Happy New Year!

No idea what that means. Today is pretty much the same as yesterday, right? Barking at the neighbor’s cat. Snoozing in the sun. Long walks with that stupid orange jacket thingy Mom makes me wear in cold weather. 

But Mom keeps skipping around the house chirping about “Happy New Year.” So annoying.

But you know Mom.

Anyway, we thought we’d kick off 2024 by focusing on three recently read books that are mostly extra tasty. (Well, it was mostly my idea. Mom helped. A little).

A Ginormous Diff

Now, keep in mind that the three books featured here are like, Ginormously Diff. One is an historical fiction novel that spans about thirty years and two continents. The other is a juvenile fiction book that’s a bow wow and a half. We liked both of them. (Okay. Maybe not as much as one of us likes T-bone steak. But who’s counting?)

There’s also our take on the latest John Grisham novel, The Exchange. More on that in a min. 

So let’s ring in the New Year with two splendiferous reads and a maybe, Eli’s Promise by Ronald Balson and The Book of Stolen Dreams by David Farr and The Exchange by John Grisham.

Eli’s Promise

By Ronald H. Balson

Eli’s Promise is about a husband’s multi-year quest for justice. It’s a rich, robust blend of historical fiction, murder mystery, lost love, and an enduring search for home. It’s also an absorbing tale of corruption, graft, fraud, and abuse on a galactic scale. This is epitomized by both the  double-crossing snake and Nazi collaborator, Maximillian Poleski, and a certain powerful U.S. congressman. Turns out the scheming, conniving and manipulative Poleski has more lives than a kitty-cat. This guy makes a pit viper look like a piker.

Here’s the 4-1-1:

It’s 1939. Eli Rosen is forced to rely on fellow Pole Maximillian Poleski to protect his family when the Nazis invade the Polish town of Lublin. Eli forms an uneasy alliance with Poleski after Rosen’s Jewish construction company is Aryanized and transferred to Poleski. If Rosen manages the business, Poleski promises to protect Rosen’s wife, Esther, and their seven year-old son, Isaak.

But Poleski plays both ends against the middle while feathering his own nest. When Esther disappears without a trace in a Nazi round-up, Eli spends the next twenty-five years trying to find her – and the elusive Poleski who betrayed them.

“Don’t punish yourself, Chaim. Bastards like Max prey on vulnerable people in desperate times. All he needed to do was complete a single transaction, and people would line up to give him their money.”

It’s 1946. After being rescued from Buchenwald by the American “Super Sixth” Army, Rosen and his son wind up in a DP (Displaced Persons) camp in the American zone of Allied-occupied Germany. They’re waiting for U.S. visas, like pretty much everyone else. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. When Eli hears about an ethics-challenged man who’s illegally selling U.S. visas on the black market in order to line his own pockets, he suspects Max. And he’s correct. But Eli still doesn’t know what happened to Esther. And Max is the only person with a key that can unlock that mystery.

“Despite it all, they stood tall, undefeated, optimistic about their fate and determined to rebuild their lives and reconstitute their community, no matter what it took.”

Fast forward to Chicago, 1966. The Vietnam War is raging. A U.S. congressman is making a fortune skimming off sweetheart deals he arranges with U.S. defense contractors while expanding the draft and sending more Americans to Vietnam. Eli, now working with the U.S. government, smells a rat. A rat he’s smelled since Lublin.

“Maximillian, you are nothing but a lying opportunist, a slimy snake without a shred of decency. I know you had a hand in all of this…”

Will Eli ever find out what happened to Esther? Will he ever get the truth? Will he be able to fulfill his promise? How? As the chances of a miracle dim, can Eli still cling to hope?

Eli’s Promise takes some getting used to because it involves a treble timeline. But it’s doable. And it works.

The Result

The result is a powerful, hauntingly moving tale about heartbreak and hope, bolstered by strong writing and an eminently engaging storyline rich in historical detail.

The Book of Stolen Dreams

By David Farr

“And what did they mean by the keys to the gate? What gate? What keys?”

What really reeled us in to this book? The characters. With names like “pencil-thin” Johannes Slick. The despot “Charles Malstain,” dictator of Krasnia. Malstain’s ruthless bodyguard Rufus O’Hare and his eyes “like black islands of hate set in the vast ocean of his face.” Or intel dude Barrabus Clinch.

Are these names great, or what? Tell us more! Happy to oblige. Like this:

“The room was almost completely dark. One solitary window high on the left-hand wall allowed in the glimmer of the dying day. The other three walls were lined with glass cabinets. And in the cabinets were the most beautiful, shabby, and silent books Rachel had ever seen.”

When young Rachel and her bro Robert help their librarian father steal a forbidden book, they are plunged into a world fraught with peril. Everyone is hunting for The Book of Stolen Dreams. With their father imprisoned and their mother dead, Rachel and Robert go on the run.

“Because dreams are powerful things, Rachel. As of tomorrow, The Book of Stolen Dreams will cease to exist. Unless someone takes it first.”

A Special Ability

Meanwhile, Robert loves science. He also has a special ability: An infallible “internal navigational system.” Believe you me, that comes in handy when you’re running for your life from a bunch of bad guys. And a malevolent dictator, Malstain, who hates kids and decrees that they can never be outside. Except going to and from school. No playing in the park. No walks in the woods or picnics at the beach. No baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, or Chevrolet. Nopers. Children are to be kept indoors at all times. Malstain’s order.

“This is happiness, she thought. It is a stillness, a moment in time, like a photograph, a moment that seems to last forever and does not know it will be destroyed.”

Uh-Oh

Well. All h-e-double toothpicks breaks lose when Robert becomes embroiled in a foiled assassination attempt on Malstain. Rpbert soon learns that all roads lead to The Book of Stolen Dreams. But why?

“He reached the door and turned. His customary deadly whisper returned. Hushed was his rage now, like a lion put back in its cage before the next devouring.”

Anyway, The Book of Stolen Dreams is supposed to open a gate. But a gate to what? Will Rachel and Robert ever solve the mystery of the missing page? Will they ever be reunited with their dad? Or their dearly departed mom? Can Rachel and Robert locate the Hinterlands? And if they do, what might await them there?

Desperate to survive, the kiddos must uncover the Book’s secrets and track down its mysterious missing page before it falls into the hands of the despotic Charles Malstain – and it’s too late.

Fresh and witty with a plot that goes Snap, Crackle, and Pop, this tightly written story is enlivened with full-bodied characters, vivid settings, and realistic dialogue. The Book of Stolen Dreams takes us on a mysterious journey and the magic of books. It’s a riveting ride. It’s also clever. Creative. And Too. Much. Fun!

The Exchange: After The Firm

By John Grisham

“What might happen if the money did not materialize?” 

That’s the $64K for a New York cookbook editor, wife and mom to wrap her head around. Especially if it’s related to a kidnapping in Libya. The question gnaws at Abby McDeere, wife to Mitch. Fans of The Firm will remember Mitch McDeere, formerly of the notorious Mob-owned Bendini law firm in Memphis. It’s been disbanded. That tends to happen when the lawyers are in jail, thanks to Mitch.

Working for a new Big Law firm in the Big Apple 15 years later, Mitch finds himself up to his eyeballs in a humungous lawsuit involving “The Great Gaddafi bridge to no where” in Libya. After a severe attack of food poisoning in Libya, Mitch finds himself in the hospital. Not really where he wants to be. But thank God he didn’t accompany his colleague Giovanna Sandroni and their security detail out to The Middle of No Where to inspect the bridge.

Cuz dead bodies are piling up. Lots of them. 

And Giovanna has been kidnapped. Terrorists demand $100M for her return. It all hinges on – you guessed it – a complicated court case involving the bridge. And our hero, super lawyer Mitch McDeere, is up to his eyeballs in trying to sort out the legal mess as well as secure Giovanna’s safe return.

When a shadowy figure named “Noura” contacts Abby at a NY coffee shop, Abby’s up to her ears in the hostage/ransom plot, too. 

The nightmare is back. It’s Memphis 2.0. Only this time, the bad guys are coming for Mitch and his family. And they’re playing for keeps. Can Mitch keep one step ahead of them to save himself, Abby and the kids, and get Giovanna home in one piece? Because this time, there’s no where to hide.

I got a little lost with all the Libyan billion bridge to no where lawsuit stuff. And how that tied in to Mitch’s pro bono work for a client on death row. Grisham does a good job of fleshing out the McDeere back story from The Firm. But the rest of the plot, though briskly paced and packed with twists and turns, is a little dense. Think peanut butter. It includes tons of globe-trotting and engaging international players across several continents.

McDeere fans will be delighted to see SuperMitch back in action 15 years after The Firm. But this time he’s more of a negotiator/deal broker/diplomat than a lawyer. And that’s too bad. Because those courtroom fireworks and legal dramas that are Grisham’s bread and butter – and McDeere’s, too? They’re largely absent in The Exchange. In fact, there are zero courtroom scenes here. No sharp lawyering. No fancy legal footwork. No brilliant legal maneuvers. But a lot of Mitch flying all over the world trying to persuade wealthy connections, clients, and governments to cough it up for the ransom moola.

Some scenes also seem a tad slow. Overwritten. For example, the scene at the McDeeer’es hideaway in Maine seems almost like filler. Do we really need to know that twin bros Carter and Clark eat lobster three times a day? Who cares?

The character of Noura could use some more development. She’s elusive and shadowy and maybe that’s what she’s supposed to be. But we wanted to know a little more. Like, what’s her connection with the terrorists, and why? How did she wind up in New York? Who’s she working for? How did Hassan & Co. know about Mitch’s prior trip to the Grand Caymans with Bendini?

Some loose ends are left dangling. But then, maybe we haven’t seen the end of Mitch and Abby? So stay tuned.