, from what I have read about that book, it is more of the same, thus I will have to wade through more violence and endure more corrupt characters. I cannot start the second book now. I have other reading commitments for 2013, but I do hope to get to it in 2014.

I have read one other book by Robert Wilson. It was The Company of Strangers (my review here), a spy thriller, and it was one of my favorite reads of 2012. That novel is a spy thriller, one of Wilson's two standalone novels, published in 2001. The story is set in Lisbon initially, then moves to East Berlin and England. It covers the years from 1944 through the early 1990s.

Wilson has written two other series, and I plan to read both. The Javier Falcon series is set in Spain; a new series, featuring Charlie Boxer, is set in London.

My Favorite Reads in 2012

This is the first time I have attempted to assess my favorite reads for an entire year. It was harder than I expected. To keep the list to just ten favorites, I decided to omit re-reads and pick only one book by an author. You will note that all of these books are crime fiction. Most years, that is my primary reading.

I had given 5 stars (on Goodreads) to three of the Len Deighton books I read, all from the Bernard Sampson series. I just picked my favorite of those three. The four authors on this list that I had read before were Elizabeth George, John Lawton, Laura Wilson, and Philip Kerr. The other six authors were new to me in 2012.

Here is my list, with links to my reviews. These are listed in the order I read them, not in order by preference.

1. Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George
2. Berlin Game by Len Deighton
3. The Company of Strangers by Robert Wilson
4. In the Woods by Tana French
5. The Guards by Ken Bruen 
6. An Empty Death by Laura Wilson
7. The Suspect by L. R. Wright
8. A Lily of the Field by John Lawton
9. The One from the Other by Philip Kerr
10. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Most Surprising Book:   
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The book did not interest me when it first came out. With a very intelligent 11-year-old as the detective, I thought it would be too cutesy. Plus, mysteries featuring amateur detectives are not my favorite type. But there are always exceptions. This book was so charming, I was drawn into it immediately. I just finished reading the second book in the series, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, and liked it just as well.

I like the setting: post World War II Britain, in an English village, with quirky characters. But most of all I just like the way the story is told through the eyes of a very imaginative nearly 11-year-old girl. She is precocious in some ways, naive in others.

New (to me) Author I fell in love with: Len Deighton

The Ipcress File, was the first book I read in 2012 and I was disappointed. I got lost in the story, did not know what was going on in the first half of the book. (Now that I have experienced more of Deighton's books, I think I should return to this book.)  But I had several of the Bernard Samson novels so I tried Berlin Game, and I am very glad I did.

At this post, I reviewed Spy Hook, the fourth book in the series and provided links to information about Deighton. The series tells the story of an intelligence officer in the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), with a wife who is also in intelligence. Family relationships are a big theme, probably one of the reasons I like the series. 

There are 9 books in the series. Three trilogies. I have read the first six books in the series. There is also a historical novel, Winter, which is not strictly in the series, but is a prequel (of sorts) to the series.


A wonderful series I finished this year: The Inspector Troy series by John Lawton

This is one of my favorite crime fiction series. The books are variable, and I enjoyed some much more than others. Overall, however, they provide a compelling picture of England before, during and after World War II. The series covers events in the life of Inspector Frederick Troy (of Russian descent) from roughly the early 1940's up through the early 1960's.

A Lily of the Field is the last book in the series. This is a longish book, and seems almost like two books, although there are definite links between the two stories. The crime in this book is the murder of a Polish painter, shot on an Underground platform with a very unusual gun. As in many of Lawton's books, the resolution of the crime is less important than the overall story and the picture of Britain during these years.

Two other books in the series that I especially enjoyed are Bluffing Mr. Churchill (review here) and Second Violin, which I reviewed here.

I really don't have a favorite for the year, but if I was forced to pick one it would be The Company of Strangers by Robert Wilson.

This novel is a spy thriller, one of my favorite genres. The story is set in Lisbon initially, then moves to East Berlin and England. It covers the years from 1944 through the early 1990s.

It is also a love story, but I would not call it romantic. It is more about the harsh realities of life; about families, and relationships, and maturing. A lot of books I have read this year have had a theme of family relationships and how they affect us.

I find it interesting to note that this is the only one in my list that is not part of a series. I do want to try other books by this author.

The Company of Strangers: Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson's description of The Company of Strangers in an article at the Crime Time website:

"The Company of Strangers is a spy thriller / love story which is set primarily in Lisbon in the July of 1944, has its continuation in East Berlin of early 1971 and a denouement in England in the early 1990s." 

A quote: 

     Cardew's conversation drifted toward work.

     "Yes, the fifties were terrific once we go rid of bugger boys Burgess and Maclean. Thought we were right on top of the game, only to find it was a complete bloody farce…

Khrushchev said to Kennedy once that we should give each other a list of all our spies and we'd probably find they read the same. Too bloody right."

There are two main protagonists, Karl Voss, a young intelligence officer in the German Army and Andrea Aspinall, who becomes a spy for the British during World War II in Lisbon at a very young age. The complications of their family relationships and their affair mold the rest of the story.

It is a love story, but I would not call it romantic. It is more about the harsh realities of life. It is about families, and relationships, and maturing. It seems like a lot of books I have read lately have had a theme of family relationships and how they affect us. Or maybe I am just focused on that topic right now.

Did I like this book? Yes, very much. I enjoyed the author’s storytelling and the characterizations. It did take me a long time to read. It was a big thick book but I don’t think that was the problem. There was a section in the middle where it slowed down and I would have like more explanation of that period of Andrea’s life, but then it would have been even longer. At the end, I felt that the author had set the stage well for the final events. 

This book also appealed to me because of the time period and subject matter. World War II and spy intrigue. And then it transitions into a Cold War novel and double agents. Was the depiction of spies and their double crosses and cynicism realistic? I don’t know, but I was convinced. It was real for me.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
A-Z Challenge
Chunkster Challenge
European Challenge
Merely Mystery Reading Challenge
Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge