A penetrating spy story full of celebrities and unsung heroes.
In this debut historical novel, Katz pulls back the curtain on real-life American master spy Sidney Forrester Mashbir and his close relationship with Japan’s royal family before, during, and after World War II.
Mashbir first makes his mark as a spy during the Mexican-American Border War, hunting German terrorists with a clandestine style of diplomacy, organization, and information-gathering that would go on to shape the foundation of the CIA. As a true patriot with a deep understanding of foreign cultures and languages, he’s sent to Japan to set up a spy ring, keeping an eye on the country’s growing military power and colonial overtures. He falls in love with the country while exploring its language, customs, and numerous martial arts, eventually becoming a self-styled American samurai. He cultivates a relationship with the wise Prince Tokugawa, one of Emperor Hirohito’s closest mentors, and this unprecedented access would allow Mashbir to befriend the emperor as both sought peace in an era of inevitable war. During WWII, he shows compassion and respect for Japan, bringing numerous second-generation Japanese-Americans, called nisei, out of internment camps to work as translators and helping negotiate the country’s surrender. Katz crafted this look at Mashbir’s life and career from a series of documents, letters, and other resources that once belonged to the spy himself—sources that he samples but regrettably doesn’t share in full. The author packs the story with historical events that took place outside of WWII, from a German act of sabotage in New Jersey to the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and even a near-assassination of filmmaker Charlie Chaplin in Japan. He effectively populates the novel with other historical icons to show just how influential the spy was, such as Gen. George Patton, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles Lindbergh, and even Hedy Lamarr, with whom Mashbir must turn down a one-night stand in a true test of his mettle. Katz also gives the story a tragic element, making plain Mashbir’s sacrifices as he loses family and lovers; at one point, he’s even suspected of being a double agent.
A penetrating spy story full of celebrities and unsung heroes.Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9903349-4-1
Page Count: 526
Publisher: Horizon Productions
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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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