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This is Hamilton’s first published book and it is an interesting and readable opener. Her aim is to tell the story of a young woman whose mind is warped due to a traumatic experience that happened to her when she was ten years old. The events are narrated by Juliette in their entirety and it is her thoughts and ideas that are featured in the story.

The book begins with a man that Juliette has been with for several months telling her that their affair is over and that she must leave the apartment they share. It is Juliette’s reaction to this decision by Nathan, the man she was living with, that begins the tale and establishes the direction of events. Juliette decides that this decision is the wrong one for Nathan and begins a plan to retake him. He is an airline pilot, and she goes as far as getting a job as a cabin attendant with the same airline he works for. Successful at this Juliette sets up meetings with Nathan, moves to get rid of the new girlfriend he is seeing, and manipulates events to make sure that she gets her way.

The picture of Juliette as a person with a God complex is quite well done by the author and very well paints her as someone that cannot come to grips with any situation in which she is not correct in her own actions. The reader is pointed towards the bad that other individuals do to her and how Juliette must work hard to turn the situation around to make sure she does get her way.

The novel makes for a compelling read with one detracting feature. The front piece outline indicates that there is a surprise ending in store for the reader. Sort of yes, but underwhelming over all and more than a minor detraction and does leave the reader more than a little unsatisfied.

3/19 Paul Lane

THE PERFECT GIRLFRIEND by Karen Hamilton. Graydon House; Original edition (March 26, 2019). ISBN 978-1525831508. 352p.

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The author presents us with an interesting study in several areas. One is the relationship of a mother and her teen aged daughter, the second a portrait of a young girl struggling to find herself in the changing world of adolescence, and the final a study in the hold a pedophile could engender with their prey.

Emmy Fisher is a woman that is managing a bed and breakfast that has come down to her from family. The hotel is located in the beautiful sun drenched section of Florida known as the “Keys” She is divorced from her husband but retains a friendly relationship with him as both parents keep an eye on their daughter Leah. Leah has been raised living on the keys, and we enter her life during the summer between her high school sophomore year and her Junior year. Skye is her best friend,her own age and they have been attached almost since birth.

Tragedy occurs one evening when Leah decides to go for a swim after dark and drowns. Devastated, Emmy cannot cope with the loss, and looks in every nook and corner for memorabilia of her daughter. She does not expect to find evidence that Leah had been having an affair, and apparently with someone much older than her. When she does it devastates her as she tries to find out who it was that her daughter had been having the illicit affair it looks like she has taken part in.

Her ex-husband arrives from the area of the country he has been living in, and Skye begins her own effort to encounter her best friend’s secret lover. The novel is well written and leaves the reader with the very agreeable feeling of reading a good book, and certainly awaiting Tate’s next one. Certainly an excellent read.

3/19 Paul Lane

I’LL BE WATCHING YOU by Courtney Evan Tate. MIRA; Original edition (March 26, 2019). ISBN 978-0778351290. 336p.

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Joel C. Rosenberg has published many fictional novels involved with international spy craft. In a great many of these books it would appear that the author has sources that seem to be providing him with information about what is really going on behind the scenes in countries that are enemies of the United States. His latest novel turns on actions involving three countries that would like to see the U.S. destroyed while they take center stage in the world. These are Russia, North Korea and Iran. Marcus Ryker a protagonist utilized prior to this book by Mr. Rosenberg and a former member of the Secret Service is utilized to tell the story.

Setting the stage for the events described in the book Iran approaches North Korea to sell them high power nuclear bombs which can be used attached to missiles made by the Persians to attack both the U.S. and their ally Israel. Both countries, controlled by Russia,get permission from them to consummate the sale.
Marcus has been persuaded to supervise a visit to Russia on another matter does so also taking the opportunity to visit with Oleg Kraskin a double agent he runs. Kraskin convinces Marcus to bring him into the U.S. with the caveat that he is bringing a great deal of confidential information obtained from the Russian president who is Kraskin’s father in law. Before traveling with Ryker to safe haven Kraskin finds that he must foil a plot by the Russian president to hit the U.S. by bombing them in a preemptive strike. Kraskin shoots and kills his father in law, and also his assistant and convinces Marcus to smuggle him out of Russia. The Moscow Chief of Station, Jenny Morris, helps the two by piloting a plane with them as passengers.

The plot takes shape when the plane is shot down by Russians over Russian territory. Events unfolding make the novel another good read by Rosenberg. There is the hiding from and eluding the Russian military, overcoming the negative attitude of the U.S. that feels Marcus has aided and abetted the murders without notifying and receiving permission from his own government. To also complicate this very complex matter Jenny Morris is wounded when the plane is attacked.
The interactions between Russia, Iran and North Korea could very well be a real scenario between nations whose goals include destruction of their perceived enemies: the U.S. and Israel. An excellent book by Joel C. Rosenberg and one that will definitely entice the reader into an all night read plus keeping eyes out for the author’s next novel.

3/19 Paul Lane

THE PERSIAN GAMBLE by Joel C. Rosenberg. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (March 12, 2019). ISBN 978-1496406187. 448p.

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Divorce lawyer Leigh Huyett and Pete Conley are in every sense a very happy married couple. Both have been married previously and divorced. Like many marriages that break up they have come to a settlement as to which of their children will live with them, and which will reside with the other couples formed by unions formed by their prior spouses. Leigh’s experiences handling divorces and witnessing remarriages has led her to the conclusion that a majority of these pairings also end in divorce. But somehow she and Pete are happy together.

Tragedy strikes without warning while Leigh and Pete are away on vacation. An auto accident occurs when Kip, left in charge, and who is Pete’s son and Chrissy, Leigh’s daughter were driving together to a party in celebration of Kip’s acceptance to Duke University. Their car runs off the road when swerving to avoid a collision. Kip escapes with minor injuries but Chrissy dies, due to a physical problem that is exacerbated by her hitting her head on the roof of the car due to the impact. Kip was driving, and accepts fault for the accident with everyone concerned being of the opinion that it was just that an accident.

The emotions experienced by Leigh and Pete are handled magnificently by Kistler. Both children are technically in the same family, but Chrissy was Leigh’s daughter with Kip Pete’s son. The anguish experienced by all is naturally more so towards their natural children. Suddenly a complication occurs when the state decides to bring Kip to justice trying him in court on a second degree manslaughter charge. The circumstances include Kip just turning 18; an adult in the eyes of the law which allows him to to be prosecuted in adult court. If found guilty he could be faced with up to 10 years of imprisonment in an adult prison.

The interplay of the extended family’s emotions becomes the driving force behind the action taking place. To indicate that it becomes impossible to put the book down does not do justice to the force of the writing. A very well done novel describing a terribly wrenching experience and obviously one that causes rifts and breakups between the characters does cause the reader to await Kistler’s next novel with a great deal of expectation.

3/19 Paul Lane

HOUSE ON FIRE by Bonnie Kistler. Atria Books (March 12, 2019). ISBN 978-1501198687. 416p.

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Elo has written a riveting and complex novel about a young doctor living and working in Washington D.C. traveling to Russia and encountering the very worse of conditions that country throws at it’s citizens.

Natalie March is a successful surgeon practicing in the United States. She enjoys the benefits of her work including a better than average life style. the reputation that her skill brings and a social life that is good, although can be better. Natalie is the daughter of Vera March, a woman that has emigrated from Russia but leaving with the guilt that she left her family on the way to the Gulag for crimes unmentioned.

Vera is in the throes of illness that Natalie cannot cure and she would do anything to help her mother survive her sickness. Natalie is suddenly visited by a young dancer working with a Russian Ballet company and performing in New York. The girl provides Natalie with details of the family still in Russia that only someone knowing them would be aware of. This includes Vera’s mother and her sister still living in a section of Siberia. The girl’s motives for visiting Natalie soon become clear. The family need help in defecting from Russia since they are in grave danger from the Putin regime. Natalie speaks to her mother and agrees to travel to New York where Saldana, who is the girl that is her cousin is performing.

Going to New York Natalie finds that Saldana has been murdered in what looks like a bad breaking and entering crime. Galvanized into action Natalie decides to travel to Russia and break the news to her family. Her findings and the events surrounding the meetings form a major part of the novel. Elo doing a major job of researching and investigating, paints a picture of a vast land, basically undeveloped and living under the totalitarian hand of absolute dictatorship. The weather in the areas visited is horrendous with normal almost year round temperatures below zero Fahrenheit.

In almost understated tones, Elo brings to life Natalie’s adventures in an alien land while looking for her grandmother and other relatives. A fascinating novel and one which cannot be picked up to read without finishing it.

3/19 Paul Lane

FINDING KATARINA M. by Elisabeth Elo. Polis Books (March 19, 2019). ISBN 978-1947993433. 352p.

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 Cotton Malone, Book 14

The nicest touch about many of Berry’s novels is the close attention paid to the historical setting of the book. He and his wife founded the group “History Matters” and are very involved in bringing to light the actual events occurring in world history.

“The Malta Exchange” features Cotton Malone and what is looking more and more like his protege, Luke Daniels, working on an assignment for the Magellan Billet a secret U.S. government organization. Luke is a new employee with the Billet while Cotton is retired after years of service with them. Cotton is on paid temporary assignment with them in the book The two are sent to Italy to search for papers missing since World War II which delineate an attempt by Winston Churchill to arrange a peace with Mussolini, the than Italian dictator, and which could very well rewrite history if brought to light,

The action in this story takes place during a time when the current Pope has died and a conclave of Cardinals of the Catholic Church has been called to the Vatican to decide upon a new Pope. Mr Berry includes a history of both the Church as well as the island of Malta as background to his novel. These sidebars have been setup as part and parcel of the search for the Churchill papers and, I believe, that they make a good story even better. The Church’s history as depicted, goes back to it’s beginnings and includes events during the reign of Constantine during the fourth century A.D. in which that king became instrumental in making the Church the world wide organization that it currently is. Malta’s history includes centuries of being the territory of one nation after another and beginning at least 5000 years ago as cave drawings show humans living there at that point in the past.

Two brothers have been plotting for years to elevate one of them to the Papacy at the appropriate time. Their scheming and the actual attempt at getting elected to the position via clandestine activities comprise much of the investigative activity of Malone and Daniels. By itself this attempt will draw in readers and with the addition of the well documented historical background make for a great novel.

I reiterate that I find the historical facts brought into Berry’s novels fascinating and bring out the the truism that the events of the past are not cut and dried. They are open to analysis and can be shown to influence events much more than normally thought. Readers can interpret these background explanations as helping to solve a mystery even if they do not enjoy the interjection of new facts in history as part of the book. I, personally, always await the next Steve Berry novel with a great deal of anticipation.

3/19 Paul Lane

THE MALTA EXCHANGE by Steve Berry. Minotaur Books (March 5, 2019). ISBN 978-1250140265. 416p.

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