The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Honjin Murders is a mystery novel set in Japan in the late 1930s. It is a classic “locked room” mystery story written in the 1940s and only recently translated into English. It is a great story, revolving around the murders of a couple on their wedding night. There is really not much more that I want to say about the plot for fear of giving something away, but as I mentioned above it is a locked room kind of mystery with plenty of twists and turns, and a few red herrings. The mystery kept me guessing all the way to the end.

This is the introduction of the author’s detective Kosuke Kindaichi, who is instrumental in solving the case, when the police investigation becomes bogged down. There are another 76 books in the Kosuke Kindaichi series, and I’m looking forward to reading them as they become available in English. And I will say that the translator for this book did an excellent job.

I definitely recommend this book – it’s an entertaining and well-written mystery.

Richard III: The Self-Made King by Michael Hicks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Richard III: The Self-Made King is a fairly exhaustive study of how Richard lived and worked, both as the Duke of Gloucester and later as King of England. The real focus here is on what he did and how he managed things, so it is not so much of a biography as as study of how Richard wielded power. So it is not the typical book on Richard III.

The focus on Richard’s manner of governing can be a little distracting, so I would not necessarily recommend this book for someone who has not read a more narrative biography of Richard. But there are many interesting details that come out in the author’s analysis of Richard, both as duke and as king. The book is more like an academic book as opposed to one meant for a broader audience; but I did appreciate the footnotes and references.

There are many insights along the way, and one that I found interesting was that one of the problems for Richard as king, was that there was very few members of the royal family and so it was not easy for him to project the power of the monarchy. This is especially true after the death of his son Edward. Of course had Richard been the victor at Bosworth, this would not have mattered.

So, I have somewhat mixed feelings about the book – it is an in-depth look at Richard’s abilities to manage and overcome obstacles, and there is a lot of information here. On the other hand, there narrative is somewhat weak, and it may be somewhat confusing for readers who do not have a solid background in this area of English history

Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service by Carol Leonnig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Zero Fail covers the history of the Secret Service’s presidential protection detail from the Kennedy years up to the inauguration of President Biden. There is some information about the early years of the Secret Service, and some discussion of the field offices and the other duties of the Secret Service, but the main focus is on how the president is protected. It is a fascinating story, to say the least.

The book is organized around incidents where the Secret Service had to deal with threats of one sort or another, for example, the response of the detail protecting President Bush on 9/11 or the night that someone shot at the White House in 2011. In each situation we learn not just the details of the incident, but how the Secret Service learned a lesson, or in some cases, didn’t learn. The sad thing is that we see that the Secret Service has been chronically underfunded, which affects both the people and the technology that is used. And often, just plain luck has kept a minor incident from becoming a major tragedy.

I definitely recommend this book. The author has done a good job in telling the story, and I mentioned, it is a fascinating story.

V2: A Novel of World War II by Robert Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

V2 is the latest novel from Robert Harris, set in late 1944. We follow two people, a German rocket scientist, Rudi Graf, and an English intelligence officer, Kay Caton-Walsh, in alternate chapters. I’m not really sold on the alternating chapter style of narrative – I’ve seen it fail and become distracting several times – but the author makes it work here.

We follow Rudi as he helps launch V2 rockets at London from the occupied Netherlands, and we follow Kay as she joins a unit that tries to calculate the V2’s launching point based on radar data. I really don’t want to say much more than that for fear of spoiling it, but let me just say that both of the stories are very interesting and of course they are intertwined. It’s definitely a good read and it really kept my interest.

I appreciated the author’s inclusion in his Acknowledgements of a bibliography concerning the V2 and the missile campaign of 1944.

A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution by Jeremy D. Popkin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A New World Begins is one of the best treatments of the French Revolution that I have come across. Beginning with the problems besetting the monarchy under Louis XVI in the 1780s to Napoleon’s coronation as emperor in 1804, it’s all here. The author has done an amazing job of providing a compelling narrative of the revolution, as it begins and then twists and turns and eventually morphs into something quite different from what it was at the start.

One of my history professors once told us that the French Revolution was really the beginning of modern politics, and as I read this book, I was again reminded of his observation. There’s a lot of material in this book, too much to really go into, but I do want to mention two topics that are not often found in books dealing with the French Revolution, but are covered in some detail here: the role of women in the Revolution, and the question of slavery and the rights of people of color.

If you are interested in this period of history, I strongly recommend this book.

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m not really sure what to say about this book, other than I think everybody should read it. It’s a very powerful and horrifying narrative of race relations in the United States beginning with Reconstruction to the end of the Obama presidency. The author has done an amazing job of condensing a lot of important history into an easy to read narrative that is documented with an extensive set of footnotes.

The book was definitely an eye-opener for me. In the chapter on the Reconstruction for example, following the Civil War promises were made to the emancipated slaves, most of which were never kept. And although the former slaves had the legal right to vote, violence and threats of violence prevented most of them from voting. By the time the Reconstruction ended, it was as if the Civil War really never happened. Sure, “slavery” was gone, but the former slaves really weren’t all that free. The same people ran the system for their own advantage. Needless to say, this was not the story of the Reconstruction that I was taught in my high school American History class.

I highly recommend this book. I think it provides valuable insight to why our society is the way it is.

Murder by the Book: A Sensational Chapter in Victorian Crime by Claire Harman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Murder by the Book is the true story of the murder of Lord William Russell on May 6, 1840 in the Mayfair area of London. In many ways this is a classic Victorian Age murder mystery, but it is more than that too. The prime suspect claimed, in at least one of several published confessions after being convicted, that the inspiration for the crime was a sensational novel of the time. This eventually draws in many literary figures, including Dickens and Thackeray.

The author does a great job of describing the crime and the investigation. And she does an excellent job of describing the social and literary scenes of the period. It is a fascinating story and it is well told; the book can be read in a single afternoon. There is not too much more I can say, without running the risk of spoiling it, but there are some unanswered questions about the murder and the perpetrator, and the author reviews these at the end of the book, and gives some of her own ideas on the crime and the motive.

Lotharingia: A Personal History of Europe’s Lost Country by Simon Winder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third volume of the author’s trilogy of personal histories of Europe, the first two being Germania and Danubia, concerning Germany and the Habsburg lands respectively. As usual, Mr. Winder takes the “personal history” part seriously – the narrative is very anecdotal and jumps from place to place, though it does remain in chronological order, more or less.

The subject of this volume is Europe’s “lost country” – the lands of Lothar, from the Treaty of Verdun in 843, where Charelmagne’s empire was divided between his three grandsons. One part became Germany, another part became the basis for France and the part in between was given to Lothar. It stretches from the Low Countries to Switzerland and Italy, but never really became a nation-state.

As always, the anecdotal style is somewhat problematical for the narrative, but it is entertaining and easy to read. There is a lot of history here, but because things are scattered geographically, it can be hard to keep track of where things are taking place. The maps do help, but it can be a little confusing in places.

Overall I enjoyed the book, but I think it is not as quite as good as the previous two volumes.

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very interesting book, and I would definitely encourage people, especially people who identify as white, to read it. I think that if one reads this book with an open mind, there is much that can be learned.

The author starts by carefully defining terms, such as bias, prejudice and discrimination before going on to define racism. The important thing to remember is that she does not use the colloquial definition of racism, but the more standard definition based on which groups have the power within our society.

I’m not going to rehash her entire premise on white fragility – as I mentioned above, it’s definitely worth reading – but white fragility definitely exists. I’ve seen it in action and I’ve had my own moments of white fragility too. It is a hindrance for all of us; we all need to be able to talk about racism if we are going to eliminate the systemic racism within our society.

Metropolis by Philip Kerr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve been a fan of the Bernie Gunther series since I first picked up the Berlin Noir trilogy; I’ve read them all and enjoyed them. This one is one of the better ones in the series and sadly, with the death of Philip Kerr, it is the last one of the series.

This book is a prequel or sorts. It’s set in Berlin in 1928 towards the end of the five golden years of the Weimar Republic. Bernie Gunther has just been promoted to the Murder Commission and there is a serial killer on the loose. I really can’t say much more about the plot for fear of spoilers. But I will say that during the course of his investigation, we meet several people from the Weimar cultural scene, and we also learn more about Bernie’s service during the First World War.

The murder mystery is interesting, but for me the best part of the book was the atmosphere of Berlin in 1928 and seeing the young Bernie learning the ropes as a detective on the Murder Commission. I really enjoyed the book, and if you’ve liked any of the previous Bernie Gunther books, I’m sure you’ll like this one too.