A non-fiction historical account of the drive from Normandy to Germany. The book is a treasure trove of soldiers’ portraits, personal accounts and interviews.

Events leading up and after D-Day (Jan-Sept 1944) seeing through the eyes of Eisenhower, the Rommel, Bradley, Patton, von Rundstedt and ordinary soldiers

The Allies believe that Italy will be a piece of cake and they could move on the Germany. Italy did surrender but the Nazis kept on fighting.

The past of Bernie Gunther catches up with in 1954 Cuba while doing work for mobster boss Meyer Lansky. Even though this anti-Nazi PI survived the Nazi regime

I was very impressed with The Hunchback of Notre Dame and thought the last 200 pages were certainly work trudging through some of it.

The dark, brooding and punishing interactions between the complex characters are a mastery of storytelling. The characters are also part of this complex plot

“The Death Instinct” by Jed Rubenfeld is a fictional thriller set in the 1920’s. The book centers around the historical Wall St. bombing of 1916.

The ambiguities and complexities which are presented in this book when it comes to the artists resisting the occupation are astounding.

Based on JQA’s diary which spanned an amazing seven decades – arguably the “most valuable historical and personal journal kept by any prominent American”

The Kill Artist is a well written spy novel, filled with details in all the right places as well as several characters from Silva’s previous novels.