spies

I am, in general, a huge fan of Kate Atkinson’s novels. I loved Life After Life, its sequel A God in Ruins, and all of the books in her Jackson Brodie series. That’s why it pains me to say I was a bit disappointed in Transcription.

Transcription tells the story of Juliet Armstrong, a young woman who is recruited by the British intelligence agency MI5 at the beginning of World War II. The main task she is charged with is transcribing the meetings among a group of British fascist sympathizers and supporters. As she is drawn further into the web of British spies and their targets, she’s left

Helen Abell runs four CIA safe houses for the Berlin Station in 1979. While performing routine microphone inspections she captures two important conversations that will change the course of her life. Helen knows her clearance does not allow her to investigate these agents, however a series of events leads her to uncover sinister cover ups within the CIA. In 2014, Helen and her husband are murdered in their Maryland farmhouse by their son. Anna goes home to bury her parents and discover what lead her brother to this horrific act. She enlists the help of a private investigator new to town, Henry

Evelyn Wolfe, black ops CIA intelligence officer, is looking for her kidnapped sister.  When the van supposedly holding her sister explodes, Evelyn is knocked out and scooped up by ex-CIA agent and current Ageis Security agent (and former lover) Zane Archer.  Archer is out to get Eve for something that happened on their last mission together.  Now both are implicated in the bombing that injured several innocent bystanders. When Eve wakes up, she and Archer must set aside their differences while they clear their names and find Eve's sister. Who can they trust? Each other? No one? What really

Over the top! There's just no better way to describe Angelmaker. 



The core plot is nothing new: A cautious lead character gets swept into a wild adventure that transforms him into a bold hero ... but with a lot more bells, whistles, and mechanical bees. It's a fun fantastical story, plus you get to figure out the connections among clockmakers, British secret intelligence, the gangster underground, elite craftsmen and plans to end the world as we know it. Take a gander at the book trailer. See what I mean?!



The ordinary Joe Spork is our hero, forced to intervene in a plot set to motion

Hollywood film star Fredric Stahl is in Paris to make a movie.  It is 1938 and tension is high.  Born in Austria, Stahl has an insight into European politics unknown to others from America.  He is approached by old “friends” who invite him to Berlin for a meeting with Nazi officials eager to include him in an upcoming propaganda film.   He plans to refuse until he speaks with a diplomat at the American embassy in Paris who offers Stahl the opportunity to make an “exchange” while in Berlin.  So begins his life as a spy.  The story and characters, especially the women, are somewhat wooden and