New York City. Two in the morning. A subway car heading uptown. Jack Reacher, plus …
one of the less than average Reacher books (so far)
3 stars
this Reacher installment has all the competence porn of a normal Reacher book, but lacks some of the plot coherency. to be honest, I'm not expecting things to reflect the real world, but I'd like them to follow some basic logic. for example, unnamed Feds disappear key witnesses, and then later put out APBs and release names to the press. if they're going to be blacks ops, be black ops. black ops don't reveal their presence to massive numbers of cops and the press. can't keep secrets that way. lazy plotting in this book.
In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies to end World War II, …
Thorough and critical
5 stars
The earlier parts of the book cover the progress of the war, focusing on the situations that would be the subject of the Tokyo trial. Then the book moves to the machinations behind the scenes that set up the trial, decided how it would be run, and who would judge. Particularly interesting was the thinking and politicking behind the decision not to prosecute Emperor Hirohito. However, as the trial progresses it is explained that prosecutors, defendants, and judges alike also wanted to avoid blaming Hirohito for the war, which led to some very awkward exchanges throughout the trial. What was never explained is why the prosecution wanted to maintain the fiction that Hirohito was tricked into the war by war-loving generals, rather than simply acknowledging that it was a political decision or in the alternative, simply noting that prosecuting him would be difficult. I'm sure the powers that be had …
The earlier parts of the book cover the progress of the war, focusing on the situations that would be the subject of the Tokyo trial. Then the book moves to the machinations behind the scenes that set up the trial, decided how it would be run, and who would judge. Particularly interesting was the thinking and politicking behind the decision not to prosecute Emperor Hirohito. However, as the trial progresses it is explained that prosecutors, defendants, and judges alike also wanted to avoid blaming Hirohito for the war, which led to some very awkward exchanges throughout the trial. What was never explained is why the prosecution wanted to maintain the fiction that Hirohito was tricked into the war by war-loving generals, rather than simply acknowledging that it was a political decision or in the alternative, simply noting that prosecuting him would be difficult. I'm sure the powers that be had reasons that made sense to themselves, but I came away from the book not understanding that choice. After an exhaustive recounting of the trial from the perspectives of nearly everyone involved, the book gives a few chapters to the aftermath, including a long epilogue on the legacy of the trial in some of the major countries that were involved (the US, China, Japan, and Russia).
Crucially, throughout the book, the author does not spare anyone from criticism. Every country involved comes under the microscope, and none escapes blemish. Everyone from Truman to MacArthur has their faults exposed. Perhaps the only person involved to escape with his honor intact is Mei Ruao, the American educated Chinese judge. During the war, he experienced the Japanese bombing his city firsthand. After the war, he threw in with the Communists rather than accept exile in Taiwan. At first lauded, he was denounced during the Cultural Revolution, and then had his reputation posthumously restored by the Chinese Communist Party.
Be forewarned though, that not only is the book long, but many parts are repetitive. The book repeats descriptions of many episodes with the same wording and even the same quotes. A minor quibble, however.
In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies to end World War II, …
The author's position is that the prosecution failed during the testimony of Tojo Hideki, Japan's warmongering 1941 prime minister. That's because Tojo continued to assert that he and Japan had done nothing wrong except lose. I'll need to read some other works on the trial, because getting defendants to admit the error of their ways isn't normally what prosecutors do. Keenan, the head prosecutor, doesn't seem like a great prosecutor based on lots of other failures, but this doesn't seem like something to hang around his neck to me.
Newly married and navigating life with a preschooler as well as her adopted adolescent son, …
Maybe my favorite police procedural
5 stars
A police procedural set in Cambridgeshire England, with DI Manon Bradshaw. The character still grates on me because she is so unhappy in her own life. She alternately wants to be free of her relationships and family and desperately wants them to never go away. I found myself frequently thinking "stop waffling and commit" because of how much time the text spends inside her head.
However, I love her as a police detective, and I loved this particular crime-solving tale. Lukas and Matis are undocumented Lithuanian immigrants to England, living in squalor in effective slavery. The townsfolk hate them because they think the Lithuanians are taking their jobs and women. The neighbor particularly hates Lukas because he has been sleeping with his wife, and another hates Matis because he's spent time with his impressionable daughter. The Lithuanian bosses use them ruthlessly and are apt to disappear them if trouble arises. …
A police procedural set in Cambridgeshire England, with DI Manon Bradshaw. The character still grates on me because she is so unhappy in her own life. She alternately wants to be free of her relationships and family and desperately wants them to never go away. I found myself frequently thinking "stop waffling and commit" because of how much time the text spends inside her head.
However, I love her as a police detective, and I loved this particular crime-solving tale. Lukas and Matis are undocumented Lithuanian immigrants to England, living in squalor in effective slavery. The townsfolk hate them because they think the Lithuanians are taking their jobs and women. The neighbor particularly hates Lukas because he has been sleeping with his wife, and another hates Matis because he's spent time with his impressionable daughter. The Lithuanian bosses use them ruthlessly and are apt to disappear them if trouble arises. One fellow resident of the house gets sick. Rather than get medical care for him, they let him die and disappear his body.
All of these people are viable suspects when Lukas body is found hanging from a tree with a note reading "Mirusieji negali kalbėti" attached.
What I loved most about this is that the crime & investigation doesn't involve a bunch of improbable coincidences, and that the investigation is basic police legwork: interviews, reviewing surveillance video, reviewing logs of phone calls & license plate readers, etc. It's a mark of a good writer that Susie Steiner was able to craft a compelling story with twists & turns and do it without the improbable crutches so prevalent in the genre. It's a shame she died, as this book was the best of the series and I would have eagerly snapped up new entries.
A delightful A-to-Z menagerie of the sea—whimsically illustrated, authoritative, and thought-provoking.
For millennia, we have …
Delightful
4 stars
This is a collection of essays about ocean animals, arranged from A-Z and including everything from abalone to zooplankton. Includes descriptions of the animals and often discussions of their importance in ocean ecology and how humanity has affected each, usually to the detriment of animals. However, what makes this book so delightful is the framing device, stories of human encounters with each, taken from writings as far back as the ancient Greeks and as recent as poetry from the 2020s. Scientists such as Charles Darwin and Rachel Carson, explorers like Matthew Perry, and seamen like Thomas Albro and Alexander Selkirk all get pieces of their stories retold. Recommended.