The New Girl

When I get a new Daniel Silva novel, I start with such excitement, but in too short a time when the new adventure comes to an end, the excitement is replaced by sadness. Now I have to wait for the next novel. And so it was again with The New Girl, the 19^th novel in the series of Gabriel Allon stories. Although I was sure it was not possible that he could write a better story than he had before, I think Mr. Silva has achieved exactly that. This is a very current day fiction with international political figures that you will recognize. The accounts of the characterized are fictionalized, but given the research the author has done, it is all frighteningly believable. In this story, Russia’s meddling in other countries than the US is described, and their international assassinations that are well known in real life, comes to play again. England, Israel, Iran, Syria, and the U.S. have much at stake. Once again Sylva uses characters that are well known to his readers, and the story is enhanced with new ones. You don’t really need any more information to go buy this book and share in the continued evolution of Gabriel and his supporting characters. Thank you Daniel Silva, and now I await your next effort.

Tracking Game by Margaret Mizushima

Murder in rural Timber Creek, Colorado. Violent poachers. A ‘creature’ on the loose. Old money ranch family. Cop Mattie Cobb and her K-9 Robo plus veterinarian Cole Walker (who’s patiently waiting for Cobb to return his affections) get pulled into a curious swirl of conflicting rumors and puzzling evidence.

Now the premise had potential, but the further I went into this story (the 5^th Timber Creek K-9 mystery), that voice in my head kept telling me this sounded a lot like a Hallmark Murder and Mystery product. I’ll admit that I do enjoy the occasional Hallmark Channel movie and when committed, I’m in for the full 2hrs (w/ commercials). But not when I’m reading. If I’m going all in for a week or two, it’ll be more on my terms and less the Hallmark flavor of the month. Having said that, readers who truly love Hallmark movies will no doubt find this an enjoyable escape.

ECD

Lions of the Sky

Lions of the Sky by Paco Chierici is a marvelous current day story of Navy pilots, specifically those that land on aircraft carriers, where the name “tailhook” comes from. I live in a Navy town, San Diego, and have had numerous conversations with Navy pilots. The idea of landing an airplane on the tossing deck of an aircraft carrier is dangerous and frightening, and everyone who has done it says so. There have been multiple deaths during training accidents that have occurred during the 40 years that I’ve lived here. Scary seems like an inadequate word, but that does not even include the notion of being shot at or taking a shot at a bandit, an enemy aircraft. I was lucky enough to attend a couple Tailhook conventions in Reno, and I was lucky enough to witness highly skilled pilots do their thing. And then, I was a guest on an adventure to Russia where I got to ride backseat in a MIG29 which did full combat maneuvers (although I never pulled more than 6.5 G’s compared to real fighter pilots who can handle 8 G’s). So, it was with considerable excitement and a little knowledge that I read this account of pilots being trained for this very activity, and then flying in combat.

Chierici created great characters, both men and women, some of whom were instructors, and others who were rookies or “nuggets.” The interplay between Lt. Sam “Slammer” Richardson, Keely “Quick” Silvers, Lexi “Dusty” Rhodes, “JT,” and others was very well written. Bright, ultracompetitive, egotistical, sexist, defensive – all so believable. Once the characters were created, the author created a dogfight scenario that was incredible. I was on the edge of my seat for the length of this “can’t put it down” novel. Think about the excitement that you felt when you saw the movie “Top Gun” for the first time. Without reservation, this one gets a 5/5 rating.

Sign of the Cross by Glenn Cooper

A young Catholic seminarian, Giovanni Beradino, and a classmate are visiting a forgotten monastery in Croatia. One of the remaining monks asks the soon-to-be Father Gio, but not his friend, to join him in a crypt where he is exposed to what appears to be a relic of the Crucifixion.

Father Gio gets assigned to a tiny parish in Italy with the goal of being a simple priest tending to his flock. But he becomes the focus of the media and religious pilgrims when he develops stigmata – bleeding from the wrists, ankles, the same locations of the nails to Christ’s hand and feet, and in his side where the Centurian’s spear pierced the side of Jesus on the cross.

When such miracles occur, the Vatican must investigate. Normally, they convene a council that eventually debunks the story. Because of the publicity, the Pope requests the help of an author of religious antiquities to be an objective 3^rd party. The author is Dr. Cal Donovan (no relation to Fitz Donovan of the Jane Street book just reviewed) of the Harvard Divinity School. He goes to Italy for a preliminary investigation and finds Father Gio an earnest young priest thrust into a caldron he doesn’t understand.

Father Gio also grabs the attention of a couple well-heeled Germans who present themselves as simply idle rich treasure hunters, but in reality, they are descended from a line of former SS commanders. During the war, their parents or grandparents were charged with finding Christian relics from the Crucifixion. The belief was that whomever held those artifacts would possess unmatched power. They were to find some of the Crucifixion nails, pieces of the Cross of Christ, and the head of the Centurian’s spear. Some were found and secured in a bunker in Antarctica. They believe this priest holds the key to power denied, but more importantly, a resurrection of the Third Reich.

Sound like Raiders of the Lost Ark? Or The Last Crusade? Or The Da Vinci Code? You’d be right. I’ll admit it’s an entertaining read and the main characters are well developed. Many might say it’s a good summer beach diversion. The story is well-paced and presents enough clues that this is the beginning of a series of books about Dr. Cal Donovan. Just couldn’t get over the feeling that we’ve been down this road before.

ECD

Murder on Jane Street by Cathy Cash Spellman

Jane Street. One of those tony side streets in NYC’s Village neighborhood. Everyone is rich, talented, beautiful, doesn't look their age. You know. 

Fitz Donovan is a retired NYC police chief who now runs a mystery-themed bookstore. Wife died 10y ago. Daughter Maeve (who carries on the family trait of clairvoyance) and grand-daughter Finn (trying to become a photographer) live with him. Another daughter, Rory (former lawyer who now rehabs and flips homes), lives nearby.

Next door lives Ms. Wallenberg, an elderly lady who fled Europe after the war. She says she wants to give Fitz something because she knows he will know what to do with it. Two hours after she tells this to Fitz, she is found murdered in her home.  The police are writing it off as a burglary gone bad.

But she was tortured, too. And by the looks of things, it was done by a pro. The ex-cop in Fitz isn’t on the same page as the NYPD on this one. And he finds a large envelope that had been tossed in his bushes. In it is a journal that contains far more than just the day-to-day musings of an old lady. It presents in considerable detail just how advanced German science was in the days of Hitler. New physics. Concepts that are only now just being unearthed, the Germans were way ahead back in the 1930s and 40s.

That Germany had brilliant scientists wasn’t lost on the OSS and they started up Operation Paperclip that tracked down the major brains in science, industry, banking, and more in order to secret them to the US and put to work, mostly under new identities. Werner Von Braun of NASA was just the most visible beneficiary of Paperclip.

Donovan recruits a number of NYC geniuses to help read, interpret, and unravel all that Ms. Wallenberg and kept locked up in this journal – they call themselves the Bleeker Street Irregulars. But their work doesn’t go un-noticed. A cabal of former Nazis living in the US want them stopped because the main secret is that it was a Hitler doppelganger who died in that bunker and that Hitler’s bloodline is alive and well. Heads of finance and industry can, with a lot of serious digging, be traced back to their Nazi roots. And one is being nurtured by this gang to make a run at the White House. If successful, the vision of the Third Reich will be realized.

Just a bit of a coincidence that I read two books about modern day Nazis. The bulk of this book surrounds each of Donovan’s team as they investigate a multitude of different arms of the conspiracy. And it’s pretty clever, too. After about 2/3 of the book, I started to think that this as the obvious Part 1 of a coming series about this one man’s push toward the White House. Sort of like The Omen parts 1-3. You’ll have to decide. It IS the beginning of a series of books about Donovan’s Bleeker Street Irregulars. Think of this coming series as a modern take on Agatha Christie. 

ECD

The Russian

The Russian is an action-packed espionage novel by Ben Coes, his 9^th novel and the second one reviewed in this blog. East Coast Don reviewed Power Down in 2013. For Coes, that began a several book series about protagonist Dewey Andreas, and this is the opening novel in a new series about Rob Tacoma. Tacoma is a war hero who has become a CIA asset – a magnificent fighter who can speak Russian fluently. In the story, the Russian mafia has thoroughly infiltrated the U.S., and the book opens with the assassination of two important American legislators who have been working hard to limit their influence. Tacoma is called in to deal with an impossible circumstance. As noted, it is rapid paced drama. In response to some of the fights and gun battles that Tacoma survived, I thought the story was too unrealistic, but I also realize that we are living in hard-to-believe times. So, with a little effort at suspending my reality testing, I got into this can’t-put-it-down novel. Coes has provided us with an entertaining read, perhaps not in the same class as some other espionage writers, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.