The Forgiven

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by Lawrence Osborne, 2012, Kindle edition, Hogarth 3.0 stars

I chose this book as something to read about Morocco because I would be traveling there. I didn’t finish it until a few days after returning, and I am glad that it worked out that way. We traveled to Erfoud in the southeast of Morocco on our journey where we visited a fossil shop and purchased a small specimen that we will be using as a serving tray. We also traveled farther into the Sahara Desert later that evening. The novel centers around this area and the fossil diggers but provides a lot more insight than what we were able to see in the short amount of time we were there, particularly into the minds and culture of the Berber natives.

The novel centers around what appears to be an accidental death of a young man along a road when an Englishman and his wife are traveling to a party hosted by some wealthy individuals who have built a stupendous enclave in the desert. The story unfolds very slowly as it focuses on the psychological interplay between the characters, especially the profligate foreigners versus the natives. I was tempted to put the book down and not finish it, but the more I read, the more it enticed me. I became more interested due to my recent trip to the region than I would have been otherwise.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has a strong interest in this area of Morocco.

A Trick of the Light

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A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Book 7, by Louise Penny, 2011, Audiobook narrated by Ralph Cosham released in 2011, Macmillan Audio 4.0 stars

The book centers around the murder of a woman in a garden during a party. The investigation reveals that she was an artist and a recovering alcoholic. As in all of Louise Penny’s murder mysteries, the psychological interplay between the investigators, the victim, and the other characters is more interesting than the actual murder plot.

Even though each of Penny’s books focuses on a single murder and theme, the story of Inspector Gamache and his team is a continuation from one book to the next. The development of these characters is extraordinary and leads the reader from one book to the next. Although this book focuses on addiction to alcohol, I am beginning to sense that I am addicted to Louise Penny’s books.

In Morocco

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by Edith Wharton, 1920 2.0 stars

This book is an account of Edith Wharton’s journey in Morocco in 1917. I decided to read this book because I would be in Morocco myself as I was reading it. It turned out that while I was traveling from Rabat to Meknes and then to Fes, I was reading about Wharton’s travels along the same route in 1917. Wharton’s observations, of course, were of things much more primitive than what I was experiencing (especially the roads), but it was interesting to feel what she was seeing in the same area 106 years ago.

Wharton’s writing in this book is complex and sometimes hard to follow. The first part of the book is straightforward as she moves from one place to another, but later chapters skip around. The last chapter is a summary history of Morocco. Unfortunately, Morocco’s history is a hodgepodge of sultans and dynasties, and it is hard to make sense of it all.

Even though it was tough reading, I did get a sense of what the country seemed like in 1917, and it was interesting to compare it to what I was seeing in 2023.

Relative Danger: A Mystery

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by Charles Benoit, 2006, Poison Pen Press 5.0 stars

I was looking for books on Morocco as we were going on a tour to that country. I searched our local library’s Libby app for “Morocco” and this book came up. I had never heard of the author or the book, but I took a chance and downloaded it. I read most of it on the airplane on the way over and was delighted.

The plot is preposterous. It’s about a young man who lives in rural Pottsville, Pennsylvania, who had never travelled far from home. He had a black sheep uncle who was murdered in Singapore about 40 years prior. One day he gets a letter from a woman in Canada who would like him to investigate the murder. She was a friend of his uncle’s.

He accepts her offer to travel and the first leg of his trip is to Tangier, Morocco. He spends some time there meeting with individuals who knew his uncle and then moves on to Cairo and Singapore.

Here’s the thing with this book. It is humorous, the characters are interesting, and the plot has several twists. I really liked this book and couldn’t put it down. I have had many books recommended to me and to have discovered this one by chance is a real treat!

Bury Your Dead

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A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Book 6 by Louise Penny, 2010, Audiobook narrated by Ralph Cosham released in 2010, Macmillan Audio 4.0 stars

I was really surprised by this book as I had pretty much trashed Book 5, The Brutal Telling, in my review. Book 5 didn’t seem to have any life to it; it didn’t have any plot twists and ended with a fairly straightforward solution to that murder mystery. Well, I should have hung on to my thoughts as there is more to it in Book 6. I didn’t have any way to predict that, however. Just make sure you have read or listened to Book 5 before you try Book 6 as there is a lot of information in the prior book that is picked up in this one.

Book 6 has multiple plots, all running at the same time. It also has a lot of history, mostly associated with Samuel Champlain, the founder of Quebec, as well as the battle of Quebec. Gamache spends most of the novel located in Quebec City, which is even more interesting to me as I have visited the city many times.

Ralph Cosham gets better and better narrating these novels. I can visualize each of the individual characters while listening to him, and it’s hard to believe that it’s just one reader doing them all.

I made the statement in my review of Book 5 that I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue listening to more of the series. I am in the process of loading four more of the audiobooks in this series on my phone. If I get through those, I will have listened to ten of the nineteen books in the series. By the time I get to nineteen, however, I suppose that Louise Penny will write some more.

City on Fire

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by Don Winslow, 2021, Audiobook narrated by Ari Fliakos, Harper Audio 3.0 stars

This is a very well-written book, but I didn’t like the subject matter or the characters very much. It hit very close to home as the setting was Rhode Island, and more specifically, southern Rhode Island where we have a summer condo. Winslow uses the names of some of the local establishments, changing the names slightly possibly to avoid and legal issues. For instance, Galilee becomes “Gillied”, Jim’s Dock becomes “Dave’s Dock”, etc.

The book is basically about a mob war between the Irish and the Italians in Providence, all precipitated because of a perceived slight when one of the Irish individuals steals the girlfriend of one of the Italians and marries her. Gang war ensues along with many killings.

The language in this book is awful, but it’s probably realistic as it’s no doubt the way these individuals talked. I wish it were otherwise but wishing it doesn’t make it any better. The narrator of this audiobook does an excellent job portraying the accents and faulty grammar of the characters.

I am aware that the book is a fictional story, but I wonder how much of it is true. We had a chance to visit with the author when he appeared at a book event at a local bookstore last week, but we had other commitments, so we had to decline the opportunity. I don’t know how much he would have revealed if we had asked him.

Executive Office: A Look at the U.S. Presidents Through the Lens of Leadership

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by Tim Traudt, 2022, self-published 2.0 stars

This book is written by a former executive who worked in the bank where I once worked. I know Tim as an acquaintance, but I really didn’t have any dealings with him.

Tim has had quite a lot of experience as a successful leader in his organization. This book is his attempt to impart some of what he learned over a long career by applying his knowledge to a review of 47 U.S. Presidents to determine which of them utilized effective leadership characteristics to enable them to be considered successful presidents.

He first outlines what he considers ten principles of leadership. He then divides 42 ex-presidents into the top twelve (through the lens of leadership), the bottom twelve, and the rest in “The Big Middle.” The book is interesting in that it provides information on the accomplishments of the various presidents, but it seems to be lacking in depth. There was a great deal of value judgement in assessing each of the presidents’ successes and failures and attributing it to “leadership.” If the individual president seemed to have values that correlated with the author’s, his leadership was rated more highly. If, on the other hand, a president didn’t care as much about the common people, his leadership was considered less effective. Another essential attribute of a leader that Tim cites is humility. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of examples in the book where humility necessarily translates to accomplishments.

I believe this type of analysis tends to overlook the element of charisma that we tend to consider so essential in our leaders. Can a charismatic leader who lacks many of the other qualities that Tim claims are essential to effective leadership, accomplish his or her goals? If those goals are not “worthy”, is the individual still an effective leader? This is a key issue when we see a demagogue leading his flock down a dangerous path. Most demagogues eventually fail, but not without doing a considerable amount of damage along the way. While they are riding high, are they not considered effective leaders as they seem to be able to create a large following?

The Shadow Man

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by Helen Fields, 2021, Avon, a division of HarperCollinsPublishers, Ltd., London 3.5 stars

This book is a pretty good thriller-mystery novel about several people who are abducted. The police bring in a forensic phychoologist profiler to help find the perpetrator.

The book is definitely a page-turner. The plot is a bit far-fetched, but it seems to hold together to the end.

A Brutal Telling

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A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Book 5, by Louise Penny, 2009, Audiobook narrated by Ralph Cosham released in 2016, Macmillan Audio 2.0 stars

This book really fell short of what I expected from a Louise Penny book. The plot was a little different in that the murder was discovered early in the first chapter. From there, it plodded along until Inspector Gamache figures it out.

There was little back and forth between Gamache and his team, nothing about any of his career difficulties, and less interplay between Gamache and his wife and family than in her previous novels.

I was expecting some kind of surprise or twist at the end of the novel, but there was none. It just ended and there wasn’t even a hook to make me want to read the next book.

I will probably try another of her books, but if it turns out that it doesn’t get back on track, I doubt I will partake of her additional novels.

Con/Artist

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by Tony Tetro and Giampiero Ambrosi, 2022, Hachette Books, New York 2.0 stars

I wish I could like this book more than I did. I think the problem is the main character, whom I didn’t like one bit. It wasn’t that he was a criminal but rather that he had a lifestyle that I just can’t identify with. He seems perfectly fine with living it up, spending a great deal of his time in bars, chasing women, and acquiring (or forging) expensive cars. I am not condemning his criminal activities, but he is just not someone I enjoy reading about.

Another issue I have with the book is that seems shallow. It’s written in a journalistic style that sometimes seems to keep the emotional aspects of Mr. Tetro at a distance. After reading the book, I felt unsatisfied in that I didn’t quite get the whole story. I can see that some readers might like the book a lot more than I did, but it just didn’t grab me.