It is better to keep a secret and die, than tell it and live

I remembered reading some news stories about some clusters of suicides among young people in a Welsh town, and was intrigued that the plot of the book What You Left Behind seemed to focus on the same type of phenomenon.  Detective Inspector Lorraine Fisher comes to the sleepy rural English town of Radcote to visit her sister, Jo.  Radcote was the scene of a rash of suicides among young people a few years previously, and recently it seems as if the cycle is starting up again.

Jo, who has a history of expecting Lorraine to bail her out of trouble, is separated from her partner and has an 18 year old son, Freddie.  Freddie is moping about, being generally moody and uncommunicative, but it turns out his behavior is due to more than growing pains.  For several weeks, he's been the target of a particularly nasty online bullying campaign.  He hasn't told anyone about it, but he is becoming increasingly disturbed by it.

Jo is close to some people in town, Tony and Sonia Hawkeswell, whose son Simon recently committed suicide.  Sonia tries to overcome her grief by working at the local homeless shelter, and she's browbeaten her daughter Lana into also volunteering there.  Sonia has decided that Lana is going to become a doctor and that volunteering will look good on her university applications.  Their household is also made up of Tony's autistic brother, Gil.  Gil lives in a separate building from the main house, but is pretty much involved in everything the family does.  He's also an extremely talented artist.  When Lorraine sees a drawing he made of the scene of another supposed suicide, she becomes convinced that all the new suicides might instead be foul play.

I really wanted to like this book, due to the setting and intriguing premise, but it was too annoying to be enjoyable.  All of the characters seem to be harboring secrets, which they refuse to tell anyone, but which could likely be easily remedied if they would just SAY SOMETHING!  You know it's all going to come out in the end, so why keep going over and over how, for instance, Freddie just *can't* tell anyone about the bullying because "that would make it worse."  Just how exactly, we never hear.  It's not that Freddie is embarrassed about being targeted, or afraid of physical harm -- his reasoning is that the non-stop online abuse "will get worse."  Um, OK . . . As the various characters are wrestling with their secrets which they can't tell anyone, they seem to continue to have the same conversations over and over (especially Freddie and Lana).  Nothing ever gets sorted out and they continue to cover the same useless ground over and over, chapter after chapter.

The author does try to throw in a few red-herrings to point us toward several suspects, but I'm still not very clear on why some of the suicides were arranged to look like murder. By the end, we know who the supposed murderer was, but the motivation is still murky.  There are also lots of forged suicide notes, false confessions to crimes and contradictory statements (in one chapter Lorraine has read a supposed suicide note, in the next she's wondering what was in the note) which don't really add up to a cohesive and enjoyable story.  The novel ends with something that is supposed to be a shocking twist, but by that time I'd long since stopped trying to make any sense of what the characters were doing and why.

Disclaimer:   I received a copy of What You Left Behind from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review

Read More

Bodies, bodies everywhere

Forensic science developments in recent years have helped to solve many crimes that might not even have been recognized as murder in past times.  The events in The Anatomist's Apprentice take place in the year 1780, when the study of anatomy, not to mention forensics, was in its infancy.

At the country estate of Boughton Hall, a terrible scene takes place.  The young lord of the manner, Edward Crick, experiences a terrifying episode of convulsions and excruciating pain before dying in front of his horrified sister Lydia.  Lydia is married to the Irishman Michael Ferrell, who inherits the estate upon the death of his brother-in-law.  Since Edward was so young and there is a motive for someone to want him dead, tongues in the village begin to wag.  In an effort to silence the gossip, Michael calls in two local doctors to examine the corpse.  The doctors, not surprisingly, don't waste too much time on pondering the cause of death, and decide it was from natural causes.

Lydia's cousin, Francis Crick, is a medical student who is studying under the American Dr. Thomas Silkstone.  He mentions the pioneering work in anatomy and chemical analysis that Dr. Silkstone is doing, which causes Lydia to ask the doctor to examine the corpse of her brother.  She is very disturbed by the rumors which call her husband a murderer. Even though Michael Ferrell has turned into a disagreeable spouse, she feels very loyal to him and doesn't want the family name to be ruined.

Dr. Silkstone agrees to take on the case, both to find out if murder was done, and to please the beautiful Lydia.  Things begin to look even worse for Michael when it becomes known that he set up a still to brew up his own rat poison (doesn't everyone?).  Dr. Silkstone takes samples from the by now decomposing body of Lord Crick, but is unable to find any rat poison.  This doesn't stop the rumors, nor does it protect Ferrell from becoming a suspect.

No one on the estate, apart from Lydia, seems particularly upset at the young Lord's death.  In fact, more than one person had a motive for wanting him dead, but none as much as Ferrell.  Naturally, someone doesn't want Dr. Silkstone to get close to the truth, so he is brutally attacked.  Will he be able to discover the truth before there are more deaths?

Well, unfortunately not.  As the bodies pile up, the red herrings also fly thick and fast.  Just when you think the murder has been revealed, someone else dies and suspicion falls on a different person.  That happening once might be OK, but it happens several times and starts to get really annoying before the book finally ends and we apparently have tied up all the loose ends, and assigned blame for all the deaths to the correct people.

While I can appreciate that the author wanted the story to have twists and turns, there were just too many of them to make the story enjoyable.  I would have preferred a more straightforward resolution to the mystery.  This sleepy village suddenly being overrun with dead bodies and plotting murderers was just too far-fetched to be believable.

Final verdict for The Anatomist's Apprentice: Two Gherkins, for being a mystery with too many killers coming out of the woodwork

Read More

I'd start the screamingest night club in London

I had high hopes for Murder in Piccadilly, a book that combines two of my favorite things:  a mystery and a London setting.  This book was originally published in 1936, and has been re-issued as part of the British Library Crime Classics series.  Unfortunately, to my mind, the book doesn't hold up very well for the modern reader.

The story is a somewhat familiar one.  Bobbie Cheldon is a young man who lives with is widowed mother in somewhat shabby circumstances in Fulham.  The one bright spot in their drab existence is Bobbie's prospects:  he is the heir to the estate at Broadbridge Manor.  When he takes over the estate, he'll have an income of £10,000 per year (as we are informed over and over again).  This was apparently quite the fortune in 1936!  Unfortunately, Uncle Massy Cheldon, who at 50ish seems quite ancient to young Bobbie, shows no inclination of helping things along with a natural death any time soon.

Bobbie has fallen madly in love with a lower-class but lovely dancer at the Frozen Fang nightclub named Nancy Curzon.  Nancy is willing to marry him, but not if it involves living in poverty.  She has been told that an American tour showcasing the dancing talents of her and her partner Billy Bright is in the works, but she and Billy would have to be married first (somewhat antiquated morality!).  Bobbie is naturally becoming desperate at the thought of losing Nancy.  A somewhat shady acquaintance of Nancy's, ex-boxer Nosey Ruslin, hears of poor Bobbie's predicament.  Nosey insinuates himself into Bobbie's life, seemingly befriending the younger man and offering to help him out financially from time to time as necessary.  The dim and naive Bobbie takes Nosey at his word (naturally).

Nosey and Billy, meanwhile, are plotting ways to get rid of Uncle Massy and, once Bobbie has the impressive yearly income, help themselves to a large portion of it.  Bobbie is rather wishy-washy, but willing to do anything to keep Nancy.  It's therefore no surprise to the reader when the titular Murder in Piccadilly occurs (in Piccadilly Underground station, in full view of hundreds of witnesses) and Uncle Massy is no more.

Enter Chief Inspector Wake of Scotland Yard.  He has a pretty good idea of who was behind the murder, but with no many witnesses all claiming not to have seen anything, he's going to have a hard time proving anything.  In fact, his complete assurance of who was behind the murder (and who had absolutely no knowledge of it beforehand) seems to have come out of nowhere.  His discussions with his second in command, Detective-Sergeant Clarke, go over and over the suspects and why they are or are not involved, but never seem to have much evidence backing them up.

The action in the story is extremely slow, and the characters seem to have the same discussions over and over again.  There is a final "twist" that is, I assume, meant to confound the reader, but I thought the overall resolution was rather weak.  Also, some of the language will be rather startling to modern ears -- particularly the ethnic slurs that are thrown around rather casually.  I know that we are supposedly dealing with lower-class and uncouth individuals (those in Nancy's circle, anyway), but it's still rather jarring to read.

Sadly, even a London setting couldn't save this story!

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of Murder in Piccadilly from Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for this review

Final Verdict for Murder in Piccadilly:  One Gherkin, for being a long, drawn-out mystery with an unsatisfying ending

Read More

A homogeneous plastic mess

In recent years, a movement to "eat clean" and limit the number of processed foods in the average diet has gained momentum.  The implication is that processed foods contain all sorts of unhealthy ingredients that we would be better off without.  The book This is What You Just Put in Your Mouth?" breaks down everyday products to discover just what is in them. The book is made up of columns that originally appeared in Wired magazine.  In the preface to the book, the author, Patrick Di Justo, discusses how he first attempted to contact the manufacturers of the products to get their input on the articles.  Many of the larger companies were understandably suspicious of his motives and didn't want to cooperate.  Other companies were thrilled to have their products featured.  Any publicity is good publicity, right?

There are two sections, the first covering edible/consumable products, and the second household products.  The food section even gives the reader the low-down on Alpo. The individual ingredients are then examined to determine what part each plays in the overall make-up of the item.  Also, each product usually has a "backstory" which discusses the author's attempts to get the information about the product or further explains things like the history of the product or (in some cases) the more unpalatable aspects of the product (for instance, chocolate covered cherries contain enzymes that "pre-digest" the liquid center for you).

Still, most of the ingredients, while not sounding exactly appetizing, also don't sound particularly dangerous, either.  Naturally, most of the food products have added sugar, salt and fat to make them tastier (and probably more addicting).  I was really surprised to read that Enfamil baby formula contains an ingredient designed to "jump start" infant immune systems.  While this probably occurs naturally in breast milk, it was something I wouldn't have thought of as being part of the formula.

This book is full of interesting information (and the occasional snarky aside) which makes it enjoyable reading rather than a dry recitation of facts.  For instance, the author points out that protein deposits on contact lenses can "cloud your vision like a snot cataract."  As a contact lens wearer, I can appreciate the comparison (even if it does make me wince a bit!). One thing I learned (rather to my alarm) is that the aluminum in most deodorant products works by causing the pores of the underarm to swell shut and stop sweat from coming out.  So the non-food entries ended up being more disturbing for me!  Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and finding out just what big companies are adding to their products.

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of This is What You Just Put in Your Mouth? from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review

Read More

On this site in 1782 nothing happened

Any book with a title like "Londonopolis" is a book that is guaranteed to grab my attention.  I had high hopes for the slim little book by Martin Latham, but sadly, other than a few interesting tidbits, I was generally disappointed by the book.  If you're like my husband, you may wonder why there are so many books constantly being published about London (and more to the point, why I own most of them), but the subject is so endlessly fascinating that each book seems to have something new to say, even on such a well covered topic.

Londonopolis is divided into sections based on time frames such as "Ancient London," "Medieval London," all the way up to "Twentieth-Century London."  There is one final chapter on The Secret Thames.  Each section is not just a straightforward history of London during the time mentioned, but rather contains an odd (in my mind) assortment of anecdotes and stories which I assume are meant to give an impression of the city at that particular time.  However, since the stories don't seem to have a unifying theme (other than that they happened to take place during a vaguely similar time frame), the overall result is unsatisfying.

For instance, in the chapter on Victorian London, there are stories about Big Ben's construction, Karl Marx's daughter, some of the scientists who worked at the Natural History Museum, a discussion of 6 artists who work working at this time, and a strange one-off ghost story featuring people you've never heard of (John Hernaman, anyone?).  Nothing really ties the stories together or really gives you any sort of feel for the time period.

The author is lucky enough to have grown up in London and so has a lot of personal memories of the city and people he encountered at various times, but even those stories aren't very interesting.  Maybe his family or acquaintances would enjoy the recollections, but they seem too personal to be of much use or entertainment to the casual reader.

If you feel that you've read everything there is to read about London, perhaps this book might have a few tidbits that would interest you. Otherwise, it's an odd collection of recitations about people and events that are of limited interest.

Final Verdict for Londonopolis: Two Gherkins, for being an ultimately disappointing look at London history

Read More

Show people their shortcomings

Björn works for the Authority, a bureaucratic government agency, which will explain why he often escapes to The Room in the new book by Swedish author Jonas Karlsson.  He has a desk in the middle of a room of similar desks, but he's constantly annoyed by his co-workers.  They don't dress up to his standards, work up to his standards, or have sufficient intelligence to comprehend his superiority.  He does his work in regimented 55 minute stretches, allowing himself a break only at his self-appointed times.  Once, while on his way to the bathroom, he notices a door in the wall.  Upon opening it, he discovers a room.  There's nothing particularly special about the room.  It looks like a generic office with a desk and file cabinets.  When Björn steps into the room, however, he finds it very calming and peaceful.

His co-workers, never very fond of Björn and his strange ways, soon complain to the boss, Karl, about his odd behavior.  It seems that whenever Björn visits the room, what his co-workers observe is him standing completely still, staring off into space.  When he's in this position, they tell him, he acts as if he can't see or hear anyone else.

Björn attempts to convince himself and others that the room exists.  His put-upon boss tries to humor Björn, especially after Björn begins staying late and going into the room after everyone else has left.  He finds that while in the room, he's able to think more clearly and logically than ever before, and he is able to produce outstanding work.  His output has even caught the eye of superiors outside the department, who use it as a model for how all the work in the Authority should be performed from now on.

Naturally, this praise makes Björn feel as if he has the upper hand.  He begins setting conditions:  he must be allowed to go to the room whenever he wants, he asks for certain co-workers to be fired, etc.  As tensions build, the question remains:  does the room exist, or, as Björn thinks, is it being kept secret for some nefarious reason?

The book is short and quite funny in places.  Even though he's clearly socially isolated and awkward, Björn is sure that he is brilliant and that everyone else is jealous of him and plotting his downfall.  He never waivers in his beliefs that the room exits, or that he's on an unstoppable upward career trajectory, even if all indications are that he could be mistaken on both counts!

Jonas Karlsson, the author, is a well-known Swedish actor, famous for the films Cockpit and Bang Bang Orangutang.  It's really exciting to see him branching out so successfully into fiction writing.  I'm sure this will be made into a film soon!

Final Verdict for The Room: Four Gherkins, for being a thought-provoking book about differing perceptions of reality

Read More

Be careful not to offend

Nina is a forty-something artist living in London with her husband and teenage daughter when she catches sight of someone from her past in Her by Harriet Lane.  The woman she spots, Emma, is a pregnant woman with a toddler.  When they do interact, it's obvious that Emma has no recollection of having met Nina at all.  So why is Emma so memorable to Nina?

The chapters in the book alternate between Nina and Emma.  Often, the same event will be told from each point of view in successive chapters.  It's clear from the beginning that Nina blames Emma for some upsetting event in her past, and that she's out to exact some sort of revenge.

At first, Nina's efforts seem to be just a way to keep in contact with Emma.  While Emma is distracted with her son, Nina is able to lift her wallet out of her purse.  She then calls Emma and tells her she found it on the ground, and offers to bring it around to her house (after carefully inspecting all the contents first).  When she gets to Emma's house, she's rather pleased to see that Emma's life is rather chaotic.  Emma has given up her job in television to raise her children, and her days seem consumed with domestic tasks, none of which she seems to take care of particularly well.  The house also seems rather shabby and in need of repairs.  Nina, on the other hand, is doing rather well both financially and professionally.

Nina's plan to somehow get back at Emma (for what we don't find out until nearly the end of the book) then take a slightly more sinister turn.  She leads Emma's young son, Christopher, away while his mother's back is turned in the park.  Nina then calls the police and says she found the boy on her doorstep.  She then convinces Emma that her daughter Sophie is available for babysitting duties, only to show up for the job herself.  Once Emma and her husband gratefully leave for their date night, Nina can then go through their house at leisure.  She doesn't do anything malicious -- she just paws thorough all their belongings.  And she makes sure young Christopher has plenty to drink before bedtime so he'll be sure to wet the bed.

When Nina invites Emma and her family to spend a week at her father's summer house in France, you know that things will probably hit a crisis point before everyone gets back to London.  All the while, Emma has no idea that she had a past encounter with Nina. She sees Nina as nothing other than a kind, helpful and pleasant friend.

The book sort of meanders along, slightly building tension without actually being "edge of your seat" suspenseful.  I was anxious to find out both what exactly it was that Emma did, and also just what Nina planned to do to get revenge.  Was the ending satisfying?  Well, not really.  Once Emma's big misdeed was revealed, it didn't seem like such a terrible transgression.  And perhaps Nina is just reacting to her daughter getting ready to go out on her own, but it seemed like she had way too much time on her hands.  Still, it was interesting trying to figure out where the book was going, and to see if Emma would ever catch on that Nina wasn't the friendly, generous person she seemed to be.  The main point of the book is interesting to ponder:  your actions, no matter what your intent might be, can easily be misinterpreted by others.

At the same time, as I read the book it seemed *so familiar* to me.  I had the nagging feeling that I'd read it before, but the copyright date is 2015, so I'm not sure which book I'm thinking of.  The story really did keep my interest, and of course, I was thrilled with all the references to places and streets in London!

Final Verdict for Her:   Four Gherkins, for being an interesting look at how people can misunderstand each other

Read More

The millionaire lifestyle without $1 million

Author Timothy Ferriss claims to have discovered the way to become one of the New Rich without being tied to a regular, 9 to 5 job in the book The 4-Hour Workweek.  Most people have accepted the concept of deferred reward, and therefore spend 30 plus years in jobs they hate with people they dislike all for the promised reward of retirement.   If you follow the guidelines he sets out, you can begin enjoying your life now, rather than just gritting your teeth for the next few decades.

The mainstay of his plan is the DEAL process.  Definition, Elimination, Automation and Location are the 4 pillars of this guide.  By realizing what you want, avoiding that you don't, and automating your "cash flow," you can live anywhere and still reap the rewards.  Of course, everyone will want to know how to live on working so few hours per week.  The answer seems to be outsourcing.  Ferriss's first big foray into the business world was a "sports nutrition company" where he "outsourced everything from manufacturing to ad design."  That seems to be a very risky thing to do -- not just financially, but how can you ensure what is in the product (especially if it's being manufactured overseas) when you seemingly have no control of supervision over how it's made?  Even though he avoided (apparently) any lawsuits or other disasters, he was so stressed by running the business full-time that he sold it and looked for a better way to make a living. There are plenty of websites included to help you achieve each of the 4 parts of the DEAL process, as well as worksheets and examples to help you follow the plan.

Some of the advice is familiar:  you'll be more likely to shake off problems and obstacles if you are working in a field you love; failure should be seen as an opportunity to go in another (possibly more lucrative) direction; don't settle for something you don't feel passionate about, etc.  There is also a lot of what seems to be filler at the end -- posts from the author's blog, "case studies" (people who have followed this plan) and "bonus" chapters of two of the author's other books.  Still, for those who are very motivated to escape the daily grind, this book has lots of suggestions that might help to do that.

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of The 4-Hour Workweek from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review

Read More

Improving the world by increasing family stability

Although the term "family planning" is a politically-charged topic in the United States, surveys show that most families (even those to claim to be the most devout) make use of contraception.  Sadly, in many parts of the developing world, this is not an option for the majority of people.  The book The Mother & Child Project is a collection of essays from people like Melinda Gates, Hillary Clinton, Dr. Bill Frist, Jimmy Carter, and Kay Warren (wife of pastor Rick Warren) on the topic of helping countries prosper by improving access to health care for women and children.

The statistics discussed are alarming and heart-breaking:  nearly 300,000 women die in childbirth each year and nearly 7 million children die before the age of 5 from preventable causes.  The authors in this book are arguing for access to contraception methods which would greatly improve maternal health by allowing women to space out the births of their children and to allow their bodies to heal and prepare before they give birth again.  This relatively simple idea would save many lives as well as allow many more girls to continue their education longer and therefore be better able to support their families.

Most of the authors in the book take great pains to explain that access to contraception does not include abortion.  Contraception is not the only solution to the problem of repeated pregnancies -- in many of the areas discussed in the book, the cultural norm is toward big families, so many of the people who work in these areas must try to educate the communities on the benefits of smaller families.  There are many personal stories told of great suffering, due to a lack of resources, education, and entrenched views that women are only valuable as childbearing machines.  The work that the Hope Through Healing Hands project is doing to reduce maternal and child mortality is vitally important and already showing great success.

While I was deeply moved by the essays in the book, having so many authors who all basically have the same message meant that there was a great deal of repetition.  If you sit down to read through the book, each essay, sooner or later, will impart the message that HTSP (Healthy Timing & Spacing of Pregnancies) is the most important aspect of preventing maternal and child deaths.  Still the overall message is so important that this is a small quibble in an otherwise important and ultimately inspiring book.

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of The Mother & Child Project from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for this review

Read More

Haven't I read this one before?

Cat DeLuca is the owner of the Pants on Fire Detective Agency in Chicago.  She's ably assisted by her partner, beagle Inga. Bye, Bye Love is the third installment in the series by K.J. Larsen.  While out on a walk together, Inga leads Cat to a body.  The man has been shot in the face -- in fact, his face is missing.  Cat goes through the dead man's pockets to look for identification, and comes across an envelope full of cash with her Uncle Joe's name written on it.  A park employee comes by, and when Cat tells him she's going to call the police to report the body, he says he's already done it.  He then proceeds to knock her out with a stun gun.

When she comes to, she's still in the park, but the dead guy is missing.  She calls her brother, Rocco, a cop, and reports her find.  Of course, when the police arrive and find there's no body, they are reluctant to believe her story.  Luckily, there are some blood traces left behind, so Captain Bob of the police has to admit that Cat discovered something in the park, although he's not exactly sure he buys her story.

Most of the men in Cat's family are either current or former members of the police force, including Rocco, her father and her Uncle Joey.  Her boyfriend, Chance Savino, is an FBI agent who is often away on mysterious missions.  Cat must try to find out what connection her Ferrari-driving Uncle Joey had to the dead man as well as keep herself safe when the "park employee" seems to be coming after her.

If I hadn't read anything by Janet Evanovich, I probably would have enjoyed this book more.   As it was, I felt it was trying too hard to follow the same formula.  Feisty, independent young woman? Check.  Wacky co-worker? Check.  Mysterious boyfriend? Check. Putting herself in dangerous situations continuously? Check.  It just seemed to be trying too hard to jump on the Stephanie Plum bandwagon.  Also, this book was the third in a series, so I might have enjoyed it more if I started from the beginning.  I had a hard time keeping up with all her relatives, their fellow cops, and other characters, so that didn't help, either.  There were just way too many people to keep up with.

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of Bye, Bye Love from Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for this review

Read More

Any more of this, I'm joining the Tories

World War II might be over, but the ramifications of the conflict continue to impact the lives of the characters in the latest season of Foyle's War.  Although set 8 of the series won't be available in the US until April 14, you can watch it now online on Acorn TV.  Why not give the free month's membership a try and watch this excellent series?

 Former policeman Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) is still working at investigating crimes, although now it's at the behest of MI5, the British intelligence agency.  He is ably assisted by his driver, Sam Wainwright, played by Honeysuckle Weeks.  Sam is married to MP Adam Wainwright, so in addition to her day job she must find ways to support her husband when he encounters difficulties of his own.

The three episodes of Set 8 all portray situations which have their roots in events that happened during the war.  Episode One, High Castle, opens with a dead man discovered in the woods.  The man turns out to be a professor at University College, London.  In his pocket, police find the name and address of an American oil company executive, Clayton Del Mar.  While investigating the death, Foyle learns that the professor, William Knowles, was working as a translator at the Nuremberg trials.  Foyle visits Del Mar, and while he feels there's something suspicious about the man, his superiors don't want Foyle to upset the American too much.  Del Mar is negotiating with the Iranians in an attempt to get them to sell their oil to the British, rather than the Soviets.  If that's the case, why has he been spotted meeting with a Soviet agent?  At the same time, Sam's husband Adam is asked by one of his constituents to investigate a case of sex discrimination at the workplace.  She was given a supervisor's position at a factory during the war, but now that the men have returned she has been demoted and her job given to a man.  Adam must confront his own prejudices when he takes into account his own actions in pressuring Sam to turn in her resignation, since she's expecting a baby.  This episode features the delightful John Mahoney (known to Americans as the dad in the long-running series Frasier) as Del Mar's curmudgeonly, bed-ridden father.

The second episode, Trespass, deals with the still thorny issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  A man living in Palestine is arrested by British soldiers looking for Jewish terrorists.  Even though he was innocent, he has a heart attack and dies in custody.  His daughter, Lea, comes to London to study medicine and stays with her father's oldest friend, Rabbi Greenfeld and his family.  She is treated to a sight-seeing tour of London by the Greenfeld's son, Nicholas, who is a sound engineer.  Things are a bit tense in London as two meetings are planned which present great security threats.  The first is a speech being held by Charles Lucas, a Fascist and leader of the International Unity Party.  With the rationing and shortages caused by the war impacting the lives of everyone, Lucas finds a ready audience for this claims that immigrants and Jews are responsible for all the problems.  While Foyle and his superiors are concerned about the possibilities for violence and rioting if Lucas riles up the crowd, the local police seem remarkably unconcerned about the potential for problems.  The second event that is happening in London is a large international conference about the Jewish-Palestinian conflict.  During this time, Foyle is brought in to investigate the beating of a young Jewish student, Daniel Woolf.  The odd thing is that neither Daniel nor his parents seem to want the police to investigate the incident.  A few days later, the father, David Woolf, is shot and killed in his home.  Police suspect a terrorist organization, the Defenders of Arab Palestine, but Foyle isn't so sure that group is responsible.  Sam becomes concerned about a young boy with breathing problems.  Even though the National Health Service has been proposed, it has yet to be implemented and the poor are often prevented from receiving medical care due to lack of money.  When the Rabbi's family discovers Lea hasn't been admitted to medical school and seems to be missing, they wonder if she might have a secret reason for being in London.

Ms. Pierce, one of Foyle's colleagues at MI5, is approached by a young man who tells her "This is for Elise" before shooting her in the final episode, Elise.  As she recovers in the hospital, Foyle learns that during the war, Ms. Pierce was responsible for sending young female radio operators to France to work in the resistance.  Nine of the young women were identified, arrested and executed by the Germans in a very short period of time, leading the SOE (Special Operations Executive, the shadowy organization responsible for the work) to suspect that one of their members was a double-agent.  They called this person Plato, and opened an investigation to discover his or her identity, but never found out who it was.  Elise was the code name of one of the young women who was killed.  Foyle is fairly quickly able to identify her as Sophie Corrigan, and to discover that the man who shot Ms. Pierce was her brother, Miles.  Foyle has a late-night secret meeting with Miles, who says he plans to shoot everyone who was involved in getting his sister killed.  While Foyle wants to track down the people who were involved in the SOE war project, his bosses aren't that concerned with stirring up old events from the war.  Instead, they want Foyle to investigate the shady dealings of Damien White.  While White seems to be a legitimate businessman, MI5 is convinced he's heavily involved in the black market.  Once again, the police seem unconcerned with black market goods being openly sold on the streets.  Adam is also unconcerned, but his constituency chairman, Glenvil Harris (played by Jeremy Swift, known to Downton Abbey fans as Maggie Smith's butler, the disapproving Spratt), convinces him to investigate the black market goods, a situation which once again places both him and Sam in danger.

This set also features loads of interesting extras, including "A Day in the Life of Foyle's War," an interview with John Mahoney, and series creator Anthony Horowitz and historian Terry Charman discussing the real events behind each of the three episodes in this series.  Supposedly, due to the high costs of producing the series, this will be the last we'll see of Foyle's War (I was continually amazed at all the shots around London -- it must be terribly difficult to film without getting in any modern skyscrapers into the shots!). However, this has happened before, and the series came back due to public demand, so we can always hope that we haven't seen the last of Foyle and Sam!

Disclaimer:  I received access to Foyle's War on Acorn TV in exchange for this review

Final Verdict for Foyle's War, Set 8:    Four Gherkins, for being a welcome visit with old friends

Read More

Finding your true purpose in life

While most people start dreaming of "what they want to be when they grow up" early in life, very few people are fortunate enough to actually end up in a profession that they enjoy.  Jeff Goins, in his new book The Art of Work, attempts to help people identify the signals in their lives which will lead them to satisfying, productive work.

Through interviewing many people who are working in fields which demonstrate their "true calling," the author has identified seven stages of calling, including awareness, practice and mastery.  Each of these stages is discussed in detail in its own chapter.  The main points that seem to occur over and over are that you should be aware of opportunities and not see failures as a reason to quit.  Since 87% of workers are unfulfilled by their jobs, everyone should be open to opportunities to do work that will be both important and empowering.

Many of the people whose stories are told in the book came into their current work through misfortunes or difficult situations in their lives.  Others saw their dream careers fade due to injuries or lack of motivation, with no idea what they were going to do afterwards.  Through seemingly random encounters, they were set on a path to their true calling.  One famous such person he mentions is William Hung. Even though he had a disastrous audition on American Idol, it lead to an online following and 3 albums.  However, after achieving a modicum of musical success, he discovered that his dream was actually to work in the field of mathematics.  Sometimes you need to figure out that what you think you want is not really what will make you happy.

The real test is to recognize the calling of what you should be doing with your life, and not to be discouraged by failures.  The author himself quit his full-time, secure job with benefits in order to become a writer.  Not everyone will recognize what their true calling is, but by being mindful of opportunities, listening to "that little voice" inside you, and not being discouraged by failures, people can find their true purpose in life and leave a lasting impact on the world.

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of The Art of Work from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for this review

Read More