Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret

 Benjamin Stevenson brings us another in his "Everyone..." mystery series, this time, Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret.

Stevenson has created an entertaining mystery detective voice in the character of Ernest Cunningham, a amateur private investigator, who promises in every novel to make sure the reader is informed of all the clues, no surprises and no secrets.  So as Stevenson moves his detective through the case discovering clues he says he is sharing everything with the reader.  

This time we are meeting Cunningham the week leading up to Christmas. His ex-wife is accused of murder and Ernest will do whatever is necessary to find the real killer.  He is to attend a magic show to find out why the director of the charity sponsoring the show was killed. So armed with a list of suspects, Ernest starts interviewing the potential murderers, among them the magician, his assistant, and an illusionist, all masters of the art of misdirection.

Using the clever prop of an advent calendar, each clue is behind a different window.  Cunningham is sure that he can solve the crime and reveal the true killer, because he says, being a detective is just like being a magician, because "any good murder is just like a magic trick".

The Old Woman With a Knife

 Gu Byeong-mo is the author of The Old Woman With a Knife.  A novel about an older woman who has been an assassin for her career.  She has been doing this for many years and can see she is starting to slow down.  Her reflexes are still quick, and still can move quickly but she is getting tired and maybe a little forgetful. 

Now as Hornclaw contemplates coming to the end of her career and wondering when to retire, we learn about her life and how she came to be an assassin.  In an unusual turn of events for her, it seems, that someone has made her the target.  Hornclaw lives with her rescue dog, Deadweight, in a small understated apartment keeping a very low profile and no personal relationships.  It is easier for a assassin to not make emotional connections.

But after a lifetime of careful withdrawal, she seems to be getting distracted and may be becoming attached to a family in her neighborhood.  As she tries to protect he family and find out who knos too much about her and her personal life, she is encountering the most deadly of all her assignments.  This time the victim could be her.

The English Teacher

 The Engish Teacher by Yiftach Reicher Atir is a fascinating novel about the Mossad and the secret agents. Written by Atir who was a military intelligence officer in Israeli Defense Forces has written this book telling the story of what it is like to be apart of the secret intelligence for a country.  

“The book you are hold­ing in your hands is the true sto­ry of what nev­er hap­pened,”  A story based on facts and strictly reviewed by the Mossad to make sure there were no real facts given away.

This is the story of a young woman, Rachel Goldschmitt who left home to become an undercover operative for Israel.  She works as an English teacher in a small Arab town, leaving every now then to go on a mission.  Her mentor and handler, Ehud watches over her and makes sure she is safe.  But it is a lonely life, not being able to set down roots, make real friends, always lying and keeping to yourself.

Does this life style begin to take a toll on Rachel?  She sends a message to Ehud that her father has died and she is returning to England for the funeral and shiva.  But soon they realize that she is not coming back and she has disappeared.  Ehud and his direct boss Joe go over the facts Ehud remembers of his time working with Rachel as they try to figure out where she could be.  Oncee you are a operative for Mossad, you can never go back to the outside world.  You know too much and must stay within the organization.

This was a fascinating book,  the suspense building as Ehud and Joe are slowly revealing Rachel story and the conflicts she was shouldering.  The risks she was taking and the dangerous life she was living.

American Spy

 American Spy is an exciting suspenseful debut novel written by Lauren Wilkenson.  It has won many awards and was published at a very tense time in American life.  

This is the story of a young woman, Marie Mitchell,  who is looking forward to being a Federal employee, a member of the FBI.  It has been the dream of her sister and herself since childhood, when her sister sid she wanted to be a spy.  Brought up by their policeman father after their mother leaves the family and retreats to her home on Martinique.  Marie looks up to her sister and when her sister is killed while working as a spy, Marie joins the FBI.

Now she is hired by the FBI but is given a position she feels is beneath her.  She is sure she is being overlooked because she is a young woman of color.

In her frustration she is approached by someone recruiting her to the CIA.  He has a special assignment he says she alone can do. Appealing to her pride and seeing that he can use her to his advantage.  Marie takes on the assignment.  She is supposed to try and attract the new young Thomas Sankara, the leftist president of Burkina Faso.  This is a real figure in history, that the CIA was interested in overthrowing.

Marie must decide if she wants to follow through with what the CIA assigned her to do.  Things get heated when Marie starts to feel that the requests being made of her are not morally acceptable.  She must weigh her feelings about right and wrong,  her personal feelings about Sankara as she gets to know him better and her feeling that the CIA and its agents are immoral.

This novel is told in reverse, starting with Marie as a mother to two sons, running to hide in Martinique with her mother after years of separation.  Some of the decisions she has made in her life are starting to catch up to her.  As she decides her next move she writes this book as a letter to her sons telling the story of her life.  

Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch

 Written by Rivka Galchen, an award winning Canadian American author, Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch is an amazing retelling of an historic story of an old "cantankerous, nosy" woman accused of being a witch.

The year is 1610 and the place is a small village in Germany.  The accused witch is Katarina, who in real life was the mother of Johannes Kepler, who was along with Galileo and Newton was a philosopher and scientist.  Interesting though not really relevant to the book, Kepler was laws of planetary motion would pave the way to Newton's revolutionary celestial physics.  Kepler thought the planets move in elliptical orbits not circular ones.  This in itself could get a person hanged at the stake at that time...

But back to the novel..it gets very mixed reviews some people loved it and some found it difficult to follow and confusing.  It is written in an unusual style, in one place described as choral narrative, where there are multiple voices speaking in concert without identifying who is speaking at anyone time.  

So with a plethora of characters all staking turns speaking you must follow the plot carefully.  If you do you will find a jewel of a story comes through.  This book is presented as a trial of a witch but it is really about love, family and allegiance.  It is about mass hysteria and how it can pull people along with the growing tide.  About fear and misunderstanding.

One woman accuses Katarina of making her ill and calls her out as a witch.  The Governor announces that a trial date will be set and starts to gather confessions.  The townspeople come forward and state their grievances with Katarina building a case that she is a witch.  Her family stands by her along with her friend Simon.  We also learn what happens to them.  How their lives are affected by the turn of events.

This is a story of an ancient time but it is still in many ways relevant today.  So many parallels can be drawn between the negative call of witchcraft and the modern calling out of racism and anti-semitism.  All ways of making someone the other, blaming someone else for your problems and short comings. 

Hopefully today we can recognize the untruthfulness of those who try to malign others and stand up for  the rights of those who are accused unjustly.  This book will remind us of how important that can be.

The Grey Wolf

 The Grey Wolf the newest novel in the mystery series by the fabulous author Louise Penny.

I have written here multiply times how much I love Louise Penny and this series about the Canadian Surete Superintendent of Homicide, Armand Gamache.  The writing style is what makes her novels stand out.  These novels are written with beautiful prose and character development.  The mystery is always complicated and in depth keeping the reader guessing as the facts are being revealed.  

It is the characters; their feelings, their needs, likes and dislikes and interrelationships that are intriguing and very well developed that make these novels so compelling.  Jean-Guy Beauvoir, the second in command, who was a broken, angry young man who Armand took under his wing and nurtured, who is now not only his trusted employee, b ut also his son-in-law.  There is Isabelle Lacoste another trusted police officer whoh shares the leadership with Jean-Guy.  

But mostly there are the neighbors who live in Three Pines with Armand and his wife Reine-Marie.  The descriptions of Three Pines is what makes every reader of this series wish they also lived there.  It is serene and quiet.  It is cosy and warm, where everyone is friends and there is safety in their closeness. There is also a bookstore and the inn with an inviting restaurant where the food sounds delicious and the fire is always burning in the fireplace.

All of this works together to create the magic that makes readers wait so patiently for another nmystery novel to arrive on bookshelves.