I thoroughly enjoyed my long weekend, and I actually did get quite a lot accomplished, not just reading. But I did a lot of that too 😀
So the final three books of the Zion Covenant series were billed as "readers will finally know the fates of all their favorite characters". LIES. Instead of just telling us what happened to Jacob and Lori and Elisa and Murphy and everyone else, Thoene introduced a whole new cast of characters. I do not have the emotional energy to invest in yet *more* people, I'm sorry, I just don't. And they're all carbon copies of Elisa and Murphy. There's Mac, a cameraman reporter who falls for the lovely Eva, the woman Rachel gave her British passport to at the end of "Warsaw Requiem". Davey, a RAF pilot who falls for Annie, studying to be a nurse. Annie's brother, Trevor, is a sailor with the British Navy. Churchill becomes Prime Minister and England kind of enters the war, along with the French. Apparently all these folks show up in other series, which is all fine and well and good, but I must admit, the nonstop heartache in these books is really getting to me. I know it was a tragic war beyond all human comprehension, but making me care about more people who are doomed is just wrong.
A few months ago I saw Sammy the Bull Gravano's story on a show called "Very Scary People" and I was fascinated. I'd heard of John Gotti, but not Sammy.
Sammy was John's underboss. He killed a whole bunch of people but unlike John, he kept a low profile and tried not to be noticed. Unfortunately John was so carefree and didn't take proper measures to avoid implicating himself and Sammy ended up arrested, along with John and a couple of others from information gleaned from wiretaps. When Sammy heard John basically making him out to be the fall guy on the tapes, he turned and testified for the prosecution. At the time, Sammy was the highest ranking member of the Mob to do so. John went to jail and Sammy went into Witness Protection--for a time. He found it didn't suit him, so he left, deciding to take his chances. He's still alive, in his late 70s, and has a podcast. It was interesting and a bit chilling to hear him casually describing murder so cavalierly.
"Paris Encore" was more of the same from "London Refrain". A quick page or two about the main characters from the first six books, then on to the new folks.
Madame Rose and Madame Betsy, sisters from America, have been living in Paris for decades and run an orphanage they fund by taking in washing. Jerome and his sister, Maria, show up after their father goes off to join the war and the woman he left in charge of them sells their boat out from under them. Andre Chardon is hiding a Jewish scientist in his Paris home while he works on decoding the Enigma machine (which he helped build back when Jews could still work in Germany). Josie Marlow, a reporter, is trying to get Yacov Lubetkin to Jerusalem and to his grandfather with the help from an unlikely source.
And finally, "The Librarianist" by Patrick DeWitt. DeWitt is usually pretty good with the dark humor. This one just made me sad. Maybe because it hit too close to home.
Bob Comet is a retired librarian living in Oregon. He never knew his father and his mother died while he was relatively young, and he inherited her house and a bit of money. He met his wife, Connie, at the library, as well as his best friend, Ethan. Not long after he and Connie got married, she left him and ran off with Ethan. He never saw them again, although he did hear that Ethan died in a car accident not long after he and Connie married. Bob never remarries (or even dates again) and has no children. One day Bob is out walking and comes across a woman with a card attached to her, identifying her as living in a retirement home, so Bob returns her. He starts hanging out at the home, helping out. He eventually breaks his hip and has to sell his house and moves into the retirement home. It had its funny moments, but all in all it just gave me a too stark vision of my own future.
No comments:
Post a Comment