Book Review of The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear

Maisie Dobbs enjoys her new family as Vera Lynn croons “The White Cliffs of Dover.”  How fitting is that! What can one say when a treasured fictional friend you have followed from a servant’s abode through two world wars is retired.  Jacqueline Winspear’s 18^th Mazie Dobbs adventure, The Comfort of Ghosts is a satisfying close, but leaves just a smidgen of an opening for the author to change her mind if she wishes to continue the story beyond the end of WWII.

Rationing is still a heavy burden on life in England when the book opens. The troops are coming home, but many, including Billy’s son Will, have been psychologically damaged by their experiences.  Then comes the discovery of an undercover wartime plan to train groups of citizens, some as young as 12 or 13, to become a new “Resistance” in the country should the Nazis invade. Maisie finds four children who are a part of this plan “squatting” terror-filled in a London flat after witnessing a murder on a country estate where the owner has been hosting parties catering to German sympathizers.

To save the children, Masie promises to solve the murder. The unraveling is, as usual, full of twists and turns. Masie’s longtime friend Priscilla comes back into the picture as does the final section that circles all the way back to the tragic death of her husband James.    

Winspear’s simple straight-forward prose is masterfully combined with her skillful insertions of all the background material needed to make this story coherent for a first-time reader. However, the narrative is much richer and enjoyable if you have followed Maise right from the start and assimilated the details of her beginnings in the servant quarters, her series of happy as well as tragic love affairs, and her work as an investigator and psychological analyst. As one of that rank of readers, I will simply close with a line from the epilogue. It says it all about Masie’s hold on us and our attachment to Ms. Winspear’s plot-making, historical acumen, and emotional wisdom. 

             “Maisie reflected on the passage of time and how one path had led to the next,

often by chance and sometimes by intention, though invariably with a few sharp,

            uncomfortable turns.”    

Daniel Silva The Order

 

Mr. Silva is an accomplished author of over 20 espionage thrillers. This one seems long and dense--perhaps because I was reading it in a small print paperback edition. You may also not be ready for quite this much medieval church history and some of the political bias that appears. On the other hand, The Order continues to draw you in. The plot centers on the murder of a pope by an ultra-right-wing faction with a plan to take over the entire Catholic church. Silva claims the book is a fictional elegy on the age-old curse that the Jews killed Jesus and it draws heavily on Pius XII’s treatment of the Jews during World War II. The current anger and desperation over the still raging Gaza War also lurks as an undercurrent. 

The savior of the Catholic faith is, ironically, no other than a Jew. Gabriel Allon, master assassin, head of Israeli Intelligence, art restorer, and tender family man is this time summoned from a vacation holiday in Venice to investigate the possible murder of a pope. The mystery is bound up in a literary enigma. There are multiple ancient copies of biblical texts available and whether there is or was a gospel of Pilate, whether it exists but is a forgery, or whether its potential content might be terrible enough to elicit the murder a pope keeps the narrative boiling right down to the very last pages.

This is not an easy read and general critical opinion is mixed, but Silva is a master writer of location detail and Gabriel Allon is a fascinating and complicated character.   

I give it a 4 out of 5

 

Christoper Fowler –White Corridor

 

White Corridor is a 2007 entry in Fowler's long line of Bryant and May adventures and I had not read it before. Our heroes remain two older-than-dirt detectives who function out of the so-called “Peculiar Crimes” Unit of Scotland Yard.  Arthur Bryant is a curmudgeon who dabbles in the occult and strange ancient history while his partner John May is more normal and goes by the book occasionally. The two main characters and their contrasting ways of reaching the solutions are always ingenious, humorous and historically fascinating.

The plot setup puts our two elderly detectives headed for a weekend conference in a borrowed van. A nasty winter blizzard on the moors traps them with a large number of other vehicles. Rescue will be a long time coming and there seems to be a serial killer running amuck through the snow. Meanwhile, back in London, the unit's pathologist is murdered within the white sterile environment of his own laboratory. The story now cycles back and forth in both "white" environments with Bryant and May trying to solve their own problems while also trying by cell phone to help the junior members of their unit back in London solve their murder. Needless to say, it turns out that there are connections between the two cases. 

As a devoted Anglophile and card-carrying senior citizen, I am particularly fond of these crotchety old detectives with their unorthodox methods and sappy humor, but this is not one of their best cases. The  "trappped in a snowstorm with a murderer" gimmick has been used more than once before and the moves back and forth from London to the moors just seem to make the book disjointed.    

My own I interest in Fowler's books started because several of them had theatrical or performance oriented situations and used a lot of London history. They had titles like Oranges and Lemons, and London Bridge is Falling Down.  I think Fowler should keep his sleuths in London. 

3 out of 5

 

 

 

 

No Trump ever

Dear Joe, 

 I know what old feels like and a lot of it ain't pretty even if you are more than capable at your age. Is there a possibility you might end your run on a high note and turn things over to some younger folks in order to give them some time to make their own hay and mistakes?  I can never vote for Trump, but I would not like to have to hold my nose and vote for you again.  Would you at least give it a thought? 

Jim  (86 and still pretty sharp, but not what I used to be.)

What may have been a factor in Biden's poor debate performance.

 Bob Woodward said this evening on MSNBC that Biden's debate performance was so bad that there must have been some causal factor or factors operating.  As I was listening to him, I suddenly found myself connecting to the fact that my wife and I returned from a trip to Finland last Friday and it featured a 9 1/2 flight through several time zones.  One week after our return we are still having some residual fogginess, sleep and meal dysfunctions,  and occasional overall feeling of things not being quite right.  And we are in our 80's just like Joe Biden and jet lag according to the following article cited next .  Now remember that Biden had two hard working literally back to back trips to Europe in the two weeks before the debate. Jet lag also impacts older people more strongly and can present lack of focus and tiredness.  I know Air Force One is a flying hotel, but is it possible that this was a factor in his performance.  Just thinking. See: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/jet-lag/symptoms-causes/syc-20374027.  

Review Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly

 

Hard to say much about the author who has published 37 previous novels. He will be read no matter what. And why not? He won the writing chops game long ago. His narratives are strong and full of surprises at just the right time. His characters live and breathe through simple familiarity. You are pre-primed to see how the Lincoln Lawyer will win another case and you want to know how his now investigator Harry Bosch’s cancer treatments are progressing and how he will contribute to the case.  The defendant is sympathetic to the core. And finally, the connection to the title is neatly positioned early on and solidly integrated at the end.

Of his books I have read this seems to be about half way--nowhere near the worst but not taking the gold. It is totally workmanlike and kept me turning the pages, which is what a legal or police procedural is supposed to do.

I give it a solid 4 out of 5

 

Good article in Washington Post today by Ruth Marcus on sentencing Trump. The guy said a few days ago "If they can do it to me, they can do it to anybody." Isn't that the point? We aren't; he isn't, Biden's son isn't, nobody is above the law in this country. If there are exceptions, the bedrock of the constitution is cracked wide open and special interest rules.