Books for Review

Here's a sampling of the latest books to come in for review.  Check them out and then stop back soon to read the reviews!

Jasmine Nights by Julia Gregson At twenty-three, Saba Tarcan knows her only hope of escaping the clamor of Cardiff Bay, Wales, lies in her voice. While traveling Britain, singing for wounded soldiers, Saba meets handsome fighter pilot Dom Benson, recovering from burns after a crash. When Saba auditions to entertain troops in far-off lands, Dom follows her to London. Just as their relationship begins to take root, Saba is sent to sing in Africa, and Dom is assigned a new mission in the Middle East. As Saba explores Cairo’s bazaars, finding friendship among the troupe’s acrobats and dancers, Dom returns to the cockpit once again, both thrilled and terrified to be flying above the desert floor. In spite of great danger, the two resolve to reunite.

Most Wanted: Pursuing Whitey Bulger, the Murderous Mob Chief the FBI Secretly Protected by Thomas J. Foley Most Wanted is a true-life thriller, and Foley is the hero at its center. His investigative efforts resulted in criminal convictions of a half-dozen of Boston’s most notorious thugs and also led to the conviction of John Connolly, one of the FBI agents who abetted Bulger; Connolly is now serving a forty-year prison sentence. In this book, Foley, a cop’s cop, honestly recounts how his wide-eyed admiration for the nation’s top law enforcement agency was gradually transformed by dark realities he didn’t want to believe.

Vengeance is Mine by Douglas MacKinnon Meet Ian Wallace. A politically-incorrect private investigator who is never shy about wearing his belief in traditional values on his sleeve. Twenty years earlier, Wallace worked for the CIA but left after his life and dreams were all but destroyed in a dark prison cell in Moscow at the hands of a ruthless KGB Colonel. Today, that Colonel is part of the Russian Mafia and is about to set foot in Boston -- the hometown of Wallace. Decision time. Does Wallace take this opportunity to seek vengeance? And if so, will his actions compromise national security while putting the lives of many others at risk?

The Color of War: How One Battle Broke Japan and Another Changed America by James Campbell The Color of War is the story of two battles: the one overseas and the one on America's home turf. By weaving together these two narratives for the first time, Campbell paints a more accurate picture of the cataclysmic events that occurred in July 1944--the month that won the war and changed America.

The Sadness of the Samurai by Victor del Arbol When Isabel, a Spanish aristocrat living in the pro-Nazi Spain of 1941, becomes involved in a plot to kill her Fascist husband, she finds herself betrayed by her mysterious lover. The effects of her betrayal play out in a violent struggle for power in both family and government over three generations, intertwining her story with that of a young lawyer named Maria forty years later. During the attempted Fascist coup of 1981, Maria is accused of plotting the prison escape of a man she successfully prosecuted for murder. As Maria's and Isabel's narratives unfold they encircle each other, creating a page-turning literary thriller firmly rooted in history.