Love, War, and Espionage, in THE DOCTOR OF ALEPPO from Dan Mayland

Dan Mayland's Mark Sava "spy novels" gave him a solid platform of plot-centered espionage fiction to write from. But his 2020 novel, released August 11, takes him well beyond expected forms, into a tale of a Syrian doctor and an American woman whose commitments to justice turn their lives inside out.

Dr. Samir Hasan, an orthopedic surgeon in Aleppo, Syria, already walks the ragged edge of political danger: He has family members who oppose the ruler of the nation, Bashar al-Assad, and in 2012, in the third phase of Syria's civil war, to take care of his relatives is treason. But how can he refuse? Even so, the hours he spends beyond his hospital work, patching up injured protesters, puts his wife and children into a more direct jeopardy, since he's no longer home for enough hours to protect them from the erupting conflict. Warriors for Allah, the soldiers begin to interfere with the doctor's son ... and then, inevitably, his wife.

Crossing paths with this doctor is an American woman, Hannah Johnson, who needs his care for her wounded Swedish lover. Hannah's working with humanitarian relief, ferrying medications and other hospital supplies to the beleaguered occupants of the city. A further accident, at the hospital, places Dr. Hasan—Sami—and the American woman into jeopardy as the son of a secret police official unexpectedly dies in the care of this hard-hit hospital.

Neither can continue as they have been. For Sami, the change is most terrible: To gain protection for his family, he seeks help through his dangerously rebellious sister-in-law:

"Your protester friends—yes, I know you are one of them—some of them have connections to the Free Syrian Army, I assume?"

"I do not need to hear your accusations now, Sami."

"I am not accusing you. I ask because I need your help."

"What help?"

"I need for you to take a message to the Free Syrian Army—to tell them that I am willing to work for them. Heal their wounded and train their medics. But in exchange, Beit Qarah [his home] and my family will be protected."

For Hannah, betrayal reaches her personally: The boyfriend she assisted not only leaves the country without her, but turns out to have a "regular" girlfriend at home, one he's lined up to marry. She feels like a fool. But that doesn't stop her commitment to making the runs with humanitarian aid, even though she keeps fooling herself into thinking she'll stop at some point.

The twists of war reconnect her to Dr. Samir Hasan in new ways, circling more around his children and their need for protection than any other reasoning. But Hannah has crossed the line into a culture far different from what she understands, and her efforts to again try to save individuals may cost her far more than she expects to pay. Because the secret police officer has linked her with the doctor who failed to save his son—who perhaps actually killed his son—and Rahim has never stopped searching:

At times there had been leads. In January she had been seen passing through a checkpoint in Bustan al-Qasr, in May through a checkpoint in Sheik Saeed. But her schedule was seemingly random, and when she had been observed, the people doing the observing had been unable to pursue her without exposing themselves as regime spies.

Until yesterday.

This is an ambitious book spanning the years from 2012 to 2016. It offers readers an entry into both a period of history and a set of intersecting cultures, by playing out the tension within the middle and upper classes in Lebanon, where history's challenges linger, and art and literature are as important as religion, or more so. In this season after an epic explosion in Beirut, in neighboring Lebanon, followed by a change of government there, THE DOCTOR OF ALEPPO offers an intriguing and page-turning route into understanding more of this region's roots in terror, passion, and the value of ordinary human loyalties. 

 PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Newly Released Father Anselm Mystery, A WHISPERED NAME, William Brodrick

Who are your favorite British mystery authors? Most readers will have one or two they quickly name. American readers may not yet have William Brodrick on their "short list" -- yet he won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger award in 2009 for his novel A Whispered Name and is noted for his Father Anselm series, in which a monk with a past as a lawyer (barrister in England) is sent by the Prior of Larkwood Priory to sort out crises that blend both crime and conscience.

 British readers, clearly, have already had access to A WHISPERED NAME -- now, thanks to Overlook Press, this title just arrived for U.S. access, released this week. If you haven't yet read one of the other Brodrick "amateur sleuth" novels featuring this Augustinian friar, it's still easy to slide into A WHISPERED NAME. Brodrick swiftly sketches in the boundaries and blessings of life at the Priory, including the unexpected assignment that Anselm has for working with beehives ... and then the inevitable out-of-Priory mission he gets, to resolve the blowback from a court martial that took place a generation earlier, in France.

In the process, Brodrick paints the grim reality of young, unformed men attempting to obey orders and fight what seems an endlessly losing battle across what was once a kind and cultured landscape. The particularly delicious twist to the plot here is that one of the priory's founding fathers, Herbert Moore, appears to have some responsibility for a wrongful death -- or at least one that should not have been allowed -- from a firing squad.

Brodrick reveals what took place through two timelines: Anselm's as he pursues the mostly hidden history and secrets of the long-ago court martial (some nice archival work here to admire, as well as emotional insight), and Herbert's as a young officer not skilled in reading the subtext of the court martial and plunged into agony by trying to do "the next right thing."

I found the narration a bit uneven at first -- as I felt with another Brodrick book, this seemed somewhat over-revised in early chapters -- but once the story began to flow, I was entranced, and by the ending, felt both satisfied and uplifted in a way that mystery novels rarely provide. 

A note for readers who've explored Chesterton's Father Brown mystery stories: Brodrick's Father Anselm is far more sophisticated than Father Brown, in ways of the world, issues of law, and the emotional and moral changes a person goes through in the processes of maturing and making a commitment to living in a dedicated community.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

 

World War II Detective Fiction from James R. Benn, THE DEVOURING

With each new Billy Boyle crime novel from James R. Benn, I wonder again: How will this author maintain suspense, and surprise the readers, when "everybody knows" how World War II began, continued, and ended? Aren't the facts so plentiful that the fiction can't be a wild ride, if it's true to the history as well?

And each time I pick up a new Billy Boyle, I confirm all over again: There's a lot more to even this relatively recent global conflict than most of us realize. In Benn's hands, the surprising details take on new life. And the plot twists? Complex, and intriguing.

In THE DEVOURING, Benn sends Captain Billy Boyle and his friend Kaz into supposedly neutral Switzerland in the final year of World War II, as the Allies are becoming sure of eventually winning the war. But as Billy and Kaz learn, winning won't be as sweet if the Nazi leaders manage to escape justice -- and carry off their murder-related loot in the process.

What are a Boston-born Irish cop and a Polish baron doing in a shepherd's abandoned cottage in southeastern France? The short answer is, wartime makes strange companions. Readers of this series know the intricacies of Billy's recruitment by General Eisenhower to be the crime-solving part of the American leadership's staff, and of the tragic murders of Kaz's family members and the various twists that brought these two men together (including the women they love). Enjoying the first 11 books will certainly add depth and perspective to reading THE DEVOURING, but Benn's a strong enough storyteller that newcomers to the series will be able to step right into the action. Here's Billy Boyle's explanation of the situation as the book opens, for him and Kaz:

Last night we'd had a rendezvous with an SOE Lysander. Special Operations Executive, that is. Lysanders are SOE's preferred means to ferry agents in and out of occupied France. We'd expected to be taken back to London after our last assignment, but someone had a better idea: send the two of us to the Swiss border, smuggle us across, and then have us make contact with the OSS, a different group of highly dangerous letters. The Office of Strategic Services was an American outfit, modeled after the SOE Why they wanted us in neutral Switzerland, I had no clue, but I did have hopes it would be a rest cure in a peaceful nation.

Well, scratch those hopes. Not only will the border crossing be much more risky than Billy and Kaz expected, but the neutral Swiss turn out to be well enmeshed with a lot of German officers hanging around, and the mission turns out to involve tracking some of those in a very dangerous way.

The intriguing aspect that separates Benn's World War II fiction from many another war tale is Billy Boyle's detective skills, with the expectation that he'll solve crimes along the way. Consider Billy's approach to a murder that affects their mission:

Kaz went to find the inspector, and I stood still, studying the room, trying to get a read on what had happened here. [The victim] was the one who wanted to leave the reception first. Now it was evident why. Maybe his date was already here, waiting. They drink some wine, do some cavorting, and then what? Sleep? Or does she go home? I couldn't really find a decent hiding place, not one that would have stood up to the concerted search that had gone on here.

Or maybe the dame was part of the setup.

The book's title comes from a Gypsy, or Sinti, expression for how the Nazi forces were eradicating this relatively landless people of Europe before and during the war, and Billy and Kaz find themselves repeatedly depending on the skills of a very angry and desolate member of that group, Anton Lasho. Will Lasho's anger and recklessness be assets to the mission -- or put the investigators at deadly risk themselves?

Benn adds an espionage-related "dame" to the complex plot, as well as a heartbreaking visit to a prisoner camp in "neutral" Switzerland. Not everything will be resolved by the end of the book -- but that's part of the structure of an effective series, isn't it? I could hardly wait for THE DEVOURING to become available (it hits the stores on Sept. 12 and can be pre-ordered). Count me as a fan of this series for its friendships, quirks of personality, unusual details about the war, and of course the pursuit of crime-solving throughout. I'm in no hurry for the fictional war years to reach an end!

From Soho Crime (Soho Press), as are the other 11 in the series -- and at the moment, the publisher is offering 40% off when ordering those entire 11:

Book 1: BILLY BOYLE
Book 2: THE FIRST WAVE
Book 3: BLOOD ALONE
Book 4: EVIL FOR EVIL
Book 5: RAG AND BONE
Book 6: A MORTAL TERROR
Book 7: DEATH’S DOOR
Book 8: A BLIND GODDESS
Book 9: THE REST IS SILENCE
Book 10: THE WHITE GHOST
Book 11: BLUE MADONNA

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Korean Police Procedural: Martin Limón, THE IRON SICKLE

The ninth Sueño and Bascom mystery from Martin Limón, THE IRON SICKLE (Soho Crime), takes a small, tragic crime -- a murderous attack in a military claims office, by a local man who's obviously unbalanced -- and follows an intrepid pair of Army investigators through the city of Seoul and Korea's mountainous rural regions, spinning a taut, well-told story of suspense. And at the same time, Limón exposes some of Korea's large, tragic history: from the 1970s (the time when the mystery is set) backward into Japanese occupation and American-aided liberation, and forward to the swift growth of the Pacific Rim country, into a future of power and prestige.

But Limón never paints with a broad brush -- he nails the story and the suspense through personal detail. Like the Koreans around them, investigators George Sueño and Ernie Bascom deal with orders that make hardly any sense to them. The reaction the "brass" has to the murder that's taken place on their base is to send these two seasoned Criminal Investigation Division officers to patrol the fences. Yes, it's because they've annoyed an officer or two. And they're not exactly the favorites of the Military Police, either -- Sueño's taken the crazy step of actually learning Korean, to speak with suspects, victims, and witnesses, and Bascom, well, he's been known to engage in something more than just lust with the ladies. Only when the politics of the case engage Seoul's own investigators in an effort to not solve the case (!) do the teams demand Sueño and Bascom in action.

The "iron sickle" of the title is the murder weapon, and it's in use -- or another one like it! -- for more slash-and-slaughter events clearly aimed at the American military. But there's some aspect to the crimes that's embedded in Korean symbolism, as George and Ernie find what looks like a totem at one the crime scenes:

"Wait a minute. What's that?" I pointed. The beam of Ernie's flashlight followed mine.

"Hell if I know," Ernie said.

There was a jumble of wooden crates, most of them flattened, thin slats held together by thick wire. One of the crates was standing upright, the slats of wood forming a teepee-like shape. Atop that, strands of wire had been woven into a flat, rectangular grill. The entire edifice stood about three feet tall.

"Christ," Ernie said.

Hanging from the construction was a dead rat, eviscerated and dangling from its back paws, thick blood seeping from red guts.

It's a crazy item to find, and emphasizes the insanity of the criminal and crimes. But as the investigation continues, the two CID men find that the darker crimes of the past may lead toward exactly this response -- and the people around them who seem craziest may in fact be the ones most wounded, responding in ways that make perfect sense.

And that, of course, is how they team up with the beautiful psychiatrist Dr. Prevault, and the struggling Korean therapist, Doctor Hwang.

Soon the team is racing toward the site of a military disaster from the past, trying to sort out their own form of sanity and justice.

Limón's ninth book in the series is tightly woven, hard to put down, as the tension continues to ramp, and the investigators take grave risks. You don't need to read the earlier books in the series, although they'll add to the bond with Sueño and Bascom if you do. Me, I'm looking forward to book 10, later this year (maybe the end of summer?) -- and I may just decide to re-read the entire series while I wait!

Diversion: The War Memoir That Tells It All -- MY LIFE AS A FOREIGN COUNTRY, Brian Turner

Can we make it a military rule from now on, that every large group of soldiers include an embedded poet? Incognito, of course -- Brian Turner kept his poetry writing to himself while he led missions. It wouldn't have fit the persona that he needed to convey as a leader under fire.

But now, 11 years after "Sergeant T" departed with his men for the Iraqui desert, this highly trained observer and wordsmith gives us the reality of war. The exhilaration of enlisting into a (mostly) male experience that your older, battle-experienced relatives will now share with you. The joy of feeling competent, and the goofiness of being "boys" with girlie magazines, guns to shoot, silly secrets. And the horror of death -- including potentially your own.

Turner gives us the men as they prepare to invade a presumed insurgent's family home:

The drivers will fire up their engines and check their gauges. Across town, a small child kisses her father on his cheek. The soldiers inhale the harsh smoke, lean their heads back and exhale up toward the dead surface of the moon. And -- though they darken into silhouettes as the night draws on -- the soldiers brighten inside. They crackle in nerve and flame. The gas stations and Laundromats and unemployment lines and hardware stores of America disappear. For now, they are soldiers. They are giants standing over the model of someone else's life. Humming with adrenaline, they stand in the great sweep of history -- past, passing and yet to come -- and take it all in.

That's right, MY LIFE AS A FOREIGN COUNTRY is written in prose. The stories follow each other, rooted in daily life on base, in trucks, behind guns ... and even when Turner stacks the segments on top of each other, pushing the despair and craziness into a ladder to that darkening dead moon, he's telling stories.

Except every now and then, just the way he does right after this passage, he turns the words into something like a pounding drum, when he writes: "The soldiers enter the house, the soldiers enter the house."

There's immense love in here, as well as carefully chosen words and images that bring hard choices to life. In a way that only the return from, and processing of, Vietnam could allow, Turner also opens up the view of what it's like to "come home" -- carrying indelible memories of pain and risk and loss and fear, endless fear, from a battleground where a child or a gift can disguise a deadly threat.

I'm not, in general, a fan of war stories. But this potent braid of necessity, excitement, and guilt and grief -- this is worth reading more than once. This is what a poem that learns to be a long, long story becomes, and lingers. Grandfather, father, and soldier son -- and more.

If only it were a real rule: Tell the truth, the way a really fine poet must always strive for.

Oh yes, you can read this without knowing Brian Turner's war poetry. But I've been a fan of all his work -- poems, New York Times blog, more poems, and now this memoir. For some perspective, click here for more discussion of Brian Turner's writing.

Most of all, after reading MY LIFE AS A FOREIGN COUNTRY: What story would you share if someone asked you what your war was like?