Friday, January 23, 2015

Historical fiction you may really enjoy!

A new historical fiction item is entitled “Edge of Eternity,” by Ken Follett.  This is book three of the Century Trilogy.  If you don’t like to hold an almost 1100 page book, check it out on eBook from you library. This book covers the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s.  It will introduce the readers to such large events of the Cuban Missile Crisis, civil rights, Vietnam, the Berlin Wall and more.  Chapter one introduces Rebecca Hoffmann and her husband Hans. They are living in East Berlin—the communist side. Hans works for the Ministry of Justice.  Rebecca is currently a teacher in a government school.  She had come from a political family before the fall of Berlin and the communist takeover.  Her beloved grandfather had been part of the Social Democrat Party, not the Socialist Unity Party. She had decided that she would not join the Socialist Unity Party. She knew that this would limit her rise in any profession she chose. She decided to go into teaching.  Now she teaches Russian and English; a strange match really. Hans is a lawyer. She has been married several years and has yet to meet his associates.  She thinks this strange and he promises to arrange a casual affair after work so she can meet them. That assuages her fears. But today just before her first class she has received a notice to appear from the Ministry for State Security.  The appointment is for five that afternoon.  This physically shakes Rebecca because she does not know what this could be about.  But things are changing in East Germany.  What she would experience in the next few hours would rock her world!



A great fiction book with some historical elements or possibilities is entitled, “The Assassination Option,” by W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV. This is book two of the Clandestine Operations series. Webb has placed a two page dedication to persons he believes should be mentioned and honored.  The first four are those who are dead but have gone before in intelligence and military operations to defeat our enemy.  The next section of this dedication is for the living who may have retired from the action, and then the new breed who are current officers.  He ends with loving memory to three others and then tells us that “our nation owes these patriots a debt beyond repayment.”

The prologue of this item tells us the history of German, Russian, England and the American relationships and agreements in early 1943.  The United Nations was set up and the framework for the Nuremberg war trials put in place.  It discusses the quid pro quos also given to Russia even though they had murdered at least 21,768 Polish soldiers by gun point. An atrocity they would never be held accountable for! Web then brings us up to December 1945 at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Rear Admiral Sidney Souers was visiting injured CIA operative from Argentina, Major Maxwell Ashton III after an attempt on his life. After he discussed with Souers his future desire to stay with the agency, Souers discussed his future assignment, how it would intertwine with other agents such as James Cronley.   Web intertwines a lot of history with the telling of this dramatic story.  Once you get some of the characters in place you are ready to be catapulted into action.  Hope you enjoy the read.