Susan Elia Macneal, THE HOLLYWOOD SPY

An enjoyable tenth installment in the beloved MAGGIE HOPE series! This might be one of my favorites, partly because it illuminates part of WWII history that I knew very little about.

The first line of the Prologue is “It was 1943, and America was at war.” Readers might think they know what this sentence means; America had been at war since Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. But before long, we realize a second meaning: America is at war with itself. As Maggie Hope solves the mystery of Gloria’s death in Hollywood, she discovers the racial inequities and anti-Semitism that shaped Los Angeles and America more broadly. The posters plastered along the Los Angeles streets may claim we’re all standing “shoulder to shoulder,” but as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that there are rifts and divisions among the American police and civilians alike.

I write my novels from a single, first-person perspective, so the reader knows what the detective knows. MacNeal writes in third person and astutely employs this to her advantage here: we follow Maggie and her friend John Sterling (readers of previous books will remember this attractive hero) searching for the truth; we also see a group of KKK/Nazi sympathizers plotting acts of destruction, putting democracy and the American way of life at stake. As another author friend said recently, a villain is never a villain in his own head. In MacNeal's hands, these conspirators are not stupid straw men (as a less accomplished author might be tempted to portray them). We gain insight into the logic and justifications they use, and this amplifies and brings home the danger they present.

Another important theme that runs through the book is the use to which the media is put. Everywhere there are slogans, posters, newspapers, books, and movies that are shaping the image of the war for American consumption. John Sterling is teaching pilots, but he is also helping to write propaganda for Disney, as his real-life counterpart and RAF pilot Roald Dahl did. It becomes clear that Britain and America are fighting with each other for control of that propaganda—which is yet another example of not standing “shoulder to shoulder” despite proclaimed (and romanticized) intentions. I also loved the opening line of chapter 1: “I have a feeling … we’re not in London anymore.” The use of *The Wizard of Oz* throughout as a “meta-text” for this novel is both a wink to the reader and a suggestion that there are two worlds in America—one in black and white, and the other a shadow, mythical world whose most noticeable characteristic is its color (the Yellow brick road; the Emerald City) and which points to a world that may look first at the color of a person’s skin.

As usual, MacNeal’s extensive research is evident without being on ostentatious display, with historically accurate details and metaphors drawn from the time. Maggie Hope fans will find this novel suspenseful and surprising, illuminating a lesser-known aspect of WWII. To my mind, it’s her intriguing adventure yet.

Patrick Radden Keefe, SAY NOTHING: A TRUE STORY OF MURDER AND MEMORY IN NORTHERN IRELAND

This was a knockout of a book, a non-fiction with enough elements of a mystery novel that I kept reading well past bedtime. 

I knew very little about the Irish Troubles, and that complicated history, full of betrayals and double agents and factions, could have been frustratingly bewildering. What I appreciated was the way Keefe organized the book around a central crime--the abduction and murder by the IRA of a supposed "informer" named Jean McConville--that involved a variety of actors, for Keefe then threaded their stories/biographies along the main one. Managing multiple subplots is not easy to do, but this was done deftly, in a way that made the material accessible. I also appreciated the historical context Keefe sketches ... dating all the way back to the Norman raiders of the 12thC and, in the 16thC, Henry VIII and the Catholic/Protestant divide. I also appreciated the quality of the writing, which was spare and elegant and forthright. 

This book was one selected by the Arizona Literary Society, which is how  found it; it was also chosen as one of the 10 best books of 2019 by the New York Times Book Review. Highly recommend for anyone who likes readable, deeply researched history.