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Holocaust

Review

Everyone a Stranger

by Jeff Ayers

Virginia Abrams lives in Washington, D.C., in 1943, and her husband has died overseas in the Pacific. The son of a prominent Senator attacks her, resulting in an unwanted pregnancy. When the son dies, his powerful parents decide to keep Virginia quiet by arranging to have her killed. Barely escaping, Virginia hops on a train and ends up on the other side of the country in Seattle. Under the identity of Ginny Moore, she rents an apartment and secures a job as a personal secretary to a well-established mystery author. But she can’t escape the feeling that the senator’s henchman will find her. When a young mom who looks almost identical to Ginny dies in what seems like an accidental fall, she starts to question everyone around her. Can anyone be trusted? At the height of WWII, when spies and traitors lurk around every corner, the paranoia escalates above a 10 in O’Brien’s latest thriller. In a story that feels like O’Brien traveled back in time and stole the manuscript straight from Alfred Hitchcock’s desk, Ginny’s struggle to find solace will have readers keeping their lights on while reaching for tissues. Everyone a Stranger is arguably the author’s best novel to date.

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Review

The Dark Library

by Danise Hoover

This old-fashioned gothic thriller (appropriate since our lead character has a PhD specializing in that genre) is set in WWII-era academia in New York’s Hudson Valley. Estella, or E as she prefers to be called, has been summoned home by Annie, the family retainer, because E’s mother has gone missing. In the time it takes E to pack up her life in Boston and return, her father has a stroke, can no longer communicate, and dies within days. Despite her Yale degree, the fusty local college where her father held sway employs E as a research assistant, typing for the male faculty members. The tiny salary requires E and Annie to live in penury in E’s parents’ elaborate house, all the while searching for clues to her mother’s whereabouts. Dragging the river finds a body of a missing student from years before, and persistence eventually finds a clue that leads to finding E’s mother. A suicide, unexpected allies, false and true friends, and bitter revelations about the past and present all lead to the dramatic “act of God” ending that such a story requires. Great fun!

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Review

Strangers in Time

by Jeff Ayers

The horrors of war are reflected in the lives of three people in Baldacci’s (A Calamity of Souls) latest. Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters lives with his grandmother in cramped conditions. She thinks Charlie is spending his weekdays in school, but he has quit and spends the day roaming the streets, stealing food and money to survive. His goal is to eventually enlist and fight the Germans for taking away his parents and his sense of safety. When he steals from Ignatius Oliver’s bookshop, rather than demanding punishment for Charlie, Ignatius treats him well, almost like a father would. Like Charlie, Ignatius is dealing with loss, but it’s his wife instead of his parents. When 15-year-old Molly Wakefield returns to London after spending time away from the big city and conflict, she is horrified to learn her parents did not survive the bombing. The three bond, throughout the war trusting and protecting one another from a relentless enemy and secrets they can’t see coming. Baldacci chronicles the story of this makeshift family brought together by circumstances out of their control and how they can survive and confront whatever awaits. The author does a terrific job of transporting the reader back in time to a tumultuous period of living in London, and readers will practically smell the smoke and feel surrounded by rubble from the shattered buildings. Another great tale from a grandmaster storyteller.

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Review

Betrayal at Blackthorn Park

by Willy Williams

It’s November 1940, and Evelyne Redfurn has returned to her London boarding house after six secretive, grueling weeks of training to be a Special Investigations Unit (SIU) agent for the British government’s Special Operations Executive (SOE). But before she can relax with her roommate and best friend, Moira, she’s called up for her first assignment. Hoping to be parachuted into occupied France (her mother was French), Evelyne is disappointed when she is sent instead to investigate the possibility of theft at a weapons research and development facility in rural Sussex. Worse, her handler is her old sparring partner, David Poole. On Evelyne’s first night, however, a routine probe becomes a murder case after she stumbles upon the body of Sir Nigel Balram, the leader of the engineering team at Blackthorn Park. His death appears to be an act of suicide, but drawing on the sleuthing skills she honed in A Traitor in Whitehall, Evelyne and David race to identify a killer before Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s impending visit. The clever and resourceful Evelyne is an appealing protagonist, who struggles to maintain her close friendships without revealing her double life as a spy. Her budding chemistry with David is obvious but doesn’t distract from the main plotline. Fans of Susan Elia MacNeal’s Maggie Hope series will delight in following the adventures of a promising new World War II spymaster.

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