Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam's Madame Nhu by Monique Brinson Demery

Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam’s Madame Nhu.  Monique Brinson Demery. Public Affairs Publisher. October 2014. 280 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9781610392815.

The story of Madame Nhu begins with her life as an upcoming bride living in a Vietnam laced with French dominion and influence.  She is about to marry a man who will eventually become the Prime Minister of Vietnam, the man who will wield the real power behind President Ngo Dinh Diem as nations and revolutionary groups vie for power, prestige, and style in Vietnam.  For now Tran Le Xuan, Nhu’s name in her youth), is excited about her marriage and upcoming family status.  But intrigue is omnipresent and Nhu’s life seems like it is unraveling as she initially fails to beget children and her husband seems more entwined with his secret trips and missions than he is with his young bride. 

At the same time, we learn how North Vietnamese leaders are seeking to combine their rising power with French administration.  The French will fall eventually and Tran will learn how the poor and suffering live when she is forced to flee with her family as the Communists from the North approach South Vietnam.  From that point on, Madame Nhu reaches deep inside to let her immense strength confront all obstacles in her path.  The story continues with American advisers coming to court her husband and Diem will take over after a coup.  Madame Nhu’s notoriety grows as she declares her love of power and prestige and comes across as cold and heartless toward the people she is supposed to serve. Indeed the rule of her family and Diem is correctly labeled as repressive, though these rulers always claimed the treatment was to safeguard their people. Her callous remarks about the burning Buddhist monk serve as the vicious, cold benchmark of her future years.  Until her husband and Diem are assassinated, she will court power and use her sexy, slim body and charm to keep South Vietnam free. 

One aspect that is always clear in this account is how mixed the advice and help from the USA was.  American estimation of the rising threat of Ho Chi Minh always seems inaccurate and forthcoming help was the same; the replies of Madame Nhu and the South Vietnam government was partially responsible as they feared a foreign takeover by the Communists, French (again!) or even the Americans if the truth were to be admitted.

Madame Nhu goes into seclusion when she barely manages to escape to America and remains there for over 30 years before her story is told by the author of this account.  In order to gain all the information in this book, the author had to play a cat-and-mouse game with Madame Nhu in which the author would be fed bits and pieces of little known information but never wholesale openness and trust.  Madame Nhu, we learn, had reason to fear the vengeance of many who considered her responsible for thousands of deaths, losses and disasters that befell the Vietnamese people.

The story never loses the sense of intrigue, mystery, and exposure of truth and thus is a superb nonfiction account of a pivotal time in global history that affected the lives of millions to the present day.  Finely crafted account of this very famous lady’s journey through the vicissitudes of Vietnamese and American history!

Hello From the Gillespies: A Novel by Monica McInerney

Hello from the Gillespies: A Novel.  Monica McInerney. Penguin Group (USA). November 2014. 624 pp.  ISBN#: 9780451466723.

Every year Angela Gillespie sends out a friendly, chatty Christmas letter for the holidays.  She fills it with bits and pieces of her perfect life in the Australian outback, a life she never dreamed she would spend most of her life in when she was a young woman living in England.  But here she is; only this year she gets more of her recent, severe headaches when thinking about what she should include as her year’s news.  A good friend Joan tells her to write the way things really are, to “let it rip.”  So all of a sudden, rather than bursting into tears, she takes her friend’s advice and really does write all about her dysfunctional family, from her neglectful, unromantic husband who barely talks to her, through her girls who have great dreams about careers but have really lousy relationships with boyfriends or are depressed, all the way to her youngest son Ig who spends his life chattering away, like he’s bonkers, to his imaginary friend.  Happy Holidays!

A terrible accident happens which is quickly resolved over several days; however, while she is dealing with that, her husband (without reading it) actually presses the send button for the Christmas letter to over a hundred family and friends. Oh, my God! Imagine Angela’s thoughts and feelings when she discovers what beloved hubby has done! And more how he feels when he realizes what was in the letter about himself and one of their nastier relatives!  In plain and simple English, this is the straw that broke the camel’s back and the bubbling, boiling pot overflows with an amazingly large bevy of previously unshared feelings and words!

Add to that the fact that the girls have lost their jobs and are returning home, expecting a monetary handout that might not be so forthcoming.  This then is the story of a family that finally is compelled to begin listening to each other, becoming sensitive to each other’s thoughts and feelings as well as words, in all becoming a real, mature adult family.  The process is riveting, totally engaging and absolutely delightful!

Hello from the Gillespies… is a thrilling read about which readers can say, “Oh yeah, that’s how it is in my crazy family and world!”  It’s a refreshing look at a normal Australian (is definitely universal) family that evolves through blood, sweat, tears and eventually hugs and kisses.  Highly recommended!!!!!

The Story of Fester Cat: How One Remarkable Cat Changed Two Men's Lives by Paul Magrs

The Story of Fester Cat: How One Remarkable Cat Changed Two Men’s Lives.  Paul Magyrs. Penguin Group (USA). November 2014. 304 pp.  ISBN#: 9780425275047.

Fester was a neighborhood outdoor cat for most of his life.  He was considered cool and full of wisdom on how to survive on the streets.  We meet several of his friends and acquaintances, most of them hairy mats of messy fur, skeletons showing, missing teeth, fleas and showing battle scars from their rough skirmishes on the streets!  Then all of a sudden life begins to change when one of his friends gets adopted by a human family that is moving far away from Manchester and at the same time Fester meets Paul and Jeremy!

What a change for good old Fester!  At first it’s a funny bit of culture shock as he certainly isn’t used to being cared for so well and they have to get used to his occasional dumps (they call it accidents, ha, ha!) until they get sharp and get him a kitty litter, which of course he treats like a special throne where he drops his sacred gifts for his loving owners!

Little by little owners and Fester establish their favorite spots, a companionship that grows deeply upon these gay men who discover a different kind of love present in their lives.  There are many funny moments such as when Fester is introduced to a fancy patronizing friend of his owners or when they take him for his “beauty” appointment (a la vet).  Little by little Fester’s health is restored as much as possible!  He’s now a permanent fixture in their lives and it’s a lovely, lovely relationship they share with the reader as Fester explains his owners’ individual and collective habits and idiosyncrasies.

It’s been a long time since a book made me both laugh and cry, but this one did it all and more!  It’s a tender, humorous, startling, agonizing and precious memoir that every cat lover absolutely must read and everyone else as well!  Marley, move over – this is the reverse story but every step of the way to the end is delightful, engaging and so, so memorable!  I’m writing this as one of my own two beloved felines is butting my head for a bit of cuddlin’ which means I have to stop typing but not before I state I will never stop remembering this superb feline memoir! Kudos and thank you, Paul Magyrs for sharing this gift from your lives!

Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General.  Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. Henry Holt and Company. September 2014. 368 pp.  ISBN#: 9780805096682.

Let me state from the outset this reviewer has absolutely no interest in examining this book for political purposes!  Instead, this reviewer’s father served in the U. S. Army under General Patton and had tremendous respect for his person and leadership. Thus, this reviewer’s fascination grew to desire to know more about this man who was loved and hated by so many in military and civilian circles!  While other books have been read about Patton, this is not a comparison or contrast review; rather it’s a stand-alone objective review of a book about a truly great man whose actions changed the course of WWII in Europe.

O’Reilly and Dugard pose the theory that General Patton was killed because he was too outspoken and considered dangerous to others vying for power and vying to create a European order after WWII that would favor certain countries over other countries.  There is actually very little evidence for this so-called murder other than the accounts of those present at the time and reports that mysteriously seem to have disappeared or gone missing, with very little response from those who should have known about those documents.  Whatever happened, the story of this anti-Patton plot makes for fascinating reading!

Some background is given to the backgrounds of Patton, Churchill, Roosevelt, Lenin, Stalin and other world leaders who were pivotal during the coming Second World War!  The authors examine these characters with what they know will fascinate readers – just enough personal and political information to whet the appetite for more – some of it unnecessary but which builds the “story” being presented.

The authors tell the story of WWII battles led by Patton and that is also mesmerizing reading because it is also an intimate look at the political and military leaders making the decisions about the war.  We read about how Patton arrived in France and moved through that country into Southern Germany.  There a huge competitive campaign emerged in which Patton desired to be the first to reach Bastogne and later Berlin, a competition with Britain’s Montgomery that grew fierce indeed! 

Patton’s verbal gaffes were amusing, inflammatory, truthful, lies, and totally destructive to policy, depending on who was the target of those comments and who was fitting them into or rejecting them into American military and political goals.

In many ways, this book reads like a novel. One has to remind one’s self that this is the account of a real General whose life was almost larger than life for those who served under him or with him and whom one could accurately call a “shaper of history.”  Some have decried this account for leaving out certain facts about Patton’s attitudes toward Jews and political predictions or attitudes.  The reader must judge those accusers after examining what they know and don’t know about Patton and differing written accounts – fiction or non-fiction.  The best?  The worst?  Somewhere in between?  That’s for others to argue.

This reviewer highly recommends Killing Patton as a great read about the man, the war, the assassination theory and one account of a pivotal period in world history! 

The Night Shadow by Cheri Vause

The Night Shadow.  Cheri Vause. GWL Publishing. October 2014. 442 pp.  ISBN#: 9780992883669.

Esther Charlemagne is a scarred Private Investigator.  She’s had a bad history with her ex-husband Freddie and lost her only son, the latter a devastating loss from which no one could recover fully. So she’s learning to live with all that pain and at the same time resisting looking at it too much because she deep down blames herself for all of it.  This makes her ambiance pretty much like a brick wall to her long-time friend and partner, Aiden “Mac” McManus, who loves her to bits but holds back because of that obstructive wall Esther has built around herself. Thank God they’ve got enough sarcastic humor and skill to bind them together as investigators!

The story begins where they’re staking out a suburban street, looking for a “peeping Tom” who’s been frightening the neighbors.  Next they are staking out another home to find out whether the lady of the house is cheating on her hard-working, very upset husband.  The duo investigators have a heart as they realize just how crushed the cheating dame’s husband will be.  Their work, they acknowledge, has very serious consequences for those left behind when their work is finished. But now they pick up a case that gives Esther the creeps, really bad feelings that this is going to turn out all wrong for everybody involved.

On warm summer night, a young ballerina who had just been selected to dance for Ballet Master Balanchine in the New York City Ballet Company.  Right now, however, that joy is crushed under the fact that she’s just been dumped by her boyfriend.  After a short while, she’s trying to muster enough energy to begin practicing her dance routines when she realizes she’s locked into her dressing room closet, a room she’ll never leave alive!

The story then races forward with plots and counter-plots that involve another ballerina under psychoanalytic therapy, two sisters and friends who vie for attention, a history of family madness, fires that bear a similar nature to each other, love-hate relationships that bind and distort reality over time, and much more. During these dynamic events, Esther and Mac are getting closer as Esther very, very slowly learns to trust again; one wonders whether they will ever marry as it seems they go two steps backward for every step they move forward!

The Night Shadow is exciting, thrilling crime fiction that every fan of the genre will love.  The conflicts evolve slowly as quick-moving events make the reader fly through the pages.  There’s enough psychology in the novel to fascinate fans who love to try to figure out the profile of a killer or killers!  All in all, a great read that should be a best seller and would make a terrific movie as well!

The Seventh Link: An English Village Cosy Featuring the Colonel by Margaret Mayhew

The Seventh Link: An English Village Cosy Featuring the Colonel.  Margaret Mayhew. Severn House. November 2014. 160 pp.  ISBN#: 9780727884213. 

The Colonel is retired from military service and finding city life distasteful has retired to a country town where everyone knows everyone.  He’s delighted to putter around his house and especially hide out in his man-cave shed where he begins work on a naval model.  He has a nice relationship with his neighbor Naomi who stops by for tea and a chat and he has another neighbor who spends her day harmlessly spying with a pair of German U-Boat military binoculars.  And of course there’s his cat Thursday who is close but finicky companion, amusing and aloof but clearly attached to his beloved Colonel.

Now the Colonel is setting off to visit a friend Geoffrey who with his wife runs a bed and breakfast home in the Village of Buckby, a place of historical interest because from here the Royal Air Force flew off to Europe and Germany where they carried out special operations against Germany.  It coincidentally happens to be a weekend when the Royal Air Force is having a reunion of those who belonged to the same RAF Unit.

Much of Buckby has changed but that doesn’t ruin the reunion which is really a sacred ceremony celebrating the men who were very skilled but also more lucky to survive missions in which one out of three survived.  The men share memories and one of the late arrivals shares a troubling story with a news reporter.  The mystery of that account turns even more intriguing when the teller appears dead and no one can figure out if it’s a murder or just an unfortunate accident.

The ending is quite unusual and the reader is left to draw his or her own conclusions.  The Seventh Link… is a warm and intriguing story briefly told but no less thrilling for the unexpected outcome.  The conflict creeps up on the reader and there are some amusing and unique characters to enhance the mysterious ambiance of the story. Nicely crafted historical fiction, Margaret Mayhew.

The Devil's Quota by Tom Avitabile

The Devil’s Quota. Tom Avitabile. The Story Plant. October 2014. 320 pp.  ISBN#: 9781611881929.

A well-known Judge is found dead after having a massive heart attack while in the throes of sexual bliss with a call girl in a seedy building far from his luxurious home.  The only problem is his wife tells Detective Mike DiMaggio that her husband was impotent.  Add to this fact the reality of a sex clinic run by a professional sex counselor Cassandra Cassidy.  It turns out she runs several floors in the building where she offers therapy for high profile customers.  Unfortunately, DiMaggio quickly figures out she is being protected by those same higher-ups, which leads to him being followed.

DiMaggio, however, calculates that losing his job merits his determination to find out who is behind his removal, and that’s where the action and complex nature of this investigation really begins and propels him into action.  It also advances considerably when someone tries to take out Cassidy.  The relationship between the two now changes into something more personal but is complex enough to defy predictability.

The story then switches to a sniper, Master Sergeant Eric Ronson, who is a Special Forces operative serving in Afghanistan.  He has fallen in love with Setara, an Afghan girl, who is connected to international traffickers and thereby leads Ronson into a heap of trouble.  Eventually he and DiMaggio will connect but that’s a spoiler not happening here.  Suffice to say there’s a great deal of killing happening on this end of the story!

Tom Avitabile’s plots are page-turning, gripping read.  The Ronson involvement eventually ties in but seems separate and disconnected at first, but eventually it all ties together to form a seamless plot.  DiMaggio and Cassandra Cassidy are characters with some unique, quirky qualities to their relationship right up to the last page.  Good read for all fans of crime/thriller fiction!