July 18, 2011
Set in Washington, D.C., in 1942, Shaber's auspicious first in a new suspense series introduces Louise Pearlie, a young widow from North Carolina who works as a clerk for the newly formed OSS. When Louise, to her dismay, comes across a secret document regarding the efforts of Gerald Bloch, the hydrographer husband of a college friend, Rachel, to escape the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Marseilles, she takes the file to her boss, Bob Holman. Before Holman can help, he dies in his office of a heart attack, according to the report Louise sees in the newspaper. Suspicious circumstances indicate otherwise and set Louise on track to investigate Holman's death and to try to rescue Gerald and Rachel. Shaber, the author of Shell Game (2007) and four other Simon Shaw mysteries, delivers a satisfying puzzle as well as a vivid picture of Washington during WWII.
August 15, 2011
An OSS file draws the attention of a young widow. And a murderer.
Louise Pearlie, whose husband died five years ago after his measles led to pneumonia, moves from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., where she begins work as a clerk in the Research and Analysis branch of the Office of Strategic Services. When she comes upon a document from Gerald Bloch, a hydrography expert on the coastline of French North Africa, requesting asylum for his Jewish wife and child while he joins the Resistance to fight the Nazis, she takes it to her supervisor. Next thing you know, the supervisor is found dead in his ransacked office and the document has gone missing. Louise, who was best friends with Rachel Bloch at college, is desperate to save her from the Reich's clutches. She resolves to find the file, get it to Gen. Donovan, and have him initiate plans to bring Rachel to the States. But it's difficult knowing whom to trust. Louise fends off several would-be suitors who may be Vichy supporters. She chats up Clark Gable at a posh mansion. She frets over FBI agents staking out her boarding house. She even breaks into the French embassy for more information on Gerald Bloch. She's also confused about her fellow boarder Joe Prager. He may or may not actually be a professor of Slavic languages, but he sets off delicious little tingles whenever he's near.
Less cozy than Shaber's Simon Shaw series (Shell Game, 2008, etc.), and a virtual primer on how narrow minded 1940s society was, with women expected to get coffee for their bosses, homosexuals to hide their preference and people of color to accept job discrimination.
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September 1, 2011
Washington, DC, government worker Louise Pearlie might be a naive, young widow, but she's also as determined as a bulldog when it comes to doing the right thing. It's June 1942, and a chance glimpse into a classified file (she works for the Office of Strategic Services) reveals to a horrified Louise that Vichy France is falling and that her dearest friend, Rachel, who is Jewish and lives in Marseille, is in grave danger. How can a file clerk make a difference? Read this gentle espionage novel and find out what people were doing on the home front. Wonderfully drawn details of the World War II era, with special focus on women's roles and the OSS/FBI competition. VERDICT A quick read that brings the domestic side of World War II to life. The country girl beats the odds and makes an auspicious debut in Shaber's ("Professor Simon Shaw Mysteries") new series. Almost cozy, with a touch of romance; a good YA hand-sell, too.
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