Thursday at Noon by William F. Brown

Thursday at Noon. William F. Brown. Published by Worldwide in 1989 and republished by William F. Brown on major E-Book publisher sites. June 2012. 316 pages. ISBN #: 9780373970803.

Richard Thomson is in big trouble with the CIA for whom he works.  He flubbed his last case and now has been assigned to Cairo, Egypt where he is treated like a virtual pariah.  One night while he's drowning his sorrows in a bar, he's approached by an Arab fellow who says he has some significant information that he needs to get to a particular person.  But Thomson thinks he's part of a grand trap to finish off Thomson's career for good and tells him to scoot.  The Arab is petrified but Thomson's not buying the story. So imagine his thoughts and feelings when he later finds that the man has been decapitated and that Thomson is believed to be either the murderer or the one responsible for his murder.  Here the terror really begins!

This is a story where Arabs and former SS Germans are seeking one goal, the destruction of Israel.  How will they do it?  When will it happen, if at all?  Why?  

Are the Arabs and Germans cooperating?  What do they think of each other?  Readers will be riveted as the skills and depths of cruelty vie with each other for these two groups.  And add to that there are Arab groups with different motives and goals and the same for the Germans.  Thomson who has been previously pickled in his own alcoholic pity party, now awakens to find out why the Israeli Landau has disappeared and perhaps been killed and more what he was after that seems to have caused his demise.

William F. Brown never disappoints!  His espionage/spy/political thrillers are very different and so very well-written.  A thrill to read and deserving of best-seller status!  Thursday at Noon is no exception!

How Angels Die by David-Michael Harding

How Angels Die. David-Michael Harding. Q&CY Books. 2011. 420 pages. ISBN #: 9780615503325.

Monique and Claire, as well as her parents Sean and Estelle, are living in France during the Nazi occupancy of WWII.  They appear to be a very divided family at the beginning of this story that depicts a side of the Resistance Movement that is almost never fully explained.  Monique cares for the abandoned orphans of the war and meets German soldiers in the evening to dine and dance and more, the more enabling her to gather secret information unavailable by any other means, a job drawing extreme criticism from her sister and father.  Claire, however, has her own job to do, one that shows her to be as brave as any soldier, one which she embraces with so much fervor that the reader wonders from where this ferocity arises.

Another family gives a different point of view of countless thousands who loved and died at the hands of the Nazi rapers and killers, but the question is who died and who lived?  Anyone associated with Nazi targets is doomed.  The risk or stakes are enormous beyond one's comprehension, yet the hatred of those blighting France with their presence takes on many forms of expression, some out of fear, some from revenge, and some out of tragedy-induced realization of one's undying patriotism!

To say more would ruin a phenomenal story very much on par with a Ken Follett, Frederick Forsythe, and other masters of espionage fiction.  The tension hypes up to a fever pitch when Monique falls in love with one of her German "friends" and discovers details twice about pivotal German movements and shipment of arms.  However, Pieter suspects her awareness and resistance role; these realizations build the plot to a crescendo with devastating but eventually healing consequences.  Many more amazing secrets are yet to be revealed!

How Angels Die is not just another WWII story; it's about how individuals and united groups will give all they are to a common cause out of pure love.  It isn't a fantasy tale or contrived story at all; it's a well-research realistic viewpoint celebrating the cost of ensuring evil will NOT prevail in history's unfortunately too frequent travesties of justice and fair treatment!  Awesome, amazing, and deserving of best-seller status!!!