Robert Littell
“The Company” is a satisfying fat historical novel about the CIA from the early days of the Cold War to its end. It has scope, action, and suspense, but what distinguishes it from the pack is the characterization. If John le Carre were an American, this is the kind of spy novel he would have written.
Douglas Niles, Michael S. Dobson
What if the plot to assassinate Hitler had succeeded? This excellent alternate history takes that question as its point of divergence. The result not only believable, not only surprising, but one of the best military thrillers that I’ve read in some time.
Christopher Reich
Reich pulls off the impossible: an exciting tale about accounting. His hero, Adam Chapel, is a forensic accountant with an US anti-terrorist unit. He follows the money to unravel a terrorist plot but the whole story doesn’t take place in front of a terminal, there’s action as well. This “accounting procedural” may or may not be authentic, but Reich makes it seem authentic, not to mention interesting.
Gary Tigerman
Structures on Mars, an alien base on the Moon, and a secret government defense program are the highlights of this political/SciFi potboiler. This isn’t great writing. In fact, sometimes it isn’t even good writing, but it is a lot of fun.
Robert J. Hutchinson
Hutchinson unearths the stuff the Vatican doesn’t want you to know (or at least can’t be bothered to tell nosy reporters): how much does a cardinal make, and where do they get their clothes? This is an occasionally irreverent but always affectionate portrait of the Vatican written by a Catholic who loves his church. It answers a lot of the questions one has after a visit to St. Peters, like, “are the Swiss Guards armed?” (Answer: not always.). This is enjoyable reading for Catholics and Romaphiles.
Thomas Kydd returns to face navel courts, battles, shipwreck, disease and shark attacks in this, the latest in Stockwin’s Age of Fighting Sail series. As usual, Stockwin presents the gun deck view instead of the more typical wardroom view, and, as usual, the reader is sorry to see the book end.
