A FIFTY-YEAR SILENCE : LOVE, WAR, AND A RUINED HOUSE IN FRANCE
by Miranda Richmond Mouillot

Something happened between Anna and Armand in 1948 that led them to split up. They both had been Jewish refugees fleeing from the Nazis in France. Luckily for them they evaded being captured and sent to a concentration camp. They ended up in neutral Switzerland and got married in 1944. It didn't last too long. A few years later, Anna walked out on Armand with the typewriter and their two children. They never spoke to each other again, never saw each other, neither one of them remarried, and never told their family what caused their separation.
Author Miranda Richmond Mouillot, the granddaughter of Anna and Armand, puts on her detective hat and delves into letters, archives, and even her grandparents to get at the truth. It took her ten years to write it all down. The hardest part was dragging the memories out of her reticent, aging grandparents. He would fly into a rage at the mention of her name and she would change the subject.
It took an inordinate amount of patience, love, and fortitude for Mouillot to uncover their story.
A Fifty-Year Silence is a stunner of a memoir. Mouillot's writing is absolutely gorgeous. She's such a masterful storyteller that you can't lift your head up for a minute, because you're so involved. The way she reconstructs their difficult and painful lives through the calamity of the Holocaust is riveting.
By learning about what happened between her grandparents, Mouillot discovers her own inner strength.
Very highly recommended.

BEYOND THE CALL : THE TRUE STORY OF ONE WORLD WAR II PILOT'S COVERT MISSION TO RESCUE POWS ON THE EASTERN FRONT
by Lee Trimble and Jeremy Dronfield

As World War II was coming to an end in 1944, thousands of Allied ex-POWs were liberated from prison camps set up by the Third Reich. They were let loose only to be abandoned with no food. The Soviets viewed them as cowards and traitors and thought they were all spies. Stalin refused to allow the United States to bring in planes, supplies, and teams to retrieve the POWs and evacuate them.
So a plan was conceived for an undercover rescue mission provided by The Office of Strategic Services (OSS). They chose an out-of-the-ways airfield in Ukraine called Poltava and used an American air force detachment that was stationed there. Of course, all of this was top secret. The man that was chosen to undertake this mission was Captain Robert Trimble, who was a bomber pilot.
Trimble was told something completely different by his Commanding Officer. He was supposed to salvage airplanes that had been severely damaged and fly them back to their original starting points.
Needless to say, Trimble was lied to just to get him over there. He had absolutely no covert training, but he decided to take on this monumental mission anyway.
Here we have one of those unsung, ordinary Americans who accomplished an over-the-top deed facing all kinds of adversity. He himself survived by sheer wit, courage, and bravery. Trimble was surrounded by danger every minute, but that didn't stop him. He would only feel satisfied if he could save as many POWs as was humanly possible.
Beyond the Call is a book that will keep you riveted. It will infuriate, make you cry, shudder, and also be awe-inspiring all at the same time. It's a fast read (two days) and just impossible to put down.
Lee Trimble and his siblings never knew about their father's war service in Russia. That part had been locked down inside of him for the rest of his life until he was close to death. Only then did he finally open up and relate those memories of that horrific time.
This is one hell of a story.
Highly recommended.

RED NOTICE : A TRUE STORY OF HIGH FINANCE, MURDER, AND ONE MAN'S FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
by Bill Browder

Don't even think of doing any business with Russia, especially if you are a foreigner. It's just too dangerous. If you get on the wrong side of Putin, you could be issued a Red Notice, which is basically an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol. This is not the kind of thing you ever want to receive, because if you leave your native country and cross an international border, you could be arrested.
Bill Browder was the CEO and founder of Hermitage Capital Management. In 2000, the Hermitage Fund had been ranked as the best performing emerging-markets fund in the world. Browder was quite the maverick when it came to finance. After the Soviet Union broke up, Browder made a fortune because Russia had amazing investment opportunities. Working in Russia was exciting and adventurous until Browder exposed the corruption of the oligarchs. These men stole 39 percent of the country after the fall of communism and became instant billionaires. They owned many of the companies  that were traded on the Russian stock market and therefore robbed them senselessly. Putin was not all happy with Browder and threw him out of the country (his visa was revoked).
The offices of Browder and Hermitage in Moscow were raided due to trumped-up charges of tax evasion. While Browder was able to barely escape with his life, his tax lawyer was not so lucky. Sergei Magnitsky was arrested, jailed, tortured, and then beaten to death because he dared to tell the truth. It was time to fight back against the thuggery and Browder became Putin's number one enemy.
Red Notice is one hell of a story. Bill Browder's writing is an in-your-face style and it keeps you riveted. The book reads like a thriller and is a real page-turner.
Russia today is no different ruled by Putin than when it was ruled by Stalin. Lies, deceit, no respect for the individual nor his or her rights. People can be used by the state. Anyone can disappear. When you have a dictator in government that used to be in the KGB, always be prepared for the worst.
Highly recommended.

THE TRAIN TO CRYSTAL CITY : FDR'S SECRET PRISONER EXCHANGE PROGRAM AND AMERICA'S ONLY FAMILY INTERNMENT CAMP DURING WORLD WAR II
by Jan Jarboe Russell

While it is well known that America incarcerated 120,000 Japanese (forcibly evacuated) after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, what is most likely unknown is that Germans and Italians were also arrested and declared as "enemy aliens." These arrests extended beyond our borders. (Many of them came from Latin American countries.) Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1942, permitted the secretary of war to capture and confine Japanese, Germans, and Italians. They could be held without charges or having had a trial and their homes and businesses were taken away from them.
Crystal City was a small, desert town in the south part of Texas. From 1942 to 1945, secret government trains brought civilians to this site, which became the only family internment camp during World War II. The official name was the Crystal City Enemy Detention Facility. Men, women, and children were confined here for an indeterminate amount of time. Most of these people were very loyal to the United States and could not comprehend why they had been taken from their homes. These internees were never told that they were part of a government prisoner exchange program. Americans that were being held in Japan and Germany would be switched with these so-called "dangerous" civilians. And whether they wanted to or not, many of these immigrants were repatriated (read deported) against their will to their original countries including their American-born children.
The Train to Crystal City is quite a disturbing book. Our illustrious government thought that we had spies in our midst and what better way to keep them all together would be behind barbed wire where they could be watched twenty-four hours a day. These poor people were kidnapped and held as pawns to be used as trade bait. It's really unfortunate that FDR listened to his military advisers.
This is quite an important read and will make your hair stand on end. Not to be missed.
Highly recommended.

THE UNDERTAKER'S DAUGHTER : A MEMOIR
by Kate Mayfield

"We've got a body." These four words were a constant within the Mayfield family. When you lived above a funeral home, you got used to death.
In 1959, Kate's father, Frank, moved everyone to Jubilee, Kentucky. This town was segregated and  nobody kept secrets, except the ones that were buried with them. Frank was an undertaker, the only other white one. Competition was fierce. But, Frank was a natty dresser. He always wanted to look his best. After all, he had to keep his reputation up. The people depended on him.
In those days, if somebody needed to go to the hospital or a doctor's office, they would call a funeral home. If you had an emergency, you knew who to contact. Consequently, telephones were installed in every room downstairs and upstairs. They rang all the time. It didn't matter the hour. When the death call came in, that was a sign for everybody in Kate's family to not make a sound and keep themselves invisible to what went on below. Silence was needed, because it meant respect.
Growing up in this kind of environment prepared Kate to celebrate both death and life.
The Undertaker's Daughter is truly wonderful storytelling. Kate's writing is beautiful. Her depictions of all the different characters, including her parents, linger in your mind throughout the entire book. She knows how to draw you in when describing a small, Southern town in the 1960s where racism is rampant and the community knows everybody's business.
I almost didn't want the book to end. It's a terrific read and keeps you absorbed.
Highly recommended.

DID SHE KILL HIM? : A TORRID TRUE STORY OF ADULTERY, ARSENIC, AND MURDER IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND
by Kate Colquhoun

In 1889, Florence Maybrick, a young American woman from Mobile, Alabama, stood trial for the alleged arsenic poisoning of her husband, James. He was a "rich" cotton broker from Liverpool and much older than her (twenty-four years).
The trial caused quite a sensation not only in England but around the world. It was all anybody could talk about and was on the front pages of every newspaper. The case broke the facade behind Victorian respectability and all their dirty laundry was exposed. Between finding out about debts, gambling, servants with loose lips, self-medication, hypochondria, and mutual infidelity, there was plenty of titillating information to read.
Did She Kill Him? grabs you from the first page and never stops. Kate Colquhoun has exceptional mastery in drawing you in from her descriptions of the characters with all their foibles and setting the stage for a stupendous tale. There's tension, suspense, and intrigue. The amount of detailed research that Colquhoun did is astounding, but it made everything cohesive. Her previous book Murder in the First-Class Carriage (reviewed in this blog) is just as good as this one, so it's obvious that Colquhoun is an expert at writing about Victorian murder mysteries.
If you're a true-crime addict, make sure to get this book. You won't be disappointed.
Very highly recommended.

THE NAZIS NEXT DOOR : HOW AMERICA BECAME A SAFE HAVEN FOR HITLER'S MEN
by Eric Lichtblau
 
There was a quota that only forty thousand people could be admitted to the United States after World War II. Visas were denied to Holocaust survivors. (Anti-semitism was still rearing its ugly head.) The ones that should have come were not allowed, and, ironically, the ones that should NEVER have been admitted, and came by the thousands, were Nazis. They had no trouble entering, labeling themselves as "war refugees." Many of them had help and protection from the U.S. government. The CIA used Hitler's collaborators to work as spies, scientists (Project Paperclip), and engineers, while shoving their horrendous, murderous deeds under the rug. They lived as American citizens unscathed until years later when the Justice Department decided to identify and prosecute them.
There have been many books written about Nazis who came to America. Most of them were boring to read and not very interesting. You can't say that about this particular book. The Nazis Next Door will blow your socks off. It's disturbing, compelling, makes you shake your head in disbelief, and is one fantastic read.
Author Eric Lichtblau is an investigative reporter and he did one heck of a job. Between 150 interviews and perusing 4500 pages of archival documents, intelligence reports, etc., he didn't miss a thing. The writing is superb and keeps you riveted.
If I had to rate this book, I would give it ten stars instead of the usual five.
Very highly recommended.