Louise Penny. The Nature of the Beast. New York: Minotaur Books, 2015. As reviewed by Ted Odenwald Retirement offers no rest or refuge for Louise Penny’s protagonist, Armand Gamache, the former Chief Inspector or Quebec’s Surete. After a nine-year-old boy dies in an apparent biking accident in the forest near […]
James Bradley. The China Mirage: The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia. New York: Little, Brown & Company, 2015. As reviewed by Ted Odenwald American diploma John Service is among the few heroes in Bradley’s evaluation of the United States’ relationship with China. Born in China, fluent in several […]
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. By Erik Larson. New York: Random House, 2015. As reviewed by Ted Odenwald With his typically methodical gathering and organizing of details from the daily lives of passengers and crew members—and from the fated ship-preying hunt of U-boat commander, Walther Schwieger,—and from […]
James M. McPherson. Embattled Rebel; Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief. New York: The Penguin Press, 2014. As Reviewed by Ted Odenwald Having written a glowing study of Lincoln’s growth as commander in chief of the Union forces, McPherson, a foremost authority on the Civil War, felt obligated to “describe […]
Daniel Friedman, M.D., and Eugene Friedman, M.D. The Strange Case of Dr. Doyle: A Journey Into Madness & Mayhem. Garden City Park, NY: Square One Publishers, 2015. As reviewed by Ted Odenwald Drs. David and Eugene Friedman have pieced together an shocking solution to a mystery—or more of a head-scratcher, […]
John Cleese. So Anyway. NY: Crown Publishing, 2014 As reviewed by Ted Odenwald Several generations will remember John Cleese as the hilariously inept and insecure hotel keeper in “Fawlty Towers,” as a number of bizarre characters in numerous scenes in “The Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” and as the King in […]
