A winding, engaging, sometimes wordy drama about the complexities of war.
A debut historical novel focuses on Africa during World War II.
The year 1942 sees German officer Baron Hauptmann Dieter Reineke serving in Libya. Reineke, “despite his whims and moods,” is a capable commander. When he receives a visit from the much-feared SS, he is not pleased. He is also disturbed that men under his command have a female prisoner who appears to be a teenager. The girl has suffered abuse, yet it seems she will live. But Reineke wonders: “Who could she possibly be?” Meanwhile in Cairo, Dr. Michael Delegianis arrives looking for Maj. Justin Charles of the Royal Air Force. Michael is an American physicist who walked away from the Manhattan Project and carries himself with a "Jimmy Cagney swagger." Justin is a tough sort with “few failures and an impressive list of successes” in his time working for England’s Secret Intelligence Service. Justin and Michael go way back, albeit the former tends to keep the latter at arm’s length so he “wouldn’t kill him.” Justin’s immediate concern is over potential enemy munitions depots in western Libya. Michael, on the other hand, is hoping to find a missing woman who happens to be Justin’s stepsister. The narrative weaves an elaborate, espionage-filled web featuring characters with myriad motivations. And Giles’ engrossing series opener does not stop at the standard heroes and villains of the war. Rich elements like the British control of Palestine and the Troubles in Ireland play a part. While it can be a challenge to keep it all straight, the true vastness of the global conflict is made apparent in this complicated tale. But at over 900 pages, the work is lengthy. Part of the bulk comes from dialogue that involves trivial statements such as “Is everything all right?” and “The war is coming!” Still, the compelling story poses a key question: Who, if anyone, will emerge unscathed from a time of such ever present danger?
A winding, engaging, sometimes wordy drama about the complexities of war.Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-958658-00-0
Page Count: 940
Publisher: Nouveau Classic Imprints
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sugarcoated take on midcentury suburbia.
A lively and unabashedly sentimental novel examines the impact of feminism on four upper-middle-class white women in a suburb of Washington, D.C., in 1963.
Transplanted Ohioan Margaret Ryan—married to an accountant, raising three young children, and decidedly at loose ends—decides to recruit a few other housewives to form a book club. She’s thinking A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but a new friend, artistic Charlotte Gustafson, suggests Betty Friedan’s brand-new The Feminine Mystique. They’re joined by young Bitsy Cobb, who aspired to be a veterinarian but married one instead, and Vivian Buschetti, a former Army nurse now pregnant with her seventh child. The Bettys, as they christen themselves, decide to meet monthly to read feminist books, and with their encouragement of each other, their lives begin to change: Margaret starts writing a column for a women’s magazine; Viv goes back to work as a nurse; Charlotte and Bitsy face up to problems with demanding and philandering husbands and find new careers of their own. The story takes in real-life figures like the Washington Post’s Katharine Graham and touches on many of the tumultuous political events of 1963. Bostwick treats her characters with generosity and a heavy dose of wish-fulfillment, taking satisfying revenge on the wicked and solving longstanding problems with a few well-placed words, even showing empathy for the more well-meaning of the husbands. As historical fiction, the novel is hampered by its rosy optimism, but its take on the many micro- and macroaggressions experienced by women of the era is sound and eye-opening. Although Friedan might raise an eyebrow at the use her book’s been put to, readers will cheer for Bostwick’s spunky characters.
A sugarcoated take on midcentury suburbia.Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781400344741
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harper Muse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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