The Malta Exchange

I haven't read a Steve Berry book in a few years because I got tired of political and spy novels. His books have always been more treasure hunts than any other mystery sub-genre so I thought I would give Berry another try.

In the Malta Exchange former Magellan Billet member Cotton Malone has been hired by the British to locate a satchel of letters written by Winston Churchill to Benito Mussolini during WWII. However, as soon as he finds them in Lake Como, Italy, Malone is knocked unconscious and the satchel is gone when he regains consciousness. Meanwhile, Roman Catholic Cardinal Kastor Gallo is on the Island of Malta trying to find the Nostra Trinita, a secret document of the Knights of Malta that could propel him to the papacy if he finds it. The Secreti, a secret section of the Knights, Malone and the Billet's Luke Daniels all work against each other to find it first. With a papal conclave due to begin in days there is urgency.

History is supreme here. The reader learns about Mussolini's last days and the aftermath of his killing. Churchill's reasons for writing him, a British secret for decades, is revealed. In addition, the entire history of the Knights of Malta is given, from their formation to the present. This is a rich history lesson. I learned much here and had fun reading about the Knights. The inner workings of the Catholic Church is also on display here.

What was interesting to me was how much writing was spent on individual church member inner motives.  The author explores how several characters became the way they were from their childhood. I don't recall reading anything like that before in a Berry novel.  As for Cardinal Gallo, he was a thief and liar since he was in a church orphanage but his behavior was never challenged because the Mother Superior wanted to see how far he would go with his treachery. When he declared an intent to become a priest it was too late for her to take action. However, being a liar and a thief helped him fit in when he ascended to jobs inside the Vatican.

The Malta Exchange was an entertaining read. The pace was fast and the plot action packed. The characters from the Knights and the Catholic church were interesting. The usual Magellan Billet characters were not as compelling which is unfortunate as the Berry novels are a series.  Now I am wondering what Steve Berry books I missed reading that need to be placed on the TBR list.

5 out of 5 stars!

Harvest of Secrets

Harvest of Secrets is the 9th Wine Country Mystery featuring amateur sleuth Lucie Montgomery.  Lucie is a physically disabled vineyard owner in Virginia, owning Montgomery Estate Vineyard.  This is a cozy mystery series written by Ellen Crosby.

The story opens with Lucie recieving a message from one of her employees that he has found a human skull inside  a shed on her property.  She hurries over to look into it and then calls the sheriff for an investigation. A few days later a former neighbor returns to Virginia from France, Jean-Claude de Merignac. The Merignacs are a powerful winemaking family in both France and Virginia but they have been friends with Lucie's family for generations. Jean-Claude is a womanizer with a past history with many woman in Virginia. When he is found dead, there are plenty of suspects.

The book alternates between Lucie's investigation into the identity of the person whose skull was found in her shed and the local police investigation into Jean-Claude's murder.

While a huge suspension of belief is usually necessary with a cozy mystery, Harvest of Secrets was pretty believable. Lucie immediately thinks the skull belongs to a family member since the family cemetery, dating back to the 1700s, is located near the shed. After a DNA test proves her to be right this storyline just gets more interesting as it sheds light on an old secret in her family. Jean-Claude's murder investigation is not too exciting but the identity of the family member and why she was killed was a gripping story.  In fact, I think the whole Jean-Claude plot could have been eliminated. The other storyline was interesting enough to carry this book.

You should read this one! 4 out of 5 stars.

The Island of Sea Women

Lisa See's latest book was just published in March, 2019. The story takes place on a Korean island called Jeju and is about two women who are haenyeo, female divers for food. Young-sook and Mi-ja have been best friends since early childhood. Mi-ja is the orphan daughter of a Japanese collaborator and Young-sook is the daughter of the leader of the haenyeo collective. The story covers a period of time from the 1930s through the end of the Korean War with a subplot from 2008.

The haenyeo culture is unique as the women are in charge of providing the family finances and the men stay home and care for the children. Their job of harvesting fish from the sea for sale or to feed their families can be unsafe. One haenyeo in the story was almost killed by an octopus and Young-sook's mother died while helping her gather her first abalone. The women continue this work because they feel freedom from the cares of the world when they are underwater.

Our two heroines remain close friends until they marry and discover their husbands have different political views. They are also separated by living in different villages but their distance is primarily created by their husbands being on opposite political sides of Japanese colonialism in Korea and the Korean War. Each woman takes her husband's side and one betrays another during a period known in history as the Jeju Uprising. Between 14,000 and 30,000 people were murdered by American controlled South Korean government officials in 1948 and 1949. The author wove this event, covered up for decades by the South Korean government, into the story.  Most of the people killed were men as Young-sook remarks in the story that she lived on the Island of Widows.

This story reminded me of Mary Lynn Bracht's White Chrysanthemum which I read last year. It, too, was about a family of haenyeo on Jeju Island during World War II.  However, the See book reads rather slowly and had less poignancy than her books usually have. The characters were not as compelling as those in White Chrysanthemum. It is hard not to compare the two books as they are both about the haenyeo during the World War II era on Jeju Island and they were published one year apart. They are quite similar but White Chrysanthemum is a more interesting read and it was my top book for 2018.

I was surprised by the slow pace. A Lisa See book usually has a good pace. The plot was good and it could have been an exciting read. It wasn't. The book was OK, just not up to par with all of the author's earlier books. My expectations may have been unfairly high due to the similarities with Chrysanthemum but it was hard not to compare the books. While the characters in The Island of Sea Women were compelling, I felt that Young-sook was really the only character that made you want to keep reading. In a book that is supposed to be about the relationship between two women, having one woman not that strong of a character was a problem for me.

I am still glad that I read this book. I never want to pass up a Lisa See novel. It just wasn't the blockbuster I was expecting.

3 out of 5 stars.

Kid Gloves

Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos is Lucy Knisley's 6th graphic novel. It details her experience trying to conceive a child, her eventual pregnancy and the life threatening delivery of her baby. It has been written with low key humor. Kid Gloves was published in February, 2019.

Lucy begins this graphic memoir with her first introduction to contraceptives when she was a teenager.  She volunteered for Planned Parenthood's Peer-to-Peer Educator Program. She was trained about sexual health and contraceptives and then informed her classmates about what she learned and passed out condoms and pamphlets. She quickly notes that when she became an adult she realized how little information she received. Her attempts to use a diaphragm, the pill and an IUD had terrible side effects which required her to have surgery.

After she and her husband decided to have a child they thought conceiving would be easy. It was. However, Lucy had several miscarriages and found out one in four pregnancies is miscarried. She wondered why the Planned Parenthood classes didn't give this information.

She fell into grief after each miscarriage and could not work. Her female friends and acquaintances all told  her every old wives tale about pregnancy and miscarriage which she dutifully covered in a section called Miscarriage Myths.

Finally Lucy had a successful pregnancy that was fraught with nausea, insomnia and undiagnosed eclampsia which resulted in an emergency Caesarean and 2 days of unconsciousness. However, she got the baby she wanted. Still, she is wondering why she was not taught about all of these possibilities of pregnancy when she was a teenager.

I thought the author chose a clever theme, sex education, for her story.  Using her high school sex ed classes through Planned Parenthood was a brilliant backdrop for her own experience. In addition, while this story was about a serious topic it was told with humor. The humor was low key probably because of the subject matter. Also, the reader could feel the emotions of the author through each stage of her pregnancy experience. The emotions were both written and drawn on her many  facial expressions and those of her husband.

I learned a few things too.  I did not know that one in four pregnancies are miscarried. The author discusses many misconceptions about the entire maternity process that I would recommend the book to a newly pregnant woman. There is much to learn here if you didn't have a great sex education as a youth.

The artwork was done in line drawings primarily in a comic strip format. Bright colors are used throughout the book except for the two day period of time when the author was unconscious after the delivery of her baby. Here, she uses black and white drawings and the writing is from the point of view of her husband.

Kid Gloves was a quick read. I loved it and read it again the day after I finished it. It is informative but in a funny way. I love the use of bright colors and perhaps they bring some lightness to this serious book. I borrowed this book from my public library but feel that it belongs in my graphic novel collection. I will probably buy it.

5 out of 5 stars!

The Gondola Maker

The Gondola Maker is the first book in Laura Morelli's Venetian Artisan series. It features a fictional young gondola maker named Luca Vianello who is supposed to inherit his family's esteemed gondola making business.  His parents want him to marry a girl from the glassblowing guild in order to strengthen their political ties in Venice. After a fight with his father over the poor treatment of his mother, the boatyard accidentally catches fire and is destroyed. Luca flees. He fears being charged criminally as well as being unsure about whether his family survived the fire.

Knowing he needs a job in order to eat, Luca hires himself out to the owner of one of the largest ferry stations in Venice. His job is to load and unload boxes of merchandise for customers. It is a menial job compared to the artistry he was used to performing at home. Soon after his hire, Luca gains the attention of a master painter named  Trevisan and Master Trevisan hires him to restore an old gondola that he inherited from his father. Luca works hard on the gondola so that he can offer a ride to a girl he has met at Master Trevisan's studio. However, the girl like many others Trevisan has painted will be sexually assaulted by the man who purchased her painting, with her father pocketing alot of money. The girl will have to go into a convent though, as she will no longer be marriageable.

The Gondola Maker shows the reader the level of craftsmanship that is required to construct a top quality gondola.  You also learn about the life of a 16th century Venetian, particularly the gondoliers with their secret codes for maneuvering the canals of Venice and their custom of making a few extra bucks with their dishonest practices. The author's knowledge of the era is evident. She paints a realistic picture of 16th century Venice with women being treated as non-entities, extravagant palaces for the rich and ordering into slavery any citizen who violates the laws.

While I enjoyed the book I have to say the second book in the series is better. The Painter's Apprentice was an exquisite tale of a female apprentice of Master Trevisan. Her main problem is preventing the boatman from telling everyone her secret. These gondoliers just can't be trusted but they sure are entertaining!