Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the latest Bernie Guenther novel from Philip Kerr and it contains two parallel stories, one set in October 1956 and the other set in April 1939. The 1956 thread begins as a continuation of the story in the previous novel “The Other Side of Silence.” It’s hard to go into too much detail without generating spoilers for either of the novels, but in 1956 as the season on the Riviera comes to a close, Bernie is visited by some former acquaintances who now work for the East German Stasi. They request his assistance in wrapping up a few of the loose ends from “The Other Side of Silence.” One of the Stasi men worked with Bernie on an interesting case in 1939, involving a murder in Berchtesgaden shortly before the celebration of Hitler’s 50th birthday.

While investigating the murder in 1939 Bernie uncovers several rings of corruption centered around Martin Bormann and his operations in the area. Bormann has built the “Eagles Nest” (or the Kehlsteinhaus) as a present to Hitler for his birthday, but if there is a murderer on the loose, Hitler will not come to Berchtesgaden and Bormann’s power will be diminished. So the pressure is on Bernie to catch the killer and do it quickly.

The two threads converge in an interesting way. Both stories are well done and are quite interesting. I will say Bernie seems a bit tired in 1956 and makes some mistakes. It’s a very entertaining read and I recommend this book.

Conclave by Robert Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve read and enjoyed several of Robert Harris’s novels and so I was intrigued by the idea of a thriller set in a papal conclave. The story is told from the perspective of Cardinal Lomeli who as the Dean of the College of Cardinals runs the conclave after the death of the pope. There are scandals and political maneuvering and pressure to choose the new pope quickly.

It is a well-imagined and well-told story. The author has obviously done his research. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way. And there is a major twist right at the end that I certainly did not see coming. I enjoyed reading this book and I recommend it.

A Hero of France by Alan Furst
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the latest novel in the “Night Soldiers” series from Alan Furst. I believe that this is the first one set in Occupied France, and it’s a fairly good story about a resistance cell led by a man named Mathieu. We don’t really learn how this resistance group came into being, but the action begins in March 1941 and we meet most of the organization as they help RAF crew members who were shot down over France return to the UK.

We also see the German and Vichy French attempts to break the various Resistance organizations, and also the British begin to both support and direct the activities of the Resistance.

To avoid spoilers i won’t really go into to any details of the plot. It is a good read and I enjoyed the book. I think it is better than the last couple of books in the series, but not as good as some of the earlier ones.

What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been by Robert Cowley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoy reading alternative history fiction, it’s one of my favorite genres. So this collection of “What if?” stories focusing on the United States seemed like a good fit for me. The book is a good read and some of the essays are quite thought provoking, such as the one concerning Senator Joseph McCarthy. But these are really essays on what could have happened at various points in the history of the United States and not truly stories set in an alternative history.

I do recommend this book if you are interested in American History, but if you are really looking for alternative history fiction you will probably be a little disappointed with this collection of essays.

Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel by Elias Chacour
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. It’s the autobiography of Elias Chacour a Palestinian Christian living in the Galilee area. He was a young boy when Palestine was partitioned followed shortly by the formation of the State of Israel and the war of 1948. The area in which the Chacours lived became part of Israel and they were forced to leave their village. Elias eventually went to school in Haifa and then to a seminary and became a priest.

It is an amazing story and Chacour presents a view of the history of the Middle East that is not often seen or heard. But beyond the first person description of how the Six Day War, for example, affected the Christian and Palestinian communities, it’s also the story of Chacour putting aside his anger and becoming a servant of God. I think everyone who is thinking about becoming a priest or a pastor should read the chapter about his first church assignment!

This is a compelling story and well worth reading. Chacour’s work for peace between the Palestinians and Israelis is based on a bottom up view of the process: people from different backgrounds getting to know each other and learning to live together. I highly recommend this book.

Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century by Alistair Horne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Alistair Horne is one of the great authors of military history and I was intrigued by the concept of his latest book: he analyzes six major battles from the first half of the 20th century in terms of hubris. It is a somewhat provocative concept, but he makes a good case for it; certainly it was worth the effort to read the book.

The six battles that he chose, were Port Arthur/Tsushima Straits from the Russo-Japanese war, the battle of Nomohan between Japan and the USSR in 1939, the battle of Moscow in 1941, the battle of Midway, MacArthur’s campaign to secure the line of the Yalu River in Korea in 1950 and the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. there is also a discussion of the Six Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973 in the Epilogue.

As I said, he makes a good case for hubris as a deciding factor in these battles, but the narrative itself has some problems. Certainly his analysis of the battles in the first half of the book is much more detailed that those in the second half. And some of the battle narratives in the second half are badly flawed – there are numerous errors concerning dates, and the narrative he presents of the battle of Midway has serious issues. Even in the Epilogue, the Straits of Tiran are called the Straits of Tehran.

These basic factual errors do not really detract from Horne’s thesis of the importance of hubris, but they are very distracting to say the least. For this reason I find it difficult to recommend this book. It has a novel concept which is well supported but the narrative in the second half of the book does contain serious flaws.

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Black Count is a biography of Alex Dumas, the father of Alexandre Dumas who wrote the Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, and many other works. Alex Dumas is virtually unknown today, but he was a distinguished soldier of Revolutionary France and rose to the rank of General; he enlisted as a private soldier in the army during the last years of the monarchy.

Dumas was born in what is now Haiti, the son of a minor noble from Normandy and his slave mistress. When he was about 14 he moved to France with his father, who had inherited the title of marquis, making Dumas a count of mixed race, hence the title of the book. Family financial problems led Dumas to enlist in the French army and take his mother’s last name. When the revolution came, Alex Dumas became a firm believer in the revolutionary ideals for the rest of his life, which did not help his relationship with another distinguished French soldier – General Bonaparte.

Alex Dumas died when his son, the future novelist, was only four years old. But many of the episodes of his father’s life were adapted into portions of the novels of Alexandre Dumas. I feel the need to read some of these novels again, now that I understand more of the background.

The book is well-written and definitely holds the readers interest. It’s more than just the story of a heroic soldier of Revolutionary France; it also talks about the politics of the revolutionary period in France, in particular the politics of race. It is interesting that Dumas arrives in France at a time when racial equality becomes a reality – which allows him to become a general, commanding forces composed of white, black and mixed race soldiers – and yet by the time of his death, much of this progress in race relations has been undone. Perhaps there is a lesson here for all of us.

The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings by Lars Brownworth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Sea Wolves is a good, well-written overview of the Viking Age of European History. The author has divided the book into four sections: the Raiders, concerning mostly the Viking raids on Western Europe and the British Isles; the Explorers which deals with Viking expeditions to the Mediterranean, Iceland, Greenland and North America; the Traders, which is mostly about the eastern Vikings and the founding of the Kievan Rus state; and finally the Homelands which covers the changes to the Scandinavian area itself and the formation of the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

In each of the sections, the author focuses on a few of the Vikings and the story unfolds in relation to them. This helps provide a context for each of the four sections. The weakness of the book is that by dividing it into four more or less independent stories, it is difficult to get an overall idea of what happened when.

I enjoyed the book; the author has a good writing style and it’s a pretty easy read. I definitely recommend it.