All Hell Let Loose

Author Max Hastings, a well known journalist, takes a different look at World War II in this book.  He doesn't emphasise the major battles (nor does he ignore them), but rather he looks at the personal involvement and investment of ordinary people in the war.  Stories from the war are told by soldiers, sailors and airmen alongside those of ordinary citizens.

Hastings does emphasise the efforts of the main belligerents; those on the Axis side of Germany and Japan, while on the Allied side Britain, the U. S. A. and Russia.  The nations of the British Commonwealth are glossed over as part of The British Empire.  This is unfortunate as "The Colonies" did much to help the Allied cause.

  Hastings draws good conclusions at the end as to what ultimately would happen to the countries involved in the decades following the war.  It is a good read for fans of history who want to see both sides of the war.

Rome ~ The Coming of the King

This novel by M. C. Scott is the sequel to "Rome ~ The Emperor's Spy".  It is AD 66; Pantera continues to work for Nero and has travelled to Judaea in the hopes of stopping Saulos who is working to destroy the Roman Empire.  Pantera is aided by Mergus, a former legionnaire.  They travel in disguise.  Saulos has a woman Berber, Iksahra, on his side; she has mythical powers over animals, hunts with falcons and keeps a cheetah at her side.  Pantera also has Hypatia, an Oracle, on his side.

Saulos travels to Caesarea and becomes a powerful adviser to the king.  He has help from his crew.  He is followed by Hypatia in her guise as the Oracle.  She befriends Berenice, the queen.  Pantera and his centurion friend, Mergus, arrive in disguise.  Riots break out in the city, so the king and his family flee to Jerusalem.  Pantera and Mergus need to fight their way out in order to follow.

In Jerusalem Saulos puts his plan into play, to take over the city for his own purposes.  Hypatia discovers his plans aided by Berenice's niece Kleopatra and passes them on to Pantera.  Unfortunately Pantera's plans to prevent Saulos' actions are exposed by a spy in his camp and he is taken.  He is badly beaten by Saulos before Hypatia and Iksahra, who has changed allegiance, can free him.

Although Saulos has control of Jerusalem, Pantera vows to take Masada and fight on, and only he knows the secret way to scale the cliffs of Masada.  Will Pantera and his friends be able to save Jerusalem?

The Secret Speech

Leo Stepanovich Demidov is a former MGB agent during the reign of Stalin  and is now, in 1956, in charge of a murder squad.  He has since married and adopted two girls, one of whom hates him for what he did to their family.  His past is now about to come and haunt him and his fellow former agents under the rule of Khrushchev.

Khrushchev has made a speech in which he denigrates all that Stalin did.  Those that suffered under Stalin look for revenge.  Demidov and his former colleagues are now targets.  Demidov's eldest daughter, Zoya, is kidnapped and his wife, Raisa, is severely injured during the kidnap.  A few hours later he finds out from the wife of a priest he had arranged to have arrested is behind the terror.  She demands he arrange the release of her husband from a gulag or she will kill Zoya.

Demidov travels to the gulag in question and after receiving a punishment from the prisoners manages to free Lazar.  Meantime Zoya tries to become a part of the gang that has imprisoned her.  When Demidov returns to Moscow, he is in for a terrible shock.

Author Tom Rob Smith spins an interesting thriller that takes the reader throughout the Soviet dominated world of 1956 bringing to life the terror the citizens of those nations lived under at the time.

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie

Sidney Chambers is the canon of a church near Cambridge following World War II and  he never intended to get into the detection business.  However, after one service he is asked by a female parishioner to look into a suicide, which she feels was really a murder.  She and the victim had had an affair.  Sidney discusses the case with his friend Inspector Geordie  Keating and finds out that no note was left.  This case is the beginning of what is to be a minor career in helping the police solve crimes.

However, later, the secretary of the victim shows Sidney a note that appears to be a suicide note.  Sidney also receives the victim's diary in which he would erase his daily notes.  The initials A. M. and P. M. Play a prominent role in the diary.

Sydney makes some calculated assumptions and puts forth his thesis to the inspector.  Together they concoct a plan to draw the murderer out, and are not surprised when another murder is attempted.

New Year's Eve and Sidney is in London to attend a party.  One of the guests is given an engagement ring, but before she can accept it, a minor mishap occurs in the room.  While the mishap is being attended to, the ring disappears.  It would appear that none of the guests has taken it.  Naturally, the priest is asked to quietly investigate, otherwise calling the police might do harm to the host, an MP.

Lent has rolled around and Sidney is asked by his friend, Inspector Keating, to quietly query a woman and her fiancé, who is a doctor, about the death of her mother and rather hasty marriage that is about to ensue.  Was it a medical mistake or a matter of murder? 

Later in the spring, while in London taking in a jazz concert, Sidney and Inspector Keating are thrust into another murder investigation when the daughter of the nightclub owner is strangled during the drum solo.  Is her death a vendetta?  It is when Sidney is on the train home, and a parishioner asks for a clue to a crossword that Sidney comes up with a solution to the crime.

Summer has arrived and Sidney is visiting Lord Teversham's home.  Teversham has an extensive art collection, and Sidney offers to have his friend Amanda Kendall come evaluate it.  She discovers that one of the restored pictures is actually a copy of the real thing.  Now they must find out what happened to the original.  Unfortunately Amanda begins her own investigation on her own leading her into trouble.

Once autumn arrives Sidney finds a new diversion, acting in a modern version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.  Unfortunately during the play Julius is really done to death.  Since the actors were all wearing black, it was difficult to determine who the murderer actually is; plus the murder weapon has disappeared.

To be honest, this book was not one I would rate highly.