Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for CODE NAME SAPPHIRE by Pam Jenoff on the HTP Books Winter 2023 Historical Fiction Blog Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
A woman must rescue her cousin’s family from a train bound for Auschwitz in this riveting tale of bravery and resistance, from the bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Paris
1942. Hannah Martel has narrowly escaped Nazi Germany after her fiancé was killed in a pogrom. When her ship bound for America is turned away at port, she has nowhere to go but to her cousin Lily, who lives with her family in Brussels. Fearful for her life, Hannah is desperate to get out of occupied Europe. But with no safe way to leave, she must return to the dangerous underground work she thought she had left behind.
Seeking help, Hannah joins the Sapphire Line, a secret resistance network led by a mysterious woman named Micheline and her enigmatic brother Matteo. But when a grave mistake causes Lily’s family to be arrested and slated for deportation to Auschwitz, Hannah finds herself torn between her loyalties. How much is Hannah willing to sacrifice to save the people she loves?
Inspired by incredible true stories of courage and sacrifice, Code Name Sapphire is a powerful novel about love, family and the unshakable resilience of women in even the hardest of times.
CODE NAME SAPPHIRE by Pam Jenoff is a historical fiction story of two cousins set in Brussels during WWII. It is based on the true story of Belgium resistance fighters stopping a train bound for Auschwitz and assisting in the escape of Jewish people from the cattle cars. It also begins with the fictionalized, but true story of a ship of Jewish refugees refused landing in Cuba and returned to Europe.
Hannah Martel has lost everything. Her fiancée is killed by the Nazis, she has miscarried their baby, and she is wanted for her drawings of seditious cartoons. When the ship to Cuba she is on is refused landing, her hoped for salvation disappears. Her last hope is her cousin, Lily who lives with her surgeon husband and young son in Brussels. While she is happy to be reunited with her cousin, the Germans have recently invaded Belgium and Hannah is afraid for her life and wants to leave Europe.
Hannah is able to make contact with a resistance network called the Sapphire Line, run by Micheline and her brother Matteo. She joins the group with the promise from Micheline to get her out of the country for her help. When Lily and her family are arrested and slated for deportation to Auschwitz because of a mistake on Hannah’s part, Hannah must decide how much she is willing to risk and sacrifice to save those she loves.
This is a story with so many plot twists and harrowing circumstances that I just kept turning the pages. The historical facts that this novel is based on were well researched. Hannah and Lily at first represented the two differing lines of thought for Jewish people during the German occupation, those who wanted to or tried to leave and those who thought they could ride out the occupation in their homes, but none were safe. While I liked Hannah and Lily, I was really drawn to Micheline. I usually love a romantic element in a story, but the triangle in this story I could have done without. This is still a book I read from start to surprising conclusion.
I recommend this gripping historical fiction tale.
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About the Author
Pam is the author of several novels, including her most recent The Woman With The Blue Star, as well as The Lost Girls of Paris and The Orphan’s Tale, both instant New York Times bestsellers. Pam was born in Maryland and raised outside Philadelphia. She attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Cambridge University in England. Upon receiving her master’s in history from Cambridge, she accepted an appointment as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army. The position provided a unique opportunity to witness and participate in operations at the most senior levels of government, including helping the families of the Pan Am Flight 103 victims secure their memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, observing recovery efforts at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and attending ceremonies to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of World War II at sites such as Bastogne and Corregidor.
Following her work at the Pentagon, Jenoff moved to the State Department. In 1996 she was assigned to the U.S. Consulate in Krakow, Poland. It was during this period that Pam developed her expertise in Polish-Jewish relations and the Holocaust. Working on matters such as preservation of Auschwitz and the restitution of Jewish property in Poland, Jenoff developed close relations with the surviving Jewish community.
Having left the Foreign Service in 1998 to attend law school at the University of Pennsylvania, Jenoff practiced law at a large firm and in-house for several years. She now teaches law school at Rutgers.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE BONE RECORDS by Rich Zahradnik on this Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links, and a Kingsumo giveaway. Good luck on the giveaway and enjoy!
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Book Description
NY Police Academy washout Grigg Orlov discovers an eerie piece of evidence at the scene of his father’s brutal murder: a disc-shaped X-ray of a skull. It’s a bone record–what Soviet citizens called banned American songs recorded on used X-rays. But the black-market singles haven’t been produced since the sixties. What’s one doing in Coney Island in 2016?
Grigg uncovers a connection between his father and three others who collected bone records when they were teenage friends growing up in Leningrad. Are past and present linked? Or is the murder tied to the local mob? Grigg’s got too many suspects and too little time. He must get to the truth before a remorseless killer takes everything he has.
Genre: Mystery Published by: 1000 Words A Day Press Publication Date: November 2022 Number of Pages: 338 ISBN: 9798985905649
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My Book Review
RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars
THE BONE RECORDS by Rich Zahradnik is a non-stop fast paced thriller filled with Russian mobsters and government agents, corrupt NYPD police, and FBI agents, good and bad, all after a young protagonist caught up for unknown reasons in international intrigue.
Grigg Orlov has never felt he belonged in his neighborhood of Little Odessa. Born of a Russian immigrant father and a Jamaican mother, he is plagued with prejudice his entire life. His father reappears after a six-month absence only to have both chased and his father killed. Grigg finds a disc shaped x-ray of a skull on his father’s body. It has an individual old song recording on the opposite side. He learns the discs were called bone records which in the old Soviet Union were sold on the black market with banned American music, but what does this have to do with his father?
Grigg and his ex-girlfriend, Katia, discover an old connection his father had to a group of friends in Russia and bone records, but what does that have to do with the present day run for his life from Russian mobsters and government spies? With no help from law enforcement, Grigg must find the truth before he and Katia end up dead.
This is a thriller with a stubborn and flawed young protagonist that the author is able to make me still care about and follow on this harrowing investigation and run for his life. The history of the bone records was interesting and new to me. The vivid descriptions of the neighborhood of Little Odessa and Coney Island made both feel real and integral to the story. I felt at times the number of mobsters, spies and corrupt law enforcement officials was over the top, but it certainly kept the action and Grigg moving. Every plot thread is tied up at the climatic ending, I just wish a few were answered sooner in the story because for me, all the solutions were rushed into the last chapters with much of the story being threat and chase.
I recommend this entertaining thriller with its unique protagonist and plenty of action and suspects.
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Excerpt
Chapter 1
Friday, August 19, 2016
Grigg’s reunion with his father was brief—eight minutes to be exact—and ended when a man with a nickel-plated revolver shot Dad twice.
Three hours before the violence began, Grigg struggled through the crowd on the Coney Island subway platform. He was the last to reach the stairway to the station’s exit. Again. Even the old folks were gone. His wrecked knee held him back.
Outside the station, Deno’s Wonder Wheel turned slowly, towering over the amusement park that took its name from the ancient fifteen-story ride. The wheel’s spokes glowed a hot neon white. Hazy coronas surrounded all the lights.
Tick-tick-tick-tick.
Grigg had started wearing his father’s Timex soon after he had gone missing. He put the watch up to his ear, as he’d done too many times before. It wasn’t loud enough to be heard. The clockwork noise was in his head. Maybe a reminder to keep looking. Maybe a reminder that six months was already too long in missing persons cases.
His father’s watch read 8:18 p.m.
He limped away from Coney Island’s amusement parks toward his house on West 28th off Mermaid Avenue. As he did, the street darkened. He checked behind him more than once. The neighborhood became far less amusing as night came on—and the farther you went from the fun parks. Mugging wasn’t the thrill ride Grigg needed. He didn’t want any more trouble. He had a lifetime’s supply. His long days pinballed him between two jobs and the search for his father.
But despite Grigg’s best efforts, the minutes and hours and days kept spinning off the Timex, found by the police in a Howard Beach motel room, the last place his father was seen before he vanished into the thin March air. Their empty house waited to reflect Grigg’s loneliness back at him. His mother had died when he was eighteen months old. His boss at the city’s claims adjustment office rarely talked to him outside of giving orders. All of his connections—he couldn’t really call them friends—in the neighborhood he owed to his father. Dad, like the rest of them, had immigrated from Russia. Unlike the rest of them, he’d married a woman from Jamaica, a union that guaranteed Grigg would always be on the outside in Little Odessa.
The rubber soles of his cheap dress shoes slapped the wet pavement. A thunderstorm had blown through while he was on the subway, leaving behind the sticky-thick humidity. His messenger bag tugged on his shoulder.
He went over the lead he’d uncovered tonight. Going door-to-door in a Midwood apartment building full of Russians, he’d talked briefly to a tenant named Freddy Popov, who recognized Grigg’s father when shown a photo. Popov said a man—maybe a cop—had been canvassing the building with a picture of Grigg’s dad four weeks earlier. Inside the man’s apartment and shielded by Popov, someone said something in Russian. Popov got hinky, then said he didn’t know anything more and slammed the door. Grigg banged on it until a woman across the hall threatened to call the cops. He left with only the knowledge that someone else—maybe a cop?—was also searching for Dad. Still, that bit of info was his biggest lead to date.
Grigg limped up to the small, two-story brick house—kitchen, living room, two bedrooms over a garage—a duplicate of the other attached homes on the street. He unlocked the steel gate, then the front door, and stepped inside.
The thunk of the door closing echoed through the house. Two days ago, Grigg had moved everything out except for the sleeping bag in his bedroom of twenty-seven years and a blue duffel, readying the old house for its new owners. He turned the deadbolt.
He shouldn’t be staying here tonight. He’d spent all his free time on the search for Dad, right up until the closing on the sale of the house. Even at the end, he’d hoped for a breakthrough that would save him from selling. He’d signed the papers yesterday, writing a check for $1,650—most of his savings—because the house was underwater on a second mortgage his father had taken out. Grigg knew the out-of-state buyers wouldn’t be moving in for three weeks, so he’d kept a copy of the key.
Trespassing in my own house. Inviting trouble when I already have too much.
The plan was to use the next three weeks to find an apartment share, but the lead from Popov tugged at his thoughts. Would it pull so hard that he’d spend his free time searching for Dad and end up homeless? He ducked his own question and instead pictured going back to demand Popov tell him more. He shook his head. He could barely keep his mind on his housing problem for the space of a single thought. He took a beer out of the refrigerator, went up to his room, and rolled his sleeping bag into a fat pillow to lean against.
Grigg popped open the 90 Years Young Double IPA. Nine percent alcohol. The strong stuff he’d dubbed “floor softener.” He downed two sixteen-ounce cans, and the ache faded from the muscles in his damaged leg.
He took out his phone. He’d run through his data allowance last week. Three days until the new billing cycle. At least he had his music. He played the Decembrists, their songs about revenge and ships at sea set to jangly indie rock. He followed with the Killers, then Vampire Weekend.
Tick-tick-tick-tick.
His father’s watch read 11:20 p.m.
He opened his notebook and wrote down “Day 191” along with what he’d learned. It was longer than any previous entry—yet not long at all. So many days. The silence in the house chilled him, sending goosebumps in waves over his arms and thighs. He got up and turned down the air conditioner. It wouldn’t help. He missed his father’s voice, the way it had warmed their home. They could talk about everything and anything, a lot of anything, but such interesting anything. Dad was always there with his questions, his curiosity, and his deep interest in whatever Grigg was up to. There were days his father was more intrigued by Grigg’s job than Grigg was. Even that helped.
A fourth beer. He floated on the wood floor of his empty bedroom. Slept.
A thump. The floor hardened underneath him. Another thump. Half buzzed, halfway to a headache, Grigg opened his eyes. He heard it again. Not a dream. On the roof. He followed the steps above him to his father’s empty bedroom. He was about to switch on his phone’s flashlight when legs—silhouetted by the glow from the street across the way—dangled over the room’s tiny balcony. They descended slowly, inching, hesitating, as if the intruder were no expert at this sort of move. The toes stretched to touch, and finally, the person dropped, stumbled, and landed on their knees.
Grigg didn’t know whether to laugh or arm himself. If this was a robbery, then the joke was going to be on a thief who’d picked a house with nothing in it. Grigg decided discretion was the better part of whatever, returned to his bedroom, and pulled the stun gun from his messenger bag. Ever since he’d been attacked when he was in the police academy—suffering the knee injury that forced him to drop out—he hadn’t felt safe unless he carried the weapon.
He placed the messenger bag next to his duffel in the hallway in case he needed to get out fast. In the kitchen, he grabbed his second six pack as a backup weapon.
Of course, he could escape by the front and leave the intruder for the police to deal with. But if he did, then the buyers would be notified, and he’d lose the three weeks of temporary housing he’d been counting on.
He crept through the doorway into the main bedroom.
The figure, whose face remained in deep shadow because of the streetlight glow from behind, rattled the handle to the single balcony door, used his elbow to smash in the square pane nearest the knob, reached in, and turned the simple metal lock. As he pushed the door open, Grigg stepped forward, hit his phone’s light, and thrust forward the stun gun.
“Get the fuck out of my house!”
The figure froze. “I’m not going to hurt you, Grigg.”
Grigg moved closer.
“Dad? Dad!”
Full beard and longer hair, but it was him.
Grigg didn’t know whether to hug his father or scream at him.
“I came to say goodbye,” Dad said.
“Goodbye?”
“I’m leaving. For Russia. I don’t know when I’ll be able to return. It’s the only way.”
“I don’t understand.” Any of it. “You said you’d never go back.”
“It’s the only way to fix things.”
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Mystery writer Rich Zahradnik
Author Bio
Rich Zahradnik is the author of the thriller The Bone Records and four critically acclaimed mysteries, including Lights Out Summer, winner of the Shamus Award. He was a journalist for twenty-seven years and now lives in Pelham, New York, where he is the mentor to the staff of the Pelham Examiner, an award-winning community newspaper run, edited, reported, and written by people under the age of eighteen.
When car failure stalls Englischer Ruth Wengerd’s impulsive cross-country trip, she doesn’t expect to be rescued by a horse and buggy—or to suddenly become a nanny for widower Adam Chupp’s son. Helping the sweet family reminds Ruth of her Amish upbringing and the shameful secret she’s hiding. But when the temporary job begins to feel permanent, can she face up to her past…for a future she left once before?
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Elise’s Thoughts
The Mysterious Amish Nanny by Patrice Lewis is a very uplifting book. It has readers understanding how someone needs to change their lifestyle for their emotional well-being, preferring to have family come first.
The heroine, Ruth Wengerd, quits her lucrative job on Wall Street and impulsively leaves behind everything to go on a cross-country trip. Unfortunately, her car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and she needs to be rescued by an Amish man and his son. Because she needs money, she agrees to be the nanny for Lucas, the son of Adam Chupp who is a widower. She begins to fall for this family, bringing back memories of the time she was part of an Amish community as a young child.
Adam is also a contrast for Ruth. He shows her the importance of family, and that money should be for support not for ambition. While Ruth makes Adam understand the importance of having a partner, he shows her the importance of family.
As with all of Patrice Lewis books readers get a heartfelt story with some mysterious plotlines that will keep people turning the pages.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: The idea for the story?
Patrice Lewis: I had this story in my head years ago. I wanted to write someone snaping emotionally, where they leave their job, and then have their car break down in the middle of nowhere after going on a cross country trip. I had read about the pressure cooker environment of Wall Street, contrary to the lifestyle I have. I based some scenes in the story from the book Young Money by Kevin Roose. Where my routine is deliberately slow and unpressured this is contrasted by the intense Wall Street environment that sucks employees every hour of someone’s life. This was the theme I wanted to explore.
EC: What is the mystery of the story?
PL: There are several little mysteries woven through it. First, why did the heroine’s parents leave the Amish when she was a ten-year-old? There is also how Adam tries to figure her background out after seeing a missing flyer of Ruth. Besides those there was why Ruth left a successful job on Wall Street, what had she done to become so ashamed?
EC: You explore some traditions of the Amish?
PL: I wrote in the story how they sing hymns. On YouTube I came across a couple of Amish girls, one playing the guitar and the other singing a particular hymn.
EC: How would you describe the heroine, Ruth?
PL: She is impulsive and ambitious. She is also impetuous, affectionate, kind, and tender, which comes out in her love of children. She is searching for a “home.”
EC: How would you describe Adam?
PL: There is a lot of my husband in him. We have a woodcraft business for several years. It can leave someone very frazzled which is how Adam reacts. He is lonely, caring, kind, and worried about his hyperactive son. He left behind his support structure after his wife passed away. He was a single dad.
EC: How similar is the relationship between the four-year-old child Lucas and Ruth?
PL: Both are impulsive, enthusiastic, energetic, and firecrackers. Ruth understood Lucas. I based the story where Ruth became Lucas’ nanny on my daughter. She was a professional nanny and learned how to deal with these overly active children by keeping them occupied. Lucas adored Ruth and always wanted to impress her.
EC: What about the relationship between Adam and Ruth?
PL: She still has the Wall Street mentality that money is everything, while he just wants to earn enough to support, himself and his son. Ruth is vulnerable. The relationship started with the young boy’s feelings for Ruth. She remembers the fond memories of the Amish view of community and family since in her early life she was raised Amish. They both realize what they are missing: her a family, and he a solid home life.
EC: How did the financial end affect the relationship?
PL: Adam and Ruth became a team first, as she helped him with his finances. Ruth was able to keep track of his finances, write proposals, write estimates, and do the billing and payroll. This freed him up to build, construct, and supervise. This is also based on how my husband, and I handled our business. He can create and build, while I do the numbers and taxes. Just as with us, with Ruth and Adam, one person’s weakness is the other person’s strength. They balance each other off.
EC: Next book?
PL: The title is The Quilter’s Scandalous Past. It is based on a huge Amish store in Ohio called Lehman’s. The heroine, Esther, manages the store for her aunt and uncle. She works with this prospective buyer who knew her as a teenager. It is probably coming out in June. The third story in this series has a “Beauty and the Beast” theme.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
In every person’s story, there is something to hide…
The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman’s terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who’d happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.
THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY by Sulari Gentill is an intricately plotted and intriguing murder mystery story within a suspense story. This standalone is by a new to me author and I am very happy I took a chance on reading it.
The mystery has four strangers sitting at the same table in the Boston Public Library when there is suddenly a blood curdling scream from another room. Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid is an Australian aspiring writer in the U.S. on a scholarship, Cain McLeod (Handsome Man) is a published author, Marigold Anastas (Freud Girl) is studying psychology at Harvard, and Whit Metters (Heroic Chin) is a failing law student who wants to be a journalist. Winifred is the narrator in this murder mystery.
At the end of each chapter of the mystery, a letter is written to Hannah, who is the published author writing the murder mystery in Australia from her fellow aspiring writer, fan, beta reader, Leo who lives in Boston and is giving her information on sites for her book and other suggested corrections. What could go wrong?
Layer upon layer in both the murder mystery and the suspense story are very well written and pulled me into each and it was difficult to put this book down. I feel both stories are clever with plenty of twists and surprises, especially the mystery, but I did anticipate where the suspense plot was heading. The characters are interesting and kept me guessing.
I recommend this mystery in a suspense for a unique and entertaining read.
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About the Author
Once upon a time, Sulari Gentill was a corporate lawyer serving as a director on public boards, with only a vague disquiet that there was something else she was meant to do. That feeling did not go away until she began to write. And so Sulari became the author of the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries: thus far, ten historical crime novels chronicling the life and adventures of her 1930s Australian gentleman artist, the Hero Trilogy, based on the myths and epics of the ancient world, and the Ned Kelly Award winning Crossing the Lines (published in the US as After She Wrote Hime). In 2014 she collaborated with National Gallery of Victoria to write a short story which was produced in audio to feature in the Fashion Detective Exhibition, and thereafter published by the NGV. IN 2019 Sulari was part of a 4-member delegation of Australian crime writers sponsored by the Australia Council to tour the US as ambassadors of Australian Crime Writing.
Sulari lives with her husband, Michael, and their boys, Edmund and Atticus, on a small farm in Batlow where she grows French Black Truffles and refers to her writing as “work” so that no one will suggest she get a real job.
From the New York Times bestselling authors of The First Conspiracy and The Lincoln Conspiracy comes the little-known true story of a Nazi plot to kill FDR, Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill at the height of World War II.
In 1943, as the war against Nazi Germany raged abroad, President Franklin Roosevelt had a critical goal: a face-to-face sit-down with his allies Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. This first-ever meeting of the Big Three in Tehran, Iran, would decide some of the most crucial strategic details of the war. Yet when the Nazis found out about the meeting, their own secret plan took shape—an assassination plot that would’ve changed history.
A true story filled with daring rescues, body doubles, and political intrigue, The Nazi Conspiracy details FDR’s pivotal meeting in Tehran and the deadly Nazi plot against the heads of state of the three major Allied powers who attended it.
With all the hallmarks of a Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch page-turner, The Nazi Conspiracy explores the great political minds of the twentieth century, investigating the pivotal years of the war in gripping detail. This meeting of the Big Three changed the course of World War II. Here’s the inside story of how it almost led to a world-shattering disaster.
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Elise’s Thoughts
The Nazi Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch dives into the 1943 Nazi assassination threat against the Big Three world leaders. As the war against Nazi Germany raged abroad, President Franklin Roosevelt had a critical goal: a face-to-face sit-down with his allies Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. This first-ever meeting of the Big Three in Tehran, Iran, would decide some of the most crucial strategic details of the war. Yet when the Nazis found out about the meeting, their own secret plan took shape; an assassination plot that would have changed history.
A true story filled with daring rescues, body doubles, and political intrigue, The Nazi Conspiracy details the pivotal meeting in Tehran and the deadly Nazi plot against the heads of state of the three major Allied powers, Russia, US, and England. A bonus is the backstory on what was happening during WWII, including the Holocaust and thoughts of how the Big Three would structure the war. As with all books by these authors readers get a thrilling plot with gripping details.
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Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
Brad Meltzer: I saw in a half page newspaper article years ago this story. It said that there was a plot to kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin at the height of WWII, an attempted assassination by the Nazis. I found this detail that FDR was hiding in the back of a beat-up sedan, while his actual motorcade had a body double in it. Josh and I decided to answer the threshold questions why was FDR hiding and who was going to murder him? We point out how this is imperfect information because so many documents were destroyed over the years.
EC: What do you believe-was the plot a hoax or reality?
BM: Either the assassination attempt was planned, or Joseph Stalin pulled one of the greatest scams in all of history and tricked FDR and Churchill in the height of WWII. My personal belief is that this was a credible threat. The one person who never changed his story was the head of the Secret Service Mike Riley. With the big three together, they were a tantalizing target for the Nazis.
EC: Why is Mike Riley so important?
BM: He is the one who looked the Russians in the eye, their evidence, their MO, and assessed the threat. He really believed to his dying day that this was a real plot to kill all three.
EC: Why did you touch on the hatred of the Jewish race?
BM: Whenever Josh and I start these books we ask, ‘what is the book about?’ We included the Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden at the height of WWII. There were 20,000 Nazis cheering with a picture of George Washington surrounded by Nazi banners. A speaker there said if George Washington was alive today, he would be friends with Adolph Hitler. We also included the details of the Holocaust which is relevant today. The Holocaust started with slogans, propaganda, rallies, and book bans. A group of people pointed at others and said, ‘they will take away our way of life.’ We are seeing it repeat now.
EC: Why the background history?
BM: People think we punched the Nazis in the jaw and saved the day. But this is not the story. The US did not want to be in WWII. WWI was not too far in the background, there was the depression with the stock market crash, and FDR was to save the country from ruin. There were other priorities. Josh and I wanted to put in the context to understand the only reason the US entered WWII was because of Pearl Harbor. For context, we put in how Yamamoto, the architect of Pearl Harbor, was assassinated by the US to show how assassination was a valid and common weapon of WWII.
EC: What was the role of the Nazi Franz Mayr?
BM: In his late twenties, a Nazi spy, a zealot in Tehran. The reason he is so vital is that he was the one to convince the Nazis about the plot although he is not a part of the actual plot, getting arrested months before. The Germans completely believe they can drop paratroopers into Tehran without being seen as the US, England, and Russia meet for the Tehran Conference. Oddly, it is his arrest that foiled the plot.
EC: Who is the true hero?
BM: I think there were two heroes. First, the Soviets, who captured the 36 Nazi paratroopers and found out about the plot. The other hero is Mike Riley who assessed the threat. You cannot have one hero without the other. If Riley did not believe the information the Russians provided about the plot it could be a disaster. It takes one believing the other.
EC: Why had the storyline shifted?
BM: During the Cold War since the US did not want the Russians to be seen as the good guys. Suddenly it was given the name of Operation Long Jump. There is no proof it was ever called it. Josh and I showed in the book how the stories became exaggerated, shifted, and changed.
EC: You also have in the book the relationship between FDR, Churchill, and Stalin. Please explain.
BM: It was precarious at best. FDR pivoted and adjusted. He believed in his ability to charm the other leaders. He is the middleman who held it all together because Churchill and Stalin hated each other.
EC: What do you want readers to get out of the book?
BM: To entertain, to inform, but also to warn people. Good people should not stay silent. Anti-Semitism is at an all-time high since it has been tracked by the ADL starting in WWII. People should appreciate the freedom we have now.
EC: What about your next books?
BM: There will be some children’s’ books including Wonder Woman out in a few months. Then I am working on the novel sequel that brings back Zig and Nola. It will take a few years to come out.
THANK YOU!!
***
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE ACCIDENTALSPY by David Gardner on this Partners In Crime Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Harvey Hudson is an emotionally scarred, fifty-six-year-old history professor who has lost his job, his wife and his self-respect. In desperation, Harvey takes a high-tech job for which he is totally unqualified.
So he outsources it to India.
Then Harvey discovers that a Russian intelligence agency owns the outsourcing company and are using him to launch a cyberattack on the U.S. petroleum industry.
Harvey now finds himself in a world of trouble with the Russians and the FBI, and he has fallen in love with the woman from New Delhi who’s doing the job he’s outsourced—who might be a Russian agent.
Genre: Humorous Thriller with Literary Pretensions Published by: Encircle Publications, LLC Publication Date: November 2, 2022 Number of Pages: 274 ISBN: 9781645994206
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My Book Review
RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars
THE ACCIDENTAL SPY by David Gardner is a satire of a spy thriller novel with a bumbling college professor who loses his job, marriage and life savings and yet manages to outwit Russian spies, foil their plot and win the girl. This standalone is a humorous story with moments of suspense, moments of heroism and moments of “Really?”.
Harvey Hudson is a fifty-six-year-old man who begins this story down and out with little self-esteem left after the college he taught at closes and his wife divorces him after running through his life savings. He is left with a pity job from an old high school flame as a technical writer by day and a pizza delivery man by night. When he “outsources” his day job on the sly to India, he meets Amaya. But there is more to this chance pairing then meets the eye and Harvey is about to learn more than he ever wanted to about Russian spies, FBI handlers and international espionage.
Harvey is an anti-hero you come to care for over the course of this life-changing adventure. The plot is unique and while it only occasionally feels fast paced with action and suspense, this is more Harvey’s story of transition and triumph over his past even with all the crazy espionage antics. I was sucked into Harvey’s story and pleasantly surprised at the unique twists, his wry wit and my hope for his ultimate triumph all along the way.
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Excerpt
Accidental Spy: “Some poor jerk dragged into a world of trouble.”
Harvey Hudson
Chapter 1: Bunny Ears
Summer, 2019
Harvey Hudson released the steering wheel and swatted at the blue balloon (“Congrats! You Did It!”) that was banging against the back of his head.
What was the ‘It’ for? Someone earned a law degree? Pulled off a bank heist? Successfully underwent potty training? All three?
One day before turning fifty-six, and here he was, delivering balloons. How had he let this happen to him?
He chewed on the last of the Skittles he’d swiped from a bulky candy basket attached to a red balloon shaped like a birthday cake. Too many sweets for some spoiled kid. He was doing the pudgy brat a favor. The Snickers bar was tempting. Maybe later.
Harvey reached across the front seat, grabbed a handful of candy bars from the Skittle-less basket ($149), and dropped them into its modest neighbor ($39). He often shifted candy from larger baskets to lesser ones. He thought of himself as the Robin Hood of balloon-delivery individuals.
He’d had just $87 in the bank a few weeks ago when he’d shambled past a help-wanted sign in the front window of the Rapid Rabbit Balloon Service. He paused and reread the sign. “Part-time Delivery Person Needed. Become a Rapid Rabbit!” Yeah, what the hell. He hurried inside before he came to his senses. He would have taken any gig—balloon-delivery specialist, male stripper, or get-away driver for a grizzled bank robber.
With his part-time job delivering balloons and his full-time work as a beginning technical writer, Harvey could just stay afloat. His ex-wife had cleaned him out.
He double-parked on a smart street of brick-front homes on Boston’s Beacon Hill. Hesitating, he clamped the hated bunny ears over his head and attached the spongy red nose. Sighing, he grabbed the $149 basket and, head down, ambled up the walkway and rang the bell. The balloon bobbed overhead, taunting him.
The woman who opened the door was a slim and pretty brunette in her fifties. She had a narrow face and large, dark eyes.
She was his boss at his day job.
Also his high school sweetheart.
Harvey wanted to disappear into the ground.
Margo took a step back. “Oh.”
Harvey pulled off the bulbous red nose and stuffed it into his shirt pocket. “Uh…this is where you live?”
Margo shook her head. “I’m here with my daughter for a birthday party.”
Harvey shifted from one foot to the other. “I’m…um…delivering balloons just for tonight to help out a buddy who had two wisdom teeth pulled this morning, a professor who lost his job the same time I did.”
Margo blinked twice.
“A sociologist,” Harvey added.
Margo gripped the edge of the door.
“Named Fred,” Harvey said.
Margo nodded.
“The guy took the job in desperation because he’s broke, recently divorced, and down on his luck,” Harvey said and realized he was describing himself.
He handed the basket to Margo.
Did she believe him? Probably not. Did the company have a rule against moonlighting? He’d soon find out.
Margo poked around inside the basket. “There’s too much candy in here.”
“At least there aren’t any Skittles.”
Margo selected a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. “I’ve moved tomorrow’s team meeting up to 10:00 A.M. Did you get my email?”
Harvey nodded.
Was that her way of telling him that moonlighters don’t get fired? He hoped so. He was pathetically unqualified as a technical writer, and his job was in jeopardy.
Harvey hated meetings. Sometimes he thought the software engineers asked him questions he couldn’t answer just to see him squirm. Many were kids in their twenties, making double his salary.
And he hated lying to Margo. At least he could be honest about one small thing. “Actually, this is my night gig. I’ve had it for a few weeks.”
Margo unwrapped the Reese’s, nipped off a corner, chewed and said, “Is that why I caught you asleep at your desk yesterday?”
No, it’s because the job is so goddamn boring. He shook his head. “I wasn’t sleeping. I have the habit of relaxing and closing my eyes whenever I’m searching for the perfect way to convey a particularly difficult concept to our worthy customers.”
“And snoring?”
Margo was smiling now. That same cute smile from high school. He remembered it from the time they’d sneaked a first kiss in the back row of calculus class. The girl he’d loved and lost.
She set the basket down and pulled a twenty from the side pocket of her slacks. “Um…would you…uh…accept a tip?”
“No.”
She shoved the bill into his shirt pocket. “Yes, you will.”
Harvey shifted his weight to his left foot. A liar doesn’t deserve a $20 tip. At most, a few dimes and nickels, couch-cushion change.
Margo finished the peanut butter cup in silence.
He didn’t quite know what to say now.
Yes, he did know. He should tell her the truth.
He’d outsourced his job to India.
Was that illegal? Probably not. But highly unethical. Would she protect him after he’d confessed? Unlikely, which meant he would lose his job. But living a lie was exhausting and just plain wrong. She’d hired him and trusted him. She deserved better. He cleared his throat, once, twice, a third time. “Margo, there’s something I have to tell you. It seems I—“
“Is that the balloon guy?” a young woman called from inside the house.
“That’s my daughter,” Margo said and picked up the basket. A blue balloon bobbed on a string attached to the handle. “I’ll be right back.”
Harvey stood at the open door, trying to think of some way to soften his upcoming confession. Or maybe just blurt it out and get it over with?
“Happy birthday, Dad!”
The daughter’s voice again from inside.
“Candy and a kid’s balloon again this year! Are you trying to tell me something?”
The daughter laughed.
Harvey recognized the man’s voice.
Tucker Aldrich was the CEO of the company where Harvey worked. He was also Margo’s ex-husband and a first-class dickhead.
So, it meant the balloon and candy basket were for Tucker and not some child. Harvey was sorry he’d passed on the Snickers bar.
The hell with telling the truth.
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Author Bio
David Gardner grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm, served in Army Special Forces and earned a Ph.D. in French from the University of Wisconsin. He has taught college and worked as a reporter and in the computer industry.
He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Nancy, also a writer. He hikes, bikes, messes with astrophotography and plays the keyboard with no discernible talent whatsoever.
