The Last Hit Man by Robin Yocum

 Remember the opening story from Goodfellas? When teenager Henry Hill says that all he ever wanted to do was be a gangster? In this book, Angelo Cipriani wanted to be a criminal dating back to his high school years. 

 

Angelo grew up in a Steubenville, OH (NE Ohio for you geographically challenged) neighborhood known as Spaghetto, home to Italian immigrants.  But Angelo wasn't a pure breed Italian. His mom was Ukranian and the 'real' Italians in town never let him forget it. As such, Angelo grew up tough, because he had to. 

Angelo dropped out of high school and took a job cleaning floors and spittoons in a local pool hall. His willingness to do what was necessary caught the eye of a capo within the Fortunato family eventually getting to meet Alphonso - the boss. This family controlled gambling, numbers, sports book, and prostitution up and down the upper Ohio River valley (from Youngstown down the borders of OH, PA, WV) to Wheeling. The Fortunato's were frequently at odds with other families controlling other regions of the upper Midwest, but in the interest of business, a tense peace prevailed. Big Al kinda liked the kid and brought him into the family and the organization. So Angelo was brought up slowly by doing collections and helping with record keeping on the book making operation.

The family business was run top down with Big Al pulling the strings, paying bribes and tributes, playing criminal and cops against each other, and making all decisions regarding the family business. His son, Big Tommy, a business graduate from Bowling Green St Univ, would take over upon Al's death. Big Tommy had a son, Little Tommy, who was Big Tommy's heir apparent. Big Tommy liked  Angelo and elevated his importance by making him the understudy of Carlo Della Russo, the family executioner who taught Angelo the ways and practices of ethical execution. When Angelo finally gets his chance, he shows Carlo just how much he'd learned. Little Tommy has no use for Angelo and he also learns that because he isn't 100% Italiano, he'd wasn't in line to become a made man. Just the way it is. He'd be treated as such, but he wasn't and never would get that honor.

The book traces the fortunes of the Fortunato family over 40 years and three generations of leadership. Of the changing face of organized crime from book making, loan sharking, and prostitution in the old days to running hard drugs. All businesses evolve, even crime. Angelo also has to evolve. He has a growing reputation amongst the neighboring mobs and police, but he's so good at his job, the cops are left with suspicions, but never any evidence. Besides, the police don't much care if one family's hit man offs some leadership of another mob. 

In the 70s, Angelo gets married, his wife is pregnant, and they go out to celebrate. That doesn't go well and it leaves Angelo with a vendetta that must be reconciled with, no matter how long it takes.  Angelo has a long memory, but also has a girlfriend, a waitress at a local diner he frequents daily. 

Once Big Tommy passes, Little Tommy, ruthless thug and spoiled rotten piece of . . . you know,  has no real use for a late 60s yo hitter when he's got his own favs in their 20s. Little Tommy effectively rejects all the income streams that have kept the family going for nearly 40 years in favor of trafficking in hard drugs. Money is coming in so fast, he hardly knows where to stash it all. 

Now the Fortunatos had a 'you scratch my back' relationship with the cops and if the local cops were happy, the Feds sort of let things go the way things were. For two generations of Fortunatos, this was SOP. Little Tommy? Not so much. 

The Feds want Little Tommy and to get him, they approach Angelo. Rat out Little Tommy in exchange for witness protection. After plenty of back and forth, Angelo agrees only if he can take one of the few remaining mobsters still around as well as his girlfriend. 

And while that sounds like the perfect solution to Angelo's problems. Oh so wrong, grasshopper. The FBI still has a few tricks up its sleeves. And I'll leave it at that. 

Robin Yocum has six novels to his credit, most all of which were either nominated for various national awards or won a few. I hope people will pick this up and give it a go. It's told in flashbacks from current day (Angelo is 69yo) and back to the pool hall and forward through 40ish years. The prose flows smoothly (it's told like the reader is listening to Angelo recite his life story), the dialogue sounds pretty authentic (but who am I to say whether it is or isn't. Maybe friend of the blog, Charlie Stella, might have more to say about that). The setting (Steubenville) is almost a character in and of itself. This really is an engaging read. You are rooting for Angelo to find whatever it is he is looking for. To avenge what was taken from him. To get away scott free. Reach that turning point in his journey that gets him safely out of the life. In short, I think readers will grow to like Angelo as the story unfolds.  

This is Yocum's latest and, unless I read the ending of the book all wrong, it's not the last we've heard from Angelo Cipriani. 

Set a reminder on your calendar for 2 DEC 2025 for its release date.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance reviewer copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

ECD 

Killer Tracks

 

I’m sorry that I’m only getting to this review when it’s been a full month since I actually read it. I’ve been on a long and very busy vacation in places where my internet connection was weak, if it even existed at all. I remember thinking that the plot of Killer Tracks by Mary Keliikoa had potential. It’s a story about a married couple who lost their 3-year-old daughter to leukemia. The loss was so painful that the marriage didn’t survive. Some years later, Sheriff Jax Turner and his ex-wife Abby Kanekoa were trying to see if their relationship had a chance of survival and if it was worth it to try again. Both were involved in law enforcement. Jax was the sheriff in a small summer tourist town, Misty Pines, and Abby was an FBI agent in a big city. In the book, we quickly meet the whole cast of characters in the Misty Pines Sheriff Office. Jax and Abby are trying to have a weekend away despite their nearly 24/7 responsibilities.

 

My criticism has to do with the flow of the plot, which was uneven. The author spent too much time on the worries of the main characters that the relationship was really gone and there was no hope for them, as well as their fear that their respective other had already moved on. It was the introduction of Hannah that turned the experience of this book to a negative one for me. She was a psychopath, apparently in league with a very bad man, Backstrom, who was released from prison on a technicality. It was not believable that despite both Jax and Abby having been experienced and successful law enforcement officers that they repeatedly got sucked in to Hannah’s manipulations. Her statements were contradictory, but supposedly Jax and Abby were distracted from seeing clearly because of their own relationship issues. I just don’t buy that.

 

Bottomline, I can’t recommend this book. I think it could be rewritten into a much better story.

 

Atmosphere

 Atmosphere is the first novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid to be reviewed in this blog. She has written at least five other novels. I found this on my Kindle and read Atmosphere while on a long airplane flight. The author certainly captured the thrill of learning about the sky and stars, and she clearly created a story of space flight that is entirely believable and a tragedy that seemed very real. The plot is about that tragedy in space and the attempts by a former astronaut and a current astronaut to bring the space shuttle safely back to earth. The story was about the CAPCOM, the only person on the ground from NASA who talked with the astronauts in the shuttle, and others who were a part of NASA. Joan Goodwin was the first woman to have done so. 

Reid explored the efforts of Joan, who seemed to be on the spectrum of autism, something formerly called Asperger’s Syndrome. She had no real relationships with anyone other than her niece, had no significant connection to her sister or her mother. Joan had never had a boyfriend. She was in love with her work. Joan was also the victim of the rampant misogyny at NASA. It was the same with her classmates in astronaut training group #9, Vanessa Ford. Ford was a mechanic and pilot, but she was assigned to be second seat during training and was told she would never be allowed to fly the shuttle. I thought the various roles of different students and their different personalities was well-presented and it clearly contributed to the plot development. Reid wrote convincingly of the fire that killed three astronauts as they trained for Apollo I, an event that was used effectively to impress the fictional astronauts and this reader of the dangers these astronauts-in-training agreed to accept.

 

When she finally got her chance to go to space, Joan quickly discovered that the extended weightlessness of space was simply something she could not tolerate. She kept vomiting most of the duration of her trip. She made a decision to transfer out of the astronaut group and into the space command center. It was at about the halfway point of this compelling story that Joan discovered that she was gay, and that led to a relationship with Vanessa, a relationship that they had to hide if their careers at NASA were to continue. Reid wrote with relish about Joan’s awakening to the world about her and the meaning of her relationships with her niece, sister and mother, it was as if she was fully emerging from her Asperger’s. However, it was not only NASA that had to be kept in the dark about her love of Vanessa, it was also her own family.  So after the disaster happened in space and Joan was the only one who could feed Vanessa the data she needed to bring the shuttle back from orbit, the drama of the story ramped up even more. The title of this book is surely a double entendre which has been artfully applied by the author.

 

 

Return To Sender by Craig Johnson

Return to Sender is Craig Johnson's 21st Longmire mystery . . . dont' mess with a good thing. Full Disclosure: Johnson is firmly entrenched in my power rotation and I'm not likely to find anything at fault in the stories that come from his imagination.

This outing is quite the lively mystery set, per usual, in the rugged Wyoming wilderness. This time, Sheriff Longmire is called out by a relative of Walt's late wife to travel from Absaroka County to south central Wyoming . The relative is a postal inspector for the state but he needs Walt's anonymity in this region to sort of go undercover to investigate the disappearance of Blair McGowan, a postal worker responsible for the longest rural mail route in the United States that runs over three hundred miles across, around, and through the desolate Red Desert.

Walt poses as McGowan's replacement mail carrier, though the sheriff’s distinctive stature (six-foot-five) kind of undermines any real attempt at being secretive. Plus he does have a bit of a state wide reputation. No matter. Walt pursues this case, like all cases, earnestly by retracing McGowan’s route in her battered 1968 Travelall. On this lonely circuit, Walk is accompanied by Dog, his huge, but undeniably endearing canine companion. Their journey is littered with quirky encounters with the locals, curious clues left under painted rocks, confrontations with Blair’s odd/loser boyfriend and, most astonishingly, a cult, led by a has-been wannabe TV actor, hiding in the desert. Obviously, this cult quickly becomes the center of Walt's interest.

The book shows us just how comfortable Johnson and Longmire have become with each other. The narrative showcases Johnson’s trademark blend of wry humor, the colorful and dangerous Wyoming desert wrapped around a clever tale dotted with unrelenting suspense. Given the expanse of the Red Desert, Walt has to come to grips with modern technology - he gets his first cell phone. OK, an old flip phone - that he painstakingly attempts to learn. His 'relationship' with technology shows the classic Longmire charm and his stubborn, old-school grit that we devotees have grown to relish over twenty-one novels. While the main characters of the book really are Walt and Dog, we are still treated to the usual suspects in Walt's circle of support: his under-sheriff (and fiance) Vic Moretti, best friend Henry Standing Bear, secretary Ruby, the former sheriff Lucian Connally, and daughter Kady all make, for the purposes of this story, cameo appearances. The focus remains on Walt’s solitary investigation and Dog’s devoted assistance.

One of Johnson's gifts is his skill at presenting a sense of place. The desert's beauty as well as its dangers. And within this beautiful, if harsh, place Walt has to deal with  fistfights, gun play, and an adrenaline-charged chase across the desert. Overall, Return to Sender is another standout entry for rookie and legacy fans alike, brimming with tension, heart, and the colorful cast that keeps us coming back to for our annual visits into Longmire’s world.

The Cormorant Hunt by Michael Idov

This will be short cuz if I went too far with the plotline, I'd be the King of Spoilers. 

The Cormorant Hunt (a continuation of Idov's The Collaborators, that I see I forgot to post a review) is an electrifying, character-driven spy thriller thick with contemporary geopolitics, intrigue, and razor-sharp wit. The story centers around a disgraced CIA officer Ari Falk, exiled in the Republic of Georgia after exposing a massive conspiracy via what might be considered to be a WikiLeaks kind of disclosure. 

But the CIA hasn't forgetten (or forgiven) Falk for his role in the lead of trade secrets. The new Deputy Director of Cover Operations, Asha Tamaskar, has a plan for Ari . . . assuming she can find him. Now that the intelligence community knows that Falk is on the outs with the CIA, he might just be what the other side might be able to use, assuming he could be turned. And that's just what Tamaskar wants to do. She wants Falk to ingratiated himself in a shadowy organization bent on drilling some holes in the western capitalistic way of life. They are well funded and organized with tentacles crossing multiple borders, nationalities, and ways of life. If Falk can weasel his way in, the CIA could gain vital intel on how to disrupt plans and, with any luck, break up this cabal. The front man is Felix Burnham, Russian born but grew up in the US to the point of working in the CIA before dropping off the grid. Means Falk, who is used to being the one doing the recruiting of foreign, now has to become the one being recruited, this time by a skilled manipulator. 

As with any double agent, Falk struggles with being both a hero and a traitor, especially when alliances are always shifting. Dangerous new intelligence arises around most every corner. This complex covert assignment pulls Ari into a complex labyrinth of extremist groups and shadowy operatives across Europe as he is vetted at every stop. Burnham is a chilling, narcissistic antagonist with radical intentions to threaten global security and stability. Idov’s narrative moves briskly from Tbilisi to Prague and Russia taking us to seemingly authentic settings and pulse-pounding action; prepare to be constantly guessing.

Idov treats the reader to smart dialogue and moral ambiguity with real-world consequences, The Cormorant Hunt is quite the page-turner challenging us with the cost of loyalty and betrayal in a fractured world. If you like LeCarre and other modern storytellers of espionage, this is a story just for you.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance review copy. Publication date is Jan 27, 2026 so be patient. It's worth the wait

  

ECD 

Not My Type: One Woman vs. A President

 Not My Type are the words Donald J. Trump used in his response to looking at a photo of E. Jean Carroll, and then she used those same words as her book title as she provided the details of her life and the two trials that were held, the first for sexual abuse and defamation, the second trial for the same. Her subtitle is One Woman vs. A President. Of course, we know now that Trump lost both of those trials and was ordered to pay Ms. Carroll $83.3 million. Now, Trump hast lost his appeal and it is likely that this legal matter will probably be appealed to the Supreme Court. Although Ms. Carroll has yet to collect a single penny, the unpaid penalty is accruing 9% interest on a daily basis which apparently amounts to about $100,000 per day. Trump’s current debt to her stands at over $100,000,000. 

There is so much to this book that I did not expect. Ms. Carroll has been a gifted writer throughout her adult life, and she readily applied her skills to these events. I liked the organization of the book as she told her life story, and described the personalities of and physical descriptions of the primary players in this ongoing legal drama. I’ve read no clearer evidence of Trump being an outrageous liar. I’ve come away with an admiration of the legal knowledge and skill by Robbie Kaplan and her team, and the inadequacy of Trump’s legal team. Mostly, I’ve come away with admiration for Ms. Carroll and her ability to stand up to Trump under unbelievable pressure. It is my opinion that Trump is hampered in choosing competent people to surround him as the result of his narcissistic, sociopathic, and borderline personality disorder.

 

Carroll tells a very good story. I literally could not put this book down.

The Short Stories of Ernest Hemmingway

 I picked up The Short Stories of Ernest Hemmingway because I wanted to read a couple short stories he had written about his time in East Africa. It was Hemmingway’s sons Patrick and Sean who compiled the stories and published them in 2017. Ernest wrote “The Art of the Short Story” in 1959 from Malaga, Spain where he was staying at the time.

I must write that I’ve never been a big fan of Hemmingway although I was greatly enamored by The Old Man and the Sea, but his other novels just left me unimpressed. The two short stories that drew my attention were The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber and The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Those stories were suggested by my brother-in-law, a literature professor emeritus. Hemmingway certainly captured the dysfunctional and unhappy marriage of the Macombers. While the setting was in East Africa and hunting game was an important part of the action, I was left feeling quite flat after the story ended. The second short story just seemed dated and rather uninteresting in a current day light.

Heroes, the Greek Myths Reimagined

Heroes, the Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry is the second in a four-book set. I raved about the first book, Mythos, and I’m obviously not alone in my appreciate for Fry’s work. There had been a 14-week wait for access to that audiobook on the Libby app. While Mythos covers the whole beginning of the Greek mythologies, Heroes is a wonderful follow-up as Fry covers the stories of Perseus, Jason, Atalanta, Theseus, and Heracles (and more). While these stories have been told and retold for so long, Fry’s audiobook is done with the grandeur that such heroes deserve. He makes the stories seem bold and new. It’s where so many of our modern heroic acts were really told for the first time. I’m in love with this work, and now I’m waiting for my app Libby to bring me the third book, The Odyssey which I’ve read countless times. The Odyssey is perhaps, my favorite story, my favorite novel of all.

Redwind Security CEO, a Colonel Dawson, summons his top operative, Dane Winter, regarding Winter's upcoming assignment. Another protection gig, this one in Mexico. A retail magnate, Gilberto Sanchez, is planning a run for governor of the (fictitious) Mexican state of Tlapetla. He's hosting a mega fund raiser for all the monied residents and business officials of the state at his home in San Yetaxa. His political platform is based on shutting down one of Mexico's cartels whose home base in in Tlapetla.


A team of 5 are assigned to support Winter. His research uncovers the layout of Sanchez's home. Big, pretentious, in the hills overlooking the city. Limited access to and from the home, local security on site so Redwind will be providing overwatch and backup if needed. Seems like straight forward duty. Discussions on how one might assault the home, duty assignments finalized to each of the team, and they are off to Mexico.

The party will be massive. Dozens upon dozens of limos, hired security, and hundreds of invited guests. If they all open their checkbooks, Sanchez's war chest  should be deep enough to propel him to election success.

The team takes up their positions right about the time an extremely large assault on the compound begins. The cartel has decided that a Gov. Sanchez wouldn't be good for business. The foundation of Winter's security plans is based around a safe and rapid evac of the guest in the event of attack. The plan works like a charm. All the guest escape safely, but dozens of Sanchez's local security guards are gunned down . . . including Winter's entire team, all 5 of 'em. 

Winter is wounded but manages to crawl out. One of the caterers is Maria, a cafe waitress that the team met upon arrival. In the confusion, she drags Winter off the property, patches him up the best she can, and hides him in her home where her MD-brother is enlisted to make sure he survives. 

As Winter heals, he replays the events at the party for clues to what went wrong. Obviously the cartel carried out the attack. But Winter is more interested in the cartel's boss, an Alfonso Berrera and a mysterious 'benefactor' who is the ultimate puller of strings known only as El Maestro. Winter isn't one to settle for just killing the foot soldiers, he wants Berrera and El Maestro and he wants to destroy their drug production processes and facilities. He is reminded by police and Maria that law enforcement has failed for years to take down the cartel, so just how does he think that he, a single man, can do what the cops can't. 

And here is where Winter goes full Jack Reacher on Mexico. Author Cogley develops a complicated and treacherous plan for Winter to go after the Cartel bosses, destroy a meth lab the size of an airplane hanger, maintain a working relationship with a local detective, find out why he has been targeted, keep Maria and her brother safe without getting himself torn to shreds by assigned assassins, cartel thugs, disloyal local cops.  

And it's a good, if a bit adventurous and audacious execution of an entire cartel in the Mexican desert. We do learn more about Winter's back story from his days as a squad Captain in the Marines in Afghanistan, the loss of men in his command and his girlfriend/almost fiance to get some sense of his motivation behind the use of his killing skills when wronged. Of course there are the requisite twists to the plot as Winter uncovers the layers of corruption involved. 

Cogley has penned about a half dozen thrillers, notably a 5-book Adam Knight series. If I read the book blurb, it looks like this is the first in  Dane Winter series. If the others are as rough and tumble as this, Cogley might be worth the effort. The one thing that kinda irked me is that the setting is Mexico, but (as written), everyone - Maria, brother, the detective, the cartel leaders, the assassins, a cafe cook and more - all speak English. Only once do I recall Winter eavesdropping on a Spanish conversation.  Yeah, I get it, but still, make it seem like the story involves a language barrier.

ECD 

A Traveller's History of Egypt

 Long in advance of actually traveling there, I chose A Traveller’s History of Egypt by Harry Ades as being a way to prepare myself for the incredible and very long history of Egypt. It did take me some months to plow through the material which is written in a timeline as would be any good history textbook. It begins before history was recorded to the present time. I found myself reading a couple chapters, then putting it down for other reading material, and picking it up again. I just finished the last page when I’m only a week from beginning my journey. Ades book was first published in 2007, and it is a comprehensive yet concise history of the country.

 

The book included prehistoric times reaching back to 33,000,000 BCE. (BCE stands for “before the common era,” and is an accepted way of dating things. Much of the non-Christian world objects to AD and BC. AD refers to Anno Domini, “in the year of the Lord” and BC is simply “before Christ.” The BCE/CE system avoids a religious designation and CE simply refers to the “common era.” 1 CE would refer to what was probably Christ’s fourth or fifth year of life.)

 

It was around 3000 BCE that the rules of Upper Egypt took control of Lower Egypt, but how that occurred remains mostly unknown. It was about that same time that the first evidence of writing was found. It was over the next millennium that writing really developed and Egypt experienced its first dynastic period. Ades catalogued the various rules of Egypt, noting there were 31 dynasties. The 31^st dynasty of Alexander the Great was the beginning of the Ptolemaic period in 332 BCE. The Roman Period lasted from 30 BCE under Augustus to 395 CE, the last Roman emperor having been Theodosius I. (It was in 401CE that the Visigoths sacked Rome.) The author took the reader through the Byzantine Period followed by the Arab Period, the Malmuk Period, and the Ottoman Period which ended with World War I in 1914. There was also a French Occupation by Napolean from 1798 to 1801, the Dynasty of Muhammad Ali from 1805 to 1953. The British Occupation began in 1883 and lasted until 1953 when Egypt was declared a republic. Ades continued the political history of the county under Nasser, Sadat and finally Mubarak who was in office in 2007 time this book was published.

 

Simply put, if you’re interested in an excellent history of Egypt, this is the book for you.

Edge of Honor by Brad Thor

 

#24 in the Scot Harvath saga. This one picks up where Shadow of Doubt left off . . . with he and his Norwegian spy girlfriend Solvi Kolsted, heading off to exchange wedding vows. Harvath is not one to do anything subtle and plans a honeymoon to beat all honeymoons - a 6-month around the world excursion. How do all these super spys managed to stas  millions in hidden accounts around the world? 

When the get back to his home on the Potomac that has Mount Vernon as a neighbor, he needs to start the process of fully retiring from The Carlton Group, purveyors of protection to the most well heeled of the world. It's late late June and Harvath wants Solvi to see the US wish itself another July 4th birthday. 

One of the swanky parties he's invited to is at the US Naval Observatory, where the Vice-President resides. Upon arrival, they witness a large crowd of protesters. What does he care? He's retired and has put politics in his rear view mirror. But being retired doesn't mean he's turned off his spidey-sense. He and Solvi notice 2 guys in all black each carrying large backpacks that get tossed. They both duck just before the packs explode sending shrapnel into the crowd. Then others in black jump out of cars and start spraying the protesters. Both jump from their vehicle, grabbing firearms that are always packed in the Suburban, take out a few bad guys and head for the nearby Norwegian Embassy just ahead of more well armed and trained adversaries.

Once inside, their first thought is to protect the ambassador, and that they do, but not before a few embassy workers are mowed down. By this time, every law enforcement officer and those from the various government agencies descend on the area. What was the goal of the shooters? Was this a 1-off occurrence? 

This all occurs in the months after the US has elected an America-First president who flung around a ton of pre-election rhetoric to amp up the party base. A big goal was to get the US out of NATO (sound familiar?). As summer approaches, President Mitchell has called a summit of NATO members to DC to discuss this massive rearrangement of the NATO alliance. The summit is scheduled for the weeks following July 4th. And this attack occurs right about the time most European leaders were preparing for departure to DC. One of the leaders, the Prime Minister of Norway (not known for being a devoted fan of Solvi's politics) has surprisingly requested her to be posted to her security detail. 

One the PM lands and Solvi contained tightly within a protective bubble, Harvarth is now off to find out who or what was behind the attack (and that one was just the first of more to come). You know Harvath: once a problem solver, always a problem solver. His search for those behind the scenes makes up the bulk of the book. And true to form, Thor takes us on a wild and supersonic-paced dash through all levels of democracy, influencers,  lobbyists, patriots (real and wannabe) to put down what appears to be an inevitable rebellion and make sure our democratic republic remains. 

I've read all 23 prior Thor/Harvath books and, if I'm honest, I wasn't all that excited about jumping back in again. I mean, how many different ways can Thor dream up to test Harvath? I'd actually considered passing on this episode. That would've been a mistake. Thor is clever and creative in what he layers on Harvath and ingenious in how Harvath manages to crawl his way through bad guys who think they know better. Dont' know how Thor does it, but it seems like each book tops his previous outing. 

I know what your thinking. Just know that the President's nature and description bare little similarity to anyone you might be thinking of. 

And to make things worse, Thor already teased out the title of his 2026 thriller, Cold Zero. Pretty sure I won't be as hesitant as I was a few weeks ago.

East Coast Don  

Behave, The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

 Behave, The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst by Robert. M. Sapolsky is the most impressive nonfiction book that I’ve read this year. It was published in 2017. Sapolsky is a Stanford professor who refers to himself as a primatologist and neuroscientist. He has spent his life studying and living with primates, and he is well educated in the neurosciences. I sometimes read the book, but I listened to most of it since he is a most entertaining speaker. Despite what would seem to be a deeply serious subject, he writes with great humor. The author’s intent was for this to be a book of interest to non-scientists. However, the language about neuroanatomy does get complex. It would be helpful to have some prior knowledge about neuroanatomy although he does patiently educate people who are coming to such topics for the first time. 

Minus the pages for acknowledgments, appendices, glossary and the index, the book is about a 700-page tome, so be prepared to take that on. However, the content is rich and exciting. Sapolsky discusses the complexity of reaching an understanding of our human behavior. The subject matter is far too complex for me to summarize it in a meaningful way. My advice would be to read his short epilogue to help you make a decision about reading this masterful work. After admitting the complexity of the topic he undertook, I loved his closing comment, “Finally, you don’t have to choose between being scientific and being compassionate.” I thoroughly enjoyed this work and it was certainly worth the nearly 27 hours required to listen to the audiobook.

Mythos

 Stephen Fry is a British actor, director, broadcaster, comedian, and writer. Given that he narrated his book, Mythos, the term narrator should be added to that list. On some book jackets, there is a subtitle, The Greek Myths Retold. Many years ago when I got my bachelor’s degree (to my children, those were ancient times), I found myself entranced by ancient Greek literature, and I took enough classes to get a minor in that topic. While I had some familiarity with the myths, those courses were mostly about reading the Greek Playwrights: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Of course, we read Homer, Plato and Aristotle, and some other authors I no longer remember. In this book, Fry uses his writer’s license to retell some of the stories in his own spin. But, I did not find anything problematic about his version of the stories. His book is also a good place to learn about the stories of Narcissus, Prometheus, and more.

 

I loved this epic work, especially the organization of the book. He covered all the Olympian gods and so much more. He began with Kronus and the Titans. He then told of the creation of Zeus and the other 12 main Olympic gods, from Hera, Athena, Apollo all the way to Hermes. He clarified the stories by mentioning those characters in Roman mythology. If you have any inkling of wanting to read about these ancient myths, I can’t think of a better place to start. Given that Fry is an actor, director, writer, and narrator, listening to his self-narrations was quite wonderful.

 

I looked at some of the criticisms of Fry’s writing which seem to come primarily from academics who found fault in some of his stories for accuracy. Perhaps as once having been a student of ancient times, I should be offended by the moments when he strayed from a rigorous path. But, I’m not in the least bit critical. This book was nothing short of fun. In one review on Reddit, a critic wrote that Fry was not a Hellenist, rather a “humanist atheist.” (There are several possible definitions Of Hellenist, but it mostly refers to a student or scholar who studies the Greek language, literature, history, or culture. I take it that a human atheist means a human who does not believe in the existence of God or gods.) I don’t find those words as cause for criticism of the book. Fry notes that he does not try to interpret the myths, but rather just tell the stories, and he does beautifully. Since this is actually a four-book series, next up for me will be Heroes.

Love the Stranger

 

 Love the Stranger (A Queens Mystery) by Michael Sears is a murder mystery that takes place in Queens, NY. Although it’s his first book reviewed in this blog, it is the second novel in the Queens Mystery series and at least his ninth crime novel. It was published in 2024. Sears described Queens as being a community that was far more than just a melting pot of people from all corners of the world who were just trying to eke out a living. Sears wrote that Queens was a “kaleidoscope of colors, classes, and ethnicities.” The book includes a great cast of characters including Kenzie Zielinski, a woman who worked as a community organizer. Currently she had taken on a wealthy and well-placed man in Queens who wanted to build a skyscraper which she thought would destroy the quality of the neighborhood. She lived with her boyfriend Ted Molloy, a lawyer with a most colorful past, and his law partner, Lester Young McKinley. They all shared and office and sometimes employed Mohammed, a Yemini immigrant to be their driver. Hanging over all the immigrants was the presence of ICE.

 

In addition to her work to defeat the building of the skyscraper, Kenzie was pulled into a murder mystery when it was obvious that the lawyer that Mohammed’s lawyer who was supposed to be helping with his immigration status was just cheating him out of fees, and claimed that Mohammed still owed him an impossible debt of $1,000. When Kenzie went to the law office of Howard Spitzer, she found Spitzer on the floor having been shot. Although she called the cops, since she was thought to be the last one who had seen Spitzer alive, she became a prime suspect in this matter. Ted and Lester were managing the lawsuit that Kenzie had filed against the landowner Ron Reisner, and their efforts were complicated when it was discovered a mole had been working in their office, and she was leaking their plans to Reisner’s people.

 

Sears introduced more characters on both sides of this matter, so there were additional subplots, all of which he brought to a satisfying end. I haven’t even gotten to Lester’s decision to loan money to a mobster. This book was hard to put down, so I had a couple late nights as I was caught up in the plot and characters. That’s enough information to help you know why I’m now a fan of Michael Sears. I’m not sure which of his earlier book I’ll grab next, but I plan to read more of his work.

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

 I’ve reviewed six of Dugoni’s novels, all of which were in the thriller/murder mystery genre. Six books means that I like his writing. This story was referred to me by my daughter who is the communications director of a substantial nonprofit called Orbis. Orbis is known as the flying eye hospital which provides ophthalmologic care to people in economically poor countries around the world. In the course of the story, Sam went to work for Orbis as a means of escaping the traumas he had experienced at home.

Sam Hell, actually Sam Hill, had been born with a genetic flaw that led to his diagnosis of ocular albinism. He had no pigment in his irises which made his eyes look red. His condition was rare and he seemed to be immediately rejected by the medical community as well as the people at his Catholic church where his mother had been a devout and dedicated woman. When he got to school age, Sam found that the parochial school’s head mistress, Sister Beatrice, wanted to ban him from her school. Sam’s mother won the battle with Sister Beatrice, and despite his admission to the school, she continued to try to set him up for failure. His peers at school immediately rejected Sam who they dubbed as “the devil boy,” therefore “Sam Hell.” It was a nickname that stuck with Sam the rest of his life.

 

It was a school bully, David Bateman, who began to repeatedly abuse him, and it was only after the intensity of the abuse was discovered that Bateman was expelled. However, Bateman was to come back into the picture when these two antagonists were adult men. Through elementary and middle school Sam protected himself from further rejection by being a loner. It was not until the beginning of high school that he struck up good friendships with other students who were also being ostracized, Ernie, the only black in the school, and Mickie, a young woman from a highly dysfunctional and poor family. The three of them stuck together in what was a lifelong friendship.

 

Sam was academically successful as an ophthalmologist, but he had always been hindered in his ability to find other good relationships. It was his work as an ophthalmologist that led to his next encounter with Bateman when his wife brought their six-year-old daughter to his  office due to her visual problems. Sam quickly realized that her visual probems were due to repeated head trauma that had no doubt been caused by her father’s beatings. Bateman’s wife was so terrified of her husband, it took her a while to admit the abuse. Bateman worked as a cop and had developed into a full-blown psychopath.

 

I’ve revealed the main plot lines and I refuse to be a spoiler by revealing too much. Dugoni has provided fascinating characters who felt quite real. I learned to love Sam, his parents, Ernie, and Mickie. I also learned to hate Sister Beatrice and Bateman. It takes a great author to evoke such intense feelings in me.

 

My only problem with the story came at the end. As Dugoni nicely resolved the various plots and subplots, as Sam’s parents aged and got quite ill, he reexamined his lifelong atheism  which he had achieved largely by rebelling against his mother’s devotion to the church. He could not tolerate her repeated comments about all things being due to “God’s Will.” However, as he continued to encounter his own parents’ growing frailties, he began to reexamine his own beliefs. As he mourned the loss of his mother, he found himself praying and using his mother’s rosary. Perhaps most other readers won’t have as strong a negative reaction to Dugoni’s descriptions in this regard, but I also found that it did not negatively impact my feelings about his entire book. This is a story that’s worth reading, all the way to the end. It gets my strongest, 5/5 recommendation.

Leverage by Amran Gowani

 Full Disclosure: I know next to nothing about the world of high finance. What they do. How they do it. What's legal or illegal or what's a bit of both. It's all a mystery to me. 

The setting is Prism, a high flying west coast-based hedge fund (see full disclosure. A 'hedge fund' boggles my pea brain). Within  Prism are a number of themed funds (like real estate, IT, etc.) one of which is run by an up and coming star Ali Jafar ('Al' or any number of identity politic nicknames). The boss is Paul Kingsley, a financial genius, master manipulator, and a world class bully. His #2 is his son Brad who is also a bully with an ultimate goal of overthrowing dear old dad and take Prism for himself. 

Seems like each investment Al makes turns to gold and that means more money for Prism and for Kingsley. That's his history. Crack researcher and adept of finding opportunities others have missed. Until one of his investments tanks resulting in a $300 million loss for Prism. Called on the carpet by Kingsley, Al is given an ultimatum. Get back to doing what he does best and earn back the lost $300M . . . within 3 months or Paul will let it leak to regulators that some of Prisms shady dealings can be traced directly back to Al. Apparently the crimes would be sufficient to put Al away for decades. Think Bernie Madoff level of treachery. 

So now Al has to call in a few chips, accept aid from unknown sources, keep his ear to the ground, digdigdig, get into bed with other ne'er to wells in an attempt to score returns sufficient enough to satisfy Paul, keep his own hair, not attract the attention of federal regulators or get himself killed in the process. All within 3 months. 

Guessing this book would be liked by fans of Succession (of which I may be one of the few). And the give and take of money and the various forms of graft are above my head. Way above my head. So while the story is fast-paced, contains a bunch of "Karen" and "Todd" characters, (and that Al has a bit of a self-gratification habit), readers like me who just don't 'get' finance at this level, are probably not the target audience. On one level, the story was downright Shakespearean with the envious son trying to overthrow the tyrant father by using various underlings to achieve his goals. 

I do appreciate Atria books for the advance copy. I got this copy in early/mid summer and just now getting around to reading it so I hope the grammatical slips common to content development get corrected in the commercial version that is set for publication 19 AUG 2025. 

 

East Coast Don 

Disappearance of a Scribe

I was looking for fiction or nonfiction stories that took place in Egypt, in anticipation of a trip there, and I ran across this book by Dana Stabenow entitled Disappearance of a Scribe. The story takes place in 47 BCE, the time of Cleopatra and is centered in Alexandria. Caesar had returned to Rome after a war, and Cleopatra was left to lead the recovery of her kingdom. When a body was discovered in the Nile after someone had put a man with his feet in cement and then drowned. A second body was similarly found. Cleopatra turned to another woman who she trusted, Tetisheri, to investigate and solve the mystery of the deaths.

 

Tetisheri was new to her role as the Eye of Isis, who only reported to Cleopatra and she was mostly disregarded by her colleagues on the police force. Corruption was everywhere. Tetisheri was actually a wonderful character who was determined not to let the inherent misogyny of the times thwart her efforts. The author led the reader through a picture of what life must has been like in those times, from lowly slaves to the palace elite. Scribes were very important to the society since most of the population was illiterate, and it was necessary to keep good records, especially if you were a builder on behalf of the queen. I enjoyed the story and felt it was worth my time to read it.

This is actually the second Stabenow book reviewed in tis blog. 16 years ago, ECD reviewed A Grave Denied in favorable terms. She is a prolific author of 45-50 novels, who is most famous for the 23 novels in her Kate Shugak series. Ms. Stabenow’s novels are certainly worth revisiting.

King of Ashes by SA Cosby

Who wouldn't want to live the life of Roman Carruthers?  Living large in Atlanta. Financial whiz. Knows his way around investments. Makes his clients a bundle. And a bit of a hedonist, but we can't all be perfect. Regardless, life is good for Roman . . . 

Until his sister Naveah calls from his home in Jefferson Run, VA - a bit down the road from Richmond - telling him that their father was in a hit-and-run accident, is in a coma at the nearby hospital and that their younger brother Dante is worthless when it comes to helping out. Roman bolts for VA to help the family he left behind, and to make sure the family business,  a successful crematorium now completely run by Naveah, continues. 

When Roman finally gets Dante somewhat sober, he learns that Dante and a bud did a couple really dumb things. First, they got into bed with the local gang (BBB; Black Baron Boys) to front them some drugs to sell. If that wasn't dump enough, they thought it'd be fun to sample a little of their wares. BBB wouldn't miss a little product, right? Well, they more than sampled. Probably were halfway through their stash by the time they realized they'd really screwed up and the BBB wants their money . . . now. 

Roman tries to talk with the brothers at the top of the gang. They go by Tranquil and Torrent. A couple of skilled 'businessmen' not known to suffer fools for even a nanosecond. They'll snuff out anyone who's wronged them. When Roman's financial bullshit fails to sway the tide, the brothers beat the teeth our of Roman and cut off one of Dante's fingers for wasting their time. Roman works out a deal to repay the BBB for their lost income and get Dante out from their terror, he thinks. One of of the promises he makes is to use the family business to help BBB clean up the debris inherent to their business.

And that's just the beginning. The BBB boys round up Dante's partner and girlfriend, deliver them to Roman so that Roman can do what the family business does best. One of the BBB soldiers leaves (can't watch what's going to happen). That's about when Dante uses a tire iron on the other soldier. Roman now has to add that guy to the ovens. The BBB is expecting guy and girlfriend to be dust, but instead, the girl is spared and told in no uncertain terms to get far away from Jefferson Run or others, like all the Carruthers, will die a horribly gruesome death. 

Roman knows he is in over his head, but has a plan, with the help of an Atlanta friend Khalil, a former Army Ranger who is extremely capable. Think of his as Roman's Joe Pike. Capable. Very Capable.

Between Roman's conniving and Khalil's skills, Roman works his way into the BBB's good graces by laundering their drug profits into stinking wealth beyond their dreams while Khalil keeps the BBB looking over both shoulders for what they figure is a rival gang trying to take over the territory. What Roman really wants is to make Tranquil and Torrence suffer. Seriously suffer. Destroy the BBB and kill anyone who gets in the way.

Southern, gothic, country noir at its finest. Roman is successful with an undercurrent of treachery that slowly boils until an explosive conclusion. Dante is just a kid party boy who is constantly stoned, high, drunk, and screwing around with little thought to consequences. Naveah is the family's rock trying to hold it all together while Roman tries to keep her above the fray. In some ways, she is the heroine whose quiet strength is needed by both brothers. This isn't a tale of drugs and greed.  No, that's too eash. This is a story about the extremes one will go to protect family . . . with a little help from Khalil. 

Bottom line? Another in an unbroken line of winners from Sean (SA) Cosby. Run out and get this one, boys and girls. No joke. Get it. 

 

East Coast Don

 

PS. Cosby can really put words together that makes his prose an entertaining read. To wit:

'Dante was as high as the price of gas.'

'Her dress clung to her like an insecure lover.'

'I used to be afraid the universe was evil. Now I almost wish it was. Because evil can be bargained with, evil has a purpose, no matter how horrible it may be. But what I've come to realize is the universe is indifferent, and that is so much more terrifying.' 

'At night it was as dark as a politician's soul.' 

'Sometimes the man wearing the crown ain't the man that's supposed to be king.'

'Roman had lost a lot in life, but he knew one thing. He'd never been defeated.' 

The Blockchain Syndicate

 

The Blockchain Syndicate by Robbie Bach is his second novel and the first reviewed in this blog. It’s a contemporary thriller, and make no mistake, it is a thriller that grabbed me at page one. This novel is based on the notion that with little organization and small funding, on January 6^th 2021, an unruly and disorganized mob stormed the U.S. Capital building and temporarily interfered with the peaceful transition of power from Trump to Biden. Bach wrote of very wealthy men who opined that it was improper government regulations that kept them having even more influence and more wealth. Therefore, they thought it was only proper that the government be overturned. The book was about those well-funded and well-organized efforts to defeat America’s democratic government.

 

Bach created great characters, both good guys and bad ones. The protagonist was Tamika Smith, the daughter of an army man, General Smith, so she was really an army brat, having grown up on military bases around the world. After tours of military duty in which she was heroic, she successfully ran for the Senate in the State of Washington. She was a formidable woman who found herself as being critical in stopping the equally powerful bad guys. She had fallen in love with a divorced man, Johnny Humboldt, who had two children, and it was especially his teenage daughter, Phoenix Humboldt who had taken to Tamika, much to her mother’s dismay. Thinking about Tamika, what would you do if someone wanted to stop you from your democracy-saving plans, who went so far as to wound Phoenix in a school shooting, and who kidnapped the man you loved in an attempt to shut her up? Tamika's enemy was a female assassin, an other solid member of Bach's cast.

 

Bach’s plot was well designed, and the story was filled with believable people. After getting hook on the first page, I just kept reading until I finished the story. This novel gets my highest recommendation, and it’s now obvious to me that I need to go back and read his first novel, The Wilkes Insurrection.

The Strange Case of Jane O.

 The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker is a novel that was published in early 2025. It was recommended by a dear friend who said it was one of the more fascinating novels that he had recently read. It’s the story of a curiously emotionally disturbed woman and her treatment by a psychiatrist, Dr. Bird. Given my history of having worked as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst for the last 50 years (recently retired), my friend wanted me to read this and then have a discussion about it. That discussion is soon to occur.

 

Jane O. has an eidetic memory which appears to allow her to recall in great detail essentially every day that she has lived detail since she was a young girl. As the story began, she recently had a baby boy via sperm donation. She was living with her son in New York City where she was mostly estranged from her parents in California, and she worked as a librarian for the city. It was apparently her first dissociative episode that led her to reluctantly seek psychiatric care in New York. She may have been suffering from a dissociative disorder which is sometimes referred to as a fugue episode. According to the DSM5, the book that defines all recognized psychiatric disorders, “Dissociative disorders are characterized by a disruption of and/or discontinuity in the normal integration of consciousness, memory, identity, emotional, perception, body representation, motor control, and behavior.” Jane claimed to have seen Dr. Bird for one occasion about 20 years earlier although her need for psychiatric attention at that time was never explained. It was Dr. Bird who she sought for help once again.

 

Dr. Bird was a troubled man himself. Not long after the birth of their baby daughter, his wife died in a pedestrian accident when she walked in front of a vehicle and was immediately killed. He also had been fired from the institution where he worked. He was particularly interested in studying patients who reported premonitions, a topic that would not have been easily recognized as worthy of research by the psychiatric community. When he tried to keep his interest secret and then lied about doing that work, he was terminated. He struggled to get on his professional feet once again, and he opened his outpatient private practice. It was then that Jane O appeared in his life.

 

The story is about the relationship the two of them had as Dr. Bird worked to understand what was happening with his patient. He clearly found something appealing about Jane and she put her faith in him for a cure. She then had recurrent dissociative episodes which sometimes lasted for hours, but eventually lasted for weeks. He finally came to the understanding that he was overly involved with Jane although they were not reported to have had a sexual encounter with one another. He was constantly thinking about her and looking forward to his sessions with her more than his other patients. As the book came to an end, Dr. Bird announced that he would have to terminate his treatment efforts with Jane and refer her to a psychiatrist who treat her more dispassionately.

 

It was the very end of the book that requires mentioning. While Dr. Bird had planned to end this relationship, and while he planned to do so after saying goodbye to her, he found himself unable to do so. Rather, as Jane narrated this part of the story, she described that they met and sat on a park bench together for a long period of time without speaking to one another and while holding hands. Finally when Dr. Bird stood up, instead of parting, they walked off hand-in-hand.

 

The book brings up the importance and sometimes difficulty of maintaining strict boundaries with patients, which the mythical Dr. Bird failed to do. It seems to me that stories about psychiatric and psychoanalytic treatment tend to be only interesting to most readers when there have been boundary violations. Try to think of any story of such treatment in which boundary violations was not a significant theme. Any well-trained therapist should know this and observe the clinical importance of doing so. While it’s true that such mistakes do occur in treatment, I won’t take the time to explain the damaging effect that this causes to patients regarding their own emotional growth, which is the goal of treatment. I’ve been involved as an expert in a couple medical legal cases in which such boundaries were violated which rightfully led the loss of the doctor’s license to practice medicine.

 

What was the reader supposed to understand about the ending, perhaps that like a shining knight in white armor rescued the damsel in distress and rode off into the sunset to live happily ever after? In reality, that’s not how this works. Rather, it is my thought that these two troubled people were doomed to have a failed and unworkable relationship. With this warning regarding what was clearly a treatment failure, you could read this story and sadly watch how this doctor-patient relationship quickly grew into a dysfunctional one.

The Collectors

The Collectors by Richard A. Danzig is the third book in the third book in the Chance Cormac legal thriller series. However, it’s the first Danzig book to be reviewed in this blog. This is a good crime novel with one exception, but it’s a story that’s worth filling your entertainment time. There are a three main story lines with some excellent subplots.

 

Chance, an attorney whose practice is in Brooklyn, is hired to investigate whether a multimillion dollar painting that was purchased through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, could be a forgery. The Met is the largest museum in the U.S., which is located in Central Park, and it’s security systems are clearly state of the art, and no such theft had ever occurred in the long history of this museum. But quickly, it becomes apparent that Chance’s new client is not fully cooperating with the investigation for reasons that are not clear. At the same time the reader is learning about Chance and this new case, we learn that the man who had been working for him as an investigator, Damian, had given up such work to move to a new life in Costa Rica where he eventually teamed up with two old buddies, all former Navy SEALS. It was Troy who owned the surf shop, where he employed JR and Damian. They were all burned out on the high stress of their former jobs and were just looking to have a good life in paradise without much more to worry about than the size of the waves each morning.

 

It was during his morning run on the beach that Damian found a body of a man who had obviously been shot and killed. He called JR to help him deal with the matter and they promptly called the local policeman to report it. However, it turned out that Sergeant Rios was corrupt, and he decided to frame Damian and JR for the murder. Rather than take them to the local jail, he sent them to a remote prison that was only for convicted felons. It was a prison that was actually run by a corrupt warden and was controlled by dangerous gangs. Despite their training and SEALS, Damian and JR were helpless to deal with the gangs. Damian was beaten within an inch of his life and JR was beaten to death. Of course, Chance was contacted to help rescue Damian.

 

Danzig introduced a third story line of a man who had grown up in Costa Rican poverty. His parents owned and lived in a bodega in San Jose. They were honest and hardworking people and their son, Alejandro Renata was devoted to them. He was also a gifted student who won scholarships to college in San Jose, and then a scholarship to Johns Hopkins for medical school. Renata excelled at his efforts and quickly made his way into the world of organ transplants. His successes and research brought him tremendous wealth. He worked hard and loved his life, but he also fiercely protected his own territory of transplant research, much as his father had protected his bodega in San Jose. When his aging father needed a heart transplant, Renata used his worldwide influence to find a suitable heart from a donor in Argentina. However, the plan fell through and led to his father’s death. Renata was enraged and rather than continue in his lucrative work in London, he moved to Costa Rica where he built his own elite hospital that specialized in treating elite and wealthy people who needed transplants. As a result, he became more wealthy than ever.

 

It was Danzig’s pulling the seemingly diverse stories together that was the plot of this book. It was entertaining, and I very much liked his development of the characters. Chance’s personal life was compelling, and his hiring of a new investigator, Wendell Holmes brought a new fascinating man to the drama. I thought the only weak part of the story was the transition of Dr. Renata from being a internationally renowned surgeon into a sociopath who was engaged in black market dealings to get the organs he need his super rich patients. I think this book falls into my class of airplane novels, something that would successfully distract me while taking a cross-country air flight. I can see picking up one of his earlier novels for just such a trip.

An Inside Job

 

 

An Inside Job by Daniel Silva is the 25^th book in  his series about Gabriel Allon. I’ve read them all and most of them at least twice, so you know I’m a fan. While I thought a couple of his recent novels were somewhat weaker than usual, this one was certainly not. He has set a high standard for  his work. Although when I consider which one of his books that I’ve liked the best, I can’t make a choice. An Inside Job just may be his best, although I’ve  written that before.

 

Five years retired from the clandestine Israeli force that he worked for, Gabriel Allon now works for his wife’s art restoration firm, and Allon is thought to be among the finest art restorers in the world, especially of the old masters. Allon now lives in Venice with his family, a wife and twins, a boy and girl. Although no longer a spy, he is a consultant with various police departments about various serious crimes. In this case, he learns a particularly valuable piece of art has been stolen out of the highly secure vaults in the Vatican. Prior books about Allon have established his long and deep friendship with the current Pope, so it is not surprised that Allon is consulted in this case. The matter gets much more complex as a young apprentice restorer has been found murdered, and the work she has done was on an undiscovered portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. The painting had long been buried beneath a painting by a lesser known artist. Beyond the importance of such a discovery by Leonardo was its current value, probably of half a billion dollars. Not only does the Vatican expect to recover the painting, the Pope needed to understand how such a theft could have occurred.

 

Who could afford to buy such an expensive painting? The pursuit of the painting involved multiple bidders and other interested parties including a Russian oligarch, the Camorra which was the most violent part of the Mafia, the financial dealings of the Papacy itself, and two financiers who worked to launder money for the Camorra. The Carabinieri, the Italian police were deeply involved in solving the case. Meanwhile, the Pope was trying to reform the church and root out the massive corruption that he knew existed. There were substantial forces against him who wanted the various corrupt schemes to continue, and the Pope’s life was in danger, along with the life of his buddy, Gabriel Allon. It was during his time as a young priest that the current pope had a torrid love affair, and since his appointment as the new pope, his former paramour reemerged.

 

That’s enough information. It remains my opinion that in this particular genre, that I’ve never encountered an author who writes with more skill than Silva. His character development and plot creation are superior. He produces his new books once a year, so I eagerly await the next one, then read it in a day or two, and then have to wait a whole year for another. An Inside Job was a book that was worth the wait.

Murder at the Orpheus Theatre

 Murder at the Orpheus Theatre by Irina Shapiro, although just published in February 2025, is truly written as an old-time mystery which takes place in London in 1859. It begins with the intriguing idea that the co-stars of the production of Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy by Shakespeare in which both title characters die at the end of the play, are actually murdered on stage in front of their audience. The actors were able to finish their roles and their deaths were only discovered at the first curtain call when did not come to the stage to bow to the audience and receive their applause. Their bodies showed now signs of trauma, so they had not been shot or bludgeoned. Who could have pulled off such a double homicide? Why were these two well-known actors a target of murder? 

The audiobook was performed by Imogen Church, and she brought out the old-time quality to the story. I assume actors of the day delivered their lines in overly dramatic, emotive and flowery fashion, which in today’s world seems too exaggerated and unbelievable. This style of reading certainly added to the enjoyment of listening. It felt like I was listening to vintage radio shows. So, it was fun although not something that I want to encounter on a regular basis.

 

Meanwhile, there was a most interesting cast of characters, most of whom had secrets and possible interest in murdering the young actors. Inspector Sebastian Bell and Gemma Tate were the main players. Bell had to deal with a troublesome boss while trying to solve the case, and Tate was an unusual woman for her time. She was bright and educated as a nurse. Rather than seeking life as a housewife and mother in a world in which women had almost no rights of independence from a husband, Gemma volunteered to go to Crimea for the Crimean War which lasted from 1853 to 1856. In Crimea, her services were highly regarded and she learned more about the world than she could have by staying at home in London. Upon her return to London, she immediately ran into struggles with a male dominated society that did not give credit to a woman’s opinions or ideas. She happened to be at the theater on the night of the murder.

 

The author explored the lives of the many people and patrons of the theater and really took the reader on a delightful tour of what life was like from people who occupied vastly different roles in the society of the time. The book provided both good character development and a well-designed plot. I had come across this book when I was searching for a new audiobook to listen to during my early morning dog walks, and I was duly entertained.