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Cobra Combat by Robert E. Case
In many respects, this is a remarkable war memoir, told without embellishment.
Robert E. Case was born in Brooklyn NY in January 1916 and had a rather hardscrabble life during his childhood and adolescent years. His mother, who was sickly, passed away on the eve of the stock market crash when Case was in the 8th grade. His father, due to some health issues (along with a serious work-related injury he sustained from one of the jobs he had held) and the precarious economy of the early Depression years, was forced to take on a variety of jobs to support the family.
Case graduated from high school in 1934, applied to join the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC), but was rejected, and went on to work in a variety of jobs - including one with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) - throughout the remainder of the decade. Furthermore, whenever he could manage it, Case took private flying lessons because of his love for aviation.
Following the passage of the 1940 Selective Service Act - the first peacetime draft in U.S. history - Case was called up for service in the U.S. Army early in 1941. He shares a lot of his experiences in the field as part of that peacetime army - which then ranked below the armies of Portugal and Bulgaria - up through the Japanese attack on the U.S naval base at Pearl Harbor, which brought the U.S. into World War II and changed Case's life considerably. At the time of the attack, he had been close to completing his required 1 year of service.
Some time later, Case's application for entry into what was 8 years earlier the USAAC had been discovered, and the Army offered him the opportunity to take the aptitude test for entry into the United States Army Air Force (aka the USAAF which was the USAAC's new name from July 1941 onward). Case, still keen on becoming a pilot, went on to pass the aptitude test and received flight training as an Aviation Cadet. While in training, given his age (26 - at that time, flying fighters was regarded as better suited for younger men), a move was made to have Case transferred to flying bombers. But Case, with some outside help, was able to stop that from happening and would earn his wings as a fighter pilot on January 2, 1943. Among the pilots Case befriended during this time was Dan David (later more popularly known as Dan Martin of Rowan & Martin fame, who hosted the popular TV show Laugh In during the late 1960s/early 1970s; as a child, I was an avid fan of "Laugh In"), who would later fly P-40 fighters in the South Pacific.
By the early spring of 1943, Case would be assigned to the 67th Fighter Squadron, flying the P-39 Airacobra fighter in the South Pacific during 1943-44. He saw considerable combat, mainly flying ground support missions for Army and Marine Corps combat units as they went about pushing the Japanese out of the Solomons Islands chain from the Russell Islands, to New Georgia (above the areas where a certain U.S. Naval Reserve Lieutenant (junior grade) by the name of John F. Kennedy would be in command of a patrol torpedo boat (PT-109 and later PT-59) operating against Japanese naval units deep inside enemy waters through the summer and fall of 1943 before health issues necessitated his return to the U.S. by year's end), and on to Bougainville Island, which was not far from Imperial Japan's seemingly impregnable military base at Rabaul on the nearby island of New Britain.
COBRA COMBAT is a fantastic book in that the P-39 Airacobra has long languished in disrepute as an aircraft much derided for its lackluster performance in aerial combat among those pilots in the USAAF who flew it.
Case's memoir intrigued me because, to the best of my knowledge, he is the only ex-Airacobra USAAF pilot who talks about what it was like to have flown the P-39 throughout his combat tour. He speaks honestly about the Airacobra, a fighter that despite its deficiencies, he came to love and appreciate for its robustness and performance as a low to medium altitude ground attack plane. In total, Case had flown 167 missions and was credited with shooting down 2 Japanese bombers. He would remain in the Air Force postwar and retire from military service in 1967 as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Robert Case passed away on September 24, 2011, age 95.
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
In many respects, this is a remarkable war memoir, told without embellishment.
Robert E. Case was born in Brooklyn NY in January 1916 and had a rather hardscrabble life during his childhood and adolescent years. His mother, who was sickly, passed away on the eve of the stock market crash when Case was in the 8th grade. His father, due to some health issues (along with a serious work-related injury he sustained from one of the jobs he had held) and the precarious economy of the early Depression years, was forced to take on a variety of jobs to support the family.
Case graduated from high school in 1934, applied to join the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC), but was rejected, and went on to work in a variety of jobs - including one with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) - throughout the remainder of the decade. Furthermore, whenever he could manage it, Case took private flying lessons because of his love for aviation.
Following the passage of the 1940 Selective Service Act - the first peacetime draft in U.S. history - Case was called up for service in the U.S. Army early in 1941. He shares a lot of his experiences in the field as part of that peacetime army - which then ranked below the armies of Portugal and Bulgaria - up through the Japanese attack on the U.S naval base at Pearl Harbor, which brought the U.S. into World War II and changed Case's life considerably. At the time of the attack, he had been close to completing his required 1 year of service.
Some time later, Case's application for entry into what was 8 years earlier the USAAC had been discovered, and the Army offered him the opportunity to take the aptitude test for entry into the United States Army Air Force (aka the USAAF which was the USAAC's new name from July 1941 onward). Case, still keen on becoming a pilot, went on to pass the aptitude test and received flight training as an Aviation Cadet. While in training, given his age (26 - at that time, flying fighters was regarded as better suited for younger men), a move was made to have Case transferred to flying bombers. But Case, with some outside help, was able to stop that from happening and would earn his wings as a fighter pilot on January 2, 1943. Among the pilots Case befriended during this time was Dan David (later more popularly known as Dan Martin of Rowan & Martin fame, who hosted the popular TV show Laugh In during the late 1960s/early 1970s; as a child, I was an avid fan of "Laugh In"), who would later fly P-40 fighters in the South Pacific.
By the early spring of 1943, Case would be assigned to the 67th Fighter Squadron, flying the P-39 Airacobra fighter in the South Pacific during 1943-44. He saw considerable combat, mainly flying ground support missions for Army and Marine Corps combat units as they went about pushing the Japanese out of the Solomons Islands chain from the Russell Islands, to New Georgia (above the areas where a certain U.S. Naval Reserve Lieutenant (junior grade) by the name of John F. Kennedy would be in command of a patrol torpedo boat (PT-109 and later PT-59) operating against Japanese naval units deep inside enemy waters through the summer and fall of 1943 before health issues necessitated his return to the U.S. by year's end), and on to Bougainville Island, which was not far from Imperial Japan's seemingly impregnable military base at Rabaul on the nearby island of New Britain.
COBRA COMBAT is a fantastic book in that the P-39 Airacobra has long languished in disrepute as an aircraft much derided for its lackluster performance in aerial combat among those pilots in the USAAF who flew it.
Case's memoir intrigued me because, to the best of my knowledge, he is the only ex-Airacobra USAAF pilot who talks about what it was like to have flown the P-39 throughout his combat tour. He speaks honestly about the Airacobra, a fighter that despite its deficiencies, he came to love and appreciate for its robustness and performance as a low to medium altitude ground attack plane. In total, Case had flown 167 missions and was credited with shooting down 2 Japanese bombers. He would remain in the Air Force postwar and retire from military service in 1967 as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Robert Case passed away on September 24, 2011, age 95.
Spitfire I: Phoney War and Battle of France by Tony Holmes
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Spitfire I: Phoney War and Battle of France details the role played by the Royal Air Force's (RAF) Supermarine Spitfire I fighter plane during the early years of World War II (1939-40).
The Spitfire represented a revolutionary leap in the development of aviation technology during the 1930s in which the monoplane supplanted the biplane in the air forces of Britain and Germany. The book provides considerable detail about the Spitfire's design, development, and deployment in RAF Fighter Command. Furthermore, insights are provided "into the early aerial engagements involving the Spitfire I, chronicling the actions of the squadrons that defended the shores of northern England the east coast of Scotland before participating in the disastrous French campaign" of May-June 1940.
Spitfire I is rich in photos, 3D illustrations, and eyewitness accounts by several of the early war Spitfire pilots (e.g. 'Sailor' Malan, Robert Stanford Tuck, Al Deere, and Colin Gray) who were blooded during the Battle of France and would go on to become some of Britain's leading aces during the Battle of Britain.
Any aviation fan will love this book.
The Spitfire represented a revolutionary leap in the development of aviation technology during the 1930s in which the monoplane supplanted the biplane in the air forces of Britain and Germany. The book provides considerable detail about the Spitfire's design, development, and deployment in RAF Fighter Command. Furthermore, insights are provided "into the early aerial engagements involving the Spitfire I, chronicling the actions of the squadrons that defended the shores of northern England the east coast of Scotland before participating in the disastrous French campaign" of May-June 1940.
Spitfire I is rich in photos, 3D illustrations, and eyewitness accounts by several of the early war Spitfire pilots (e.g. 'Sailor' Malan, Robert Stanford Tuck, Al Deere, and Colin Gray) who were blooded during the Battle of France and would go on to become some of Britain's leading aces during the Battle of Britain.
Any aviation fan will love this book.
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Taylor Jenkins Reid has a knack for creating real, complex, multi-faceted, fascinating women in stories that speak to the heart, soul, and mind.
This novel is not my first introduction to Carrie Soto. No, it was while reading Reid's novel Malibu Summer sometime ago that Carrie Soto came into view, a top woman's tennis player in 1983 caught up in an affair with the man's tennis champion (who was married to a top fashion model). Though Carrie's appearance in that novel was brief, I was left with the impression that she was an intense, passionate, uncompromising woman. And as this novel unfolds, it becomes clear just how intense, passionate, and uncompromising Carrie Soto is, not just in tennis. But also in her life.
The novel shows the reader how Carrie Soto grew up and developed into the champion tennis player she became during the 1970s and 1980s. Her father, Javier, had been a champion tennis player in his native Argentina before coming to the U.S. in the 1950s to make a new life and have a family. Carrie was his only child and he coached her in tennis from childhood through her early 20s. That was when she enlisted the services of another tennis coach who helped elevate her game to the level that would make Carrie Soto a legend in the sport by the time she retired in 1988.
Carrie's life would take an abrupt U turn six years later when, while watching the 1994 U.S. Open in person, she sees her record for having won the most Grand Slams broken by a fierce, highly talented and intimidating Number 1 ranked player, Nicki Chan from the UK. Seeing her record broken is the catalyst that makes Carrie decide to come out of retirement and be coached by her father so that in the coming year, by competing in the Grand Slams (the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open), she can reclaim the record, reassert her primacy in tennis through defeating Chan, and retire on top (for good).
And so the drama of that year - 1995 - is richly played out in the novel for Carrie, her father, and a number of other people who play crucial, supportive and loving roles in her life. What I most enjoyed from reading that segment of the novel is how well Taylor Jenkins Reid conveys the pressures, joy and pain in playing a highly competitive sport. Through a deft economy of words, she makes strikingly vivid through each Grand Slam match as it unfolds how smart and savvy a player Carrie Soto is, at 37. All while conveying the intensity and excitement of playing high stakes tennis.
Tennis is everything to Carrie Soto, while the rest of life is something that she finds hard to sort out and reconcile. Carrie is not someone inclined to compromise on just about anything in which she places a high value. And yet, in the novel's climax, she has a surprising epiphany. I will say no more than that.
I urge the reader of this review is to take up Carrie Soto is Back and enjoy the ride, which can get a little stormy at times. Never a dull moment.
This novel is not my first introduction to Carrie Soto. No, it was while reading Reid's novel Malibu Summer sometime ago that Carrie Soto came into view, a top woman's tennis player in 1983 caught up in an affair with the man's tennis champion (who was married to a top fashion model). Though Carrie's appearance in that novel was brief, I was left with the impression that she was an intense, passionate, uncompromising woman. And as this novel unfolds, it becomes clear just how intense, passionate, and uncompromising Carrie Soto is, not just in tennis. But also in her life.
The novel shows the reader how Carrie Soto grew up and developed into the champion tennis player she became during the 1970s and 1980s. Her father, Javier, had been a champion tennis player in his native Argentina before coming to the U.S. in the 1950s to make a new life and have a family. Carrie was his only child and he coached her in tennis from childhood through her early 20s. That was when she enlisted the services of another tennis coach who helped elevate her game to the level that would make Carrie Soto a legend in the sport by the time she retired in 1988.
Carrie's life would take an abrupt U turn six years later when, while watching the 1994 U.S. Open in person, she sees her record for having won the most Grand Slams broken by a fierce, highly talented and intimidating Number 1 ranked player, Nicki Chan from the UK. Seeing her record broken is the catalyst that makes Carrie decide to come out of retirement and be coached by her father so that in the coming year, by competing in the Grand Slams (the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open), she can reclaim the record, reassert her primacy in tennis through defeating Chan, and retire on top (for good).
And so the drama of that year - 1995 - is richly played out in the novel for Carrie, her father, and a number of other people who play crucial, supportive and loving roles in her life. What I most enjoyed from reading that segment of the novel is how well Taylor Jenkins Reid conveys the pressures, joy and pain in playing a highly competitive sport. Through a deft economy of words, she makes strikingly vivid through each Grand Slam match as it unfolds how smart and savvy a player Carrie Soto is, at 37. All while conveying the intensity and excitement of playing high stakes tennis.
Tennis is everything to Carrie Soto, while the rest of life is something that she finds hard to sort out and reconcile. Carrie is not someone inclined to compromise on just about anything in which she places a high value. And yet, in the novel's climax, she has a surprising epiphany. I will say no more than that.
I urge the reader of this review is to take up Carrie Soto is Back and enjoy the ride, which can get a little stormy at times. Never a dull moment.
From the Cockpit: Spitfire by Tom Neil
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
In From the Cockpit: Spitfire, Tom Neil - who had begun his combat service in 1940, flying Hawker Hurricane fighters in the Battle of Britain - shares with the reader his experiences as commander of 41 Squadron, Royal Air Force (RAF) during 1942-43.
No. 41 Squadron was equipped with Spitfire Mk Vs when Neil assumed command in late August 1942. He shares with the reader his appraisal of the fighter, its qualities and some of its deficiencies. He provides the reader with a lot of detail about what a Spitfire pilot experienced from typical cockpit drill to takeoff, flying in formation, and the thrills and perils of aerial combat. Neil writes compellingly and well. By my count, this is the fourth book by Neil that I've read and what I enjoy most about this book is that he makes you, the reader, feel like you're there. The chapter in which Neil relates a night flight he made over the UK during November 1942 in what proved to be a futile search for a German bomber conveys how attentive a fighter pilot accustomed to daylight flying must be in a nocturnal environment, on the ground as well as in the air.
The book throughout has lots of photos showing some of the Spitfire variants that Neil flew during his RAF service. Neil also provides many of the captions that accompany the photos, showing his considerable knowledge about the various aircraft.
The insertion of some technical details in From the Cockpit about the Spitfire can be glossed over by any reader who isn't necessarily an aviation enthusiast and wishes only to gain a tangible sense of what it was like to fly one of the most remarkable fighter planes of World War II.
No. 41 Squadron was equipped with Spitfire Mk Vs when Neil assumed command in late August 1942. He shares with the reader his appraisal of the fighter, its qualities and some of its deficiencies. He provides the reader with a lot of detail about what a Spitfire pilot experienced from typical cockpit drill to takeoff, flying in formation, and the thrills and perils of aerial combat. Neil writes compellingly and well. By my count, this is the fourth book by Neil that I've read and what I enjoy most about this book is that he makes you, the reader, feel like you're there. The chapter in which Neil relates a night flight he made over the UK during November 1942 in what proved to be a futile search for a German bomber conveys how attentive a fighter pilot accustomed to daylight flying must be in a nocturnal environment, on the ground as well as in the air.
The book throughout has lots of photos showing some of the Spitfire variants that Neil flew during his RAF service. Neil also provides many of the captions that accompany the photos, showing his considerable knowledge about the various aircraft.
The insertion of some technical details in From the Cockpit about the Spitfire can be glossed over by any reader who isn't necessarily an aviation enthusiast and wishes only to gain a tangible sense of what it was like to fly one of the most remarkable fighter planes of World War II.
1945: the Reckoning: War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World by Phil Craig
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
1945: The Reckoning - War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World provides the reader perspectives of a key year in world history via Burma, India, Borneo, French Indochina, the Dutch East Indies, and the Bergen Belsen concentration camp through the eyewitness accounts of individual men and women who spent much of the war years in those respective venues.
Among the people given a voice here who stood out for me were: Kondandera Subayya Thimayya (aka "Timmy"), an Indian who by dint of luck and hard work, earned a place at Sandhurst prewar (Britain's equivalent of West Point) and upon returning home to India, an officer's commission in the Indian Army, where during the Second World War, he rose in rank and earned distinction in Burma commanding a large corps of troops in combat - by war's end, he would be a Brigadier, the highest ranking Indian in the Indian Army; the Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose who sided with the Axis Powers in his quest to achieve full independence for India; Angela Noblet, a young English nurse who volunteered for service in India, where she kept a diary detailing her experiences treating wounded and dying soldiers and civilians through much of the war; and Douglas Peterkin, a British Army captain and doctor, whose work in treating and bringing back to full health the survivors of Bergen Belsen the author manages to convey in such stark, compelling vividness.
As more and more people who lived through and experienced the Second World War are leaving us in ever increasing numbers, one of the best selling points about this book is its "humane and balanced exploration of what victory" in the war really meant to that generation of men and women, as well as its impact upon us today.
Among the people given a voice here who stood out for me were: Kondandera Subayya Thimayya (aka "Timmy"), an Indian who by dint of luck and hard work, earned a place at Sandhurst prewar (Britain's equivalent of West Point) and upon returning home to India, an officer's commission in the Indian Army, where during the Second World War, he rose in rank and earned distinction in Burma commanding a large corps of troops in combat - by war's end, he would be a Brigadier, the highest ranking Indian in the Indian Army; the Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose who sided with the Axis Powers in his quest to achieve full independence for India; Angela Noblet, a young English nurse who volunteered for service in India, where she kept a diary detailing her experiences treating wounded and dying soldiers and civilians through much of the war; and Douglas Peterkin, a British Army captain and doctor, whose work in treating and bringing back to full health the survivors of Bergen Belsen the author manages to convey in such stark, compelling vividness.
As more and more people who lived through and experienced the Second World War are leaving us in ever increasing numbers, one of the best selling points about this book is its "humane and balanced exploration of what victory" in the war really meant to that generation of men and women, as well as its impact upon us today.
Grid: The Life and Times of First World War Fighter Ace Keith Caldwell by Adam Claasen
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
As someone who has been a fan of First World War aviation since 1977, I very much enjoyed reading GRID: The Life and Times of First World War Fighter Ace Keith Caldwell. Caldwell (1895-1980), who was New Zealand's top fighter ace of the conflict, lacked a comprehensive biography until this one, which I seized upon, as soon as it was published.
Grid tells the story of a charming, engaging man with a zest for life who saw action on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918, finishing up as commander of one of the Royal Air Force's premiere fighter squadrons in France.
Between the wars, Caldwell returned to New Zealand, married, had a family, maintained an involvement in aviation as it developed between the wars, again served his country during the Second World War (as a senior commander in the Royal New Zealand Air Force [RNZAF]), and acted as a valuable resource for First World War aviation historians during the 1960s and 1970s, when interest in the aircraft and aviators of that conflict experienced a wide-ranging resurgence in interest across the world.
Grid tells the story of a charming, engaging man with a zest for life who saw action on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918, finishing up as commander of one of the Royal Air Force's premiere fighter squadrons in France.
Between the wars, Caldwell returned to New Zealand, married, had a family, maintained an involvement in aviation as it developed between the wars, again served his country during the Second World War (as a senior commander in the Royal New Zealand Air Force [RNZAF]), and acted as a valuable resource for First World War aviation historians during the 1960s and 1970s, when interest in the aircraft and aviators of that conflict experienced a wide-ranging resurgence in interest across the world.
The Intrigues of Jennie Lee by Alex Rosenberg
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
The Intrigues of Jennie Lee is a historical novel loosely based on the experiences of one of the first women members of Parliament in Britain, mainly spanning the years 1929 to 1935.
The novel itself is true to events as they transpired during Lee's first 2 years in Parliament. But then the author bends the historical arc somewhat so that an in-house coup takes place in Parliament in August 1931, which leads to the readmittance into the ruling Labour Party of an ambitious, charismatic politician, who, once selected Party Leader, displaces the previous Labour Prime Minister, and steers Britain toward fascism.
On the whole, I was impressed with the way the author brought to life many of the real historical figures, as well as Jennie Lee herself, a committed socialist at heart, and someone determined to have a life largely on her own terms. And this at a time when women were expected to lead largely circumscribed lives subordinate to men. The only glaring fault I found in the novel was in the author's identification of MI-6 as a government agency charged with conducting intelligence and surveillance within Britain. He treats MI-6 and SIS (i.e. the Secret Intelligence Service) as two separate and distinct government agencies when they are actually one and the same. Hence, the 3.5 stars. (It is MI-5 that is responsible for conducting intelligence and surveillance within Britain, much like the FBI here in the U.S. MI-6, on the other hand, is charged with carrying out intelligence and espionage outside of Britain, the British equivalent of the CIA.)
The novel itself is true to events as they transpired during Lee's first 2 years in Parliament. But then the author bends the historical arc somewhat so that an in-house coup takes place in Parliament in August 1931, which leads to the readmittance into the ruling Labour Party of an ambitious, charismatic politician, who, once selected Party Leader, displaces the previous Labour Prime Minister, and steers Britain toward fascism.
On the whole, I was impressed with the way the author brought to life many of the real historical figures, as well as Jennie Lee herself, a committed socialist at heart, and someone determined to have a life largely on her own terms. And this at a time when women were expected to lead largely circumscribed lives subordinate to men. The only glaring fault I found in the novel was in the author's identification of MI-6 as a government agency charged with conducting intelligence and surveillance within Britain. He treats MI-6 and SIS (i.e. the Secret Intelligence Service) as two separate and distinct government agencies when they are actually one and the same. Hence, the 3.5 stars. (It is MI-5 that is responsible for conducting intelligence and surveillance within Britain, much like the FBI here in the U.S. MI-6, on the other hand, is charged with carrying out intelligence and espionage outside of Britain, the British equivalent of the CIA.)
The Winter List by S.G. MacLean
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
The Winter List takes us from 1660 to 1663. The Restoration is well underway in England with the return of Charles Stuart in 1660 as King Charles II, following the death of Oliver Cromwell two years earlier. While some of those persons who had served in high positions in Cromwell's Protectorate are amnestied and allowed to resume normal lives in England, there are others who are deemed beyond the pale for having taken direct roles in the regicide against Charles II's father in 1649. They are to be hunted down near and far so that they will face justice and be punished.
There is one official - a certain Roger L'Estrange, highly ambitious and covetous of greater power and influence at court - who is determined to find Damian Seeker (who has fled England for a new life in America) and ensure that he is brought back to England, put on trial for regicide, and executed. To help him find Seeker, L'Estrange enlists Lady Anne Winter (a former nemesis of Seeker in the days of the Protectorate) to go north to York, England, where Seeker's daughter (whose identity is a closely guarded secret to protect her from possible retribution) lives with her husband (Lawrence Ingolby, a lawyer on the rise) and their young daughter Lizzie, to ascertain if there is a link tying Ingolby and one of his close friends and clients (Sir Thomas Faithly, a Royalist veteran of the English Civil War, who had a past relationship with Damian Seeker) to Seeker himself.
As was the case with the previous 5 novels in the Seeker Series, intrigues abound in snowy York, and the reader is made aware of how cyphers and codes were used in terms of reporting intelligence on various groups and people in Restoration England. To say more would be to give away too much. Suffice it to say, The Winter List packs a stinging punch.
There is one official - a certain Roger L'Estrange, highly ambitious and covetous of greater power and influence at court - who is determined to find Damian Seeker (who has fled England for a new life in America) and ensure that he is brought back to England, put on trial for regicide, and executed. To help him find Seeker, L'Estrange enlists Lady Anne Winter (a former nemesis of Seeker in the days of the Protectorate) to go north to York, England, where Seeker's daughter (whose identity is a closely guarded secret to protect her from possible retribution) lives with her husband (Lawrence Ingolby, a lawyer on the rise) and their young daughter Lizzie, to ascertain if there is a link tying Ingolby and one of his close friends and clients (Sir Thomas Faithly, a Royalist veteran of the English Civil War, who had a past relationship with Damian Seeker) to Seeker himself.
As was the case with the previous 5 novels in the Seeker Series, intrigues abound in snowy York, and the reader is made aware of how cyphers and codes were used in terms of reporting intelligence on various groups and people in Restoration England. To say more would be to give away too much. Suffice it to say, The Winter List packs a stinging punch.
FRANCE 1940: The first great clash of World War II airpower by James S. Corum
informative
medium-paced
5.0
This book - amply replete with photos and 3D illustrations of various phases of the joint aerial and ground components of the Battle of France - provides a concise and comprehensive account of a decisive military campaign during the spring of 1940 in which the Germans effectively used the Luftwaffe as 'flying artillery' in support of its tank and infantry units to effect breakthroughs via the Ardennes (a forest the French thought would be impassible to armor) to the Channel Coast and later into the heart of France itself.
The House of Lamentations by S. G. MacLean
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
In this, the fifth novel of the Damian Seeker Series, Seeker --- presumed dead after braving an encounter with a bloodthirsty bear in an old bear pit where he and his beloved Maria Ellingworth had found themselves trapped after Seeker had been in pursuit of a group of Royalist plotters --- has been sent to Bruges in the Spanish Netherlands, in the guise of a carpenter, to uncover and dispel ongoing Royalist plots against Oliver Cromwell. For Seeker, this role is no stretch because it reflects the life he knew in Yorkshire before the English Civil War, when he plied the carpenter's trade.
It is August 1658 and in England, Cromwell is intent on further consolidating his power and authority. In the opening pages of the novel, the reader is witness to a couple of grisly public executions in London of 2 Royalists found guilty of treason.
The environment in England is increasingly repressive. The Royalist cause seems all but lost because the presumptive king, Charles Stuart, is losing support in a Europe that has largely accommodated itself to dealing with Cromwell's England. And yet, as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that, under the surface, seismic changes are afoot in England that will soon turn the world on its head for Seeker and those Englishmen and women invested in supporting Oliver Cromwell. To say more would give away too much of the flavor of this compellingly dramatic and breathtaking novel with its rich cast of characters such as a wily, old English nun long resident in Bruges (Sister Janet), a sleazy Spanish Jesuit priest (Father Felipe), a devious double agent in Seekers' employ (Marchmont Ellis), Thomas Faithly (who had briefly worked for Seeker as a double agent in London a couple of years earlier), Evan Glenroe (a fun-loving adventurous Irish Royalist in league with Faithly in Bruges), and Lady Anne Winter returns as the devoted and determined Royalist she is, a proverbial thorn in the flesh for Seeker.
The more I read the Seeker Series, the more I find myself invested in the life of Damian Seeker. He has experienced so much, come close to death numerous times. And through it all, he endures.
It is August 1658 and in England, Cromwell is intent on further consolidating his power and authority. In the opening pages of the novel, the reader is witness to a couple of grisly public executions in London of 2 Royalists found guilty of treason.
The environment in England is increasingly repressive. The Royalist cause seems all but lost because the presumptive king, Charles Stuart, is losing support in a Europe that has largely accommodated itself to dealing with Cromwell's England. And yet, as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that, under the surface, seismic changes are afoot in England that will soon turn the world on its head for Seeker and those Englishmen and women invested in supporting Oliver Cromwell. To say more would give away too much of the flavor of this compellingly dramatic and breathtaking novel with its rich cast of characters such as a wily, old English nun long resident in Bruges (Sister Janet), a sleazy Spanish Jesuit priest (Father Felipe), a devious double agent in Seekers' employ (Marchmont Ellis), Thomas Faithly (who had briefly worked for Seeker as a double agent in London a couple of years earlier), Evan Glenroe (a fun-loving adventurous Irish Royalist in league with Faithly in Bruges), and Lady Anne Winter returns as the devoted and determined Royalist she is, a proverbial thorn in the flesh for Seeker.
The more I read the Seeker Series, the more I find myself invested in the life of Damian Seeker. He has experienced so much, come close to death numerous times. And through it all, he endures.