2013 was a year where I spent a lot of time on a plane, with the resulting extra time to read a lot of books. I also built the first version of my experiments with blog-driven book recommendations, which generated a lot of recommendations for things to read.

This year I re-read a lot of old favorites, or works by authors I love that I’d not gotten around to. With The Hobbit Part II coming out, of course I had to re-read The Hobbit (with all 3 volumes of the Lord of the Rings thrown in for good measure). Following on the fantasy theme, I particularly enjoyed Betsy Tobin’s Ice Land, a creative re-telling of the Norse myths, in a parallel storyline to a more historical storyline of medieval Iceland. Great characters, and reasonably faithful to the old norse myths. Heart of the Ronin is a fun samurai fairy tale for adults – if you liked Across the Nightingale Floor, you’ll love Heart of the Ronin. Wrapping up the “medieval” (ok Tudor in this case) stuff, one couldn’t really get away from Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, it was in every airport, in every bit of news about books and so on. I enjoyed it, although I admit I struggled to get through the ending parts. Nevertheless her inside-out portrayal of Thomas Cromwell as “the good guy” was quite enjoyable.

In a more modern fantasy vein, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore will delight book lovers and geeks both – it combines one of the most interesting bookstores in fiction together with a girl-geek who wields the cloud-computing power of Google to solve a bookish mystery.

I did quite a bit of spy-reading this year. In addition to re-doing Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy yet again, I read for the first time Le Carre’s Our Game, and I think it’s one of his most under-rated novels. In a more recent vintage, I received a copy of The Crook Factory by Dan Simmons as part of Librarything’s Early Reviewers program, and devoured it. Dan Simmons is a fine writer, who seems to tackle few things more than once. Fantasy, Horror, Spy Novels, historical fiction, crime drama…In this case Simmons isn’t channeling the supernatural, just the world of 1940s Cuba and J Edgar Hoover – and yes Nazis and Marlene Dietrich too. Oh, and Ernest Hemingway. Did you know that Hemingway was a spy? Me neither. The Crook Factory will tell you all about it. (separately, Simmon’s book Darwin’s Blade is another really fun book, worth the read). I was also introduced to the pleasures of Mick Herron’s group of loser-spys in Slow Horses, and Dead Lions. Delightfully droll.

Finally, I love reading books about the “real” Hawaii, not the picture-perfect beaches you read about in travel magazines. When The Shark Bites gives a true look into native Hawaiians and some of the history around the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.

Lawrence Durrell is best known for his Alexandria Quartet, and his writings about travel in the Greek isles. As a long time resident of the islands and a diplomat in war-time Greece during World War II, he came to know and love the islands. I’m a huge fan of his Greece travel books, in particular The Greek Islands.

Some time ago I learned of The Dark Labyrinth, a novel set on the island of Crete (originally published under the title Cefalu). I bought a copy a long time ago and finally got a chance to read it, it’s been out of print for a long time. A group of travelers head to Crete to explore the Labyrinth and find the rumored Minotaur.

The early part of the novel has the travelers on an ocean liner headed to the Mediterranean, each for their own reasons. Durrell gradually exposes us to the travelers, their lives and reasons for heading to the Mediterranean. Durrell absolutely skewers the pretensions of the passengers. The first half of the book almost feels like a comedy of manners or an A. S. Byatt novel fifty years early. I found myself laughing out loud, which doesn’t happen to me very often.

As the ship stops at Crete and the passengers sign up for a tour of the Labyrinth and to search for the legendary Minotaur, we enter Durrell’s Greece. The thyme-scented mountains, the stories of the Greek resistance’s mountain hideaways, abbots and monks and peasants, and the natural beauty of Greece come to the fore. The passengers encounter a disaster while in the labyrinth, and each finds their own fate while trying to escape. A bit of Greek legend, and bit of “Lost Horizons” bring the novel to an interesting philosophical close.

The Dark Labyrinth doesn’t rise to the level of the Alexandria Quartet, but it’s good read, particularly for those who are interested in Durrell or the Greek islands.

Dan Simmons has written a number of fantastic books – some of my favorites are Hyperion, Illium, and Flashback, mostly in the Science Fiction realm. But he’s wide ranging – Drood was a widely regarded novel based on the life of Charles Dickens and he’s also written various Horror novels.

In The Crook Factory, Simmons tackles a fun meme – the semi-fictional novelization of little known or improbable events. This is territory that reminds me of one of Tim Powers’ best novels, Declare, which somehow manages to put together Kim Philby (the super spy), Lawrence of Arabia, Djinn and Nazis. In this case Simmons isn’t channeling the supernatural, just the world of 1940s Cuba and J Edgar Hoover – and yes Nazis and Marlene Dietrich too. Oh, and Ernest Hemingway.

Did you know that Hemingway was a spy? Me neither.

The Crook Factory plays out through the eyes of Joe Lucas, a fictional FBI agent with a history of bending the law and being the FBI’s goto person when dirty tricks or semi legal activities are involved

Joe is sent to become part of, and spy on, Hemingway’s burgeoning spy ring – the crook factory. Through Joe we meet, and become very close to, Ernest Hemingway – the writer, the lover, the prodigious drinker, the pugilist, the sentimentalist, the blowhard, the trickster. The novel renders Hemingway in amazing depth.

Joe and Ernest are off to fight the Nazis and sink subs (seriously), as well as the fighting off the local Cuban police while watching out for any number of competing intelligence agencies.

Crook factory is a great adventure and a fantastic history lesson all wrapped in one. Virtually all of the novel with the exception of Joe Lucas himself is well grounded in fact. I also gained a much more realized view of Hemingway the man (albeit fictionalized), and the book inspired me to return to some of Hemingway’s novels (e.g. For Whom the Bell Tolls) with renewed appreciation.

If any of this sounds interesting, get The Crook Factory – you won’t be sorry.

[I received a complimentary copy of The Crook Factory through the excellent LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.].

Through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, I was fortunate enough to receive a pre-release copy of Mission to Paris, a new novel from highly regarded historical spy novelist Alan Furst. Furst specializes in World War II era fiction. Having reviewed other books in the program from less-established authors, starting Mission to Paris was like slipping into a warm bath – the prose fluid and accessible, without a jarring phrasing or word out of place.

Mission to Paris is the story of a somewhat famous actor’s trip to Paris, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. Fredric Stahl is Viennese-born, but lives in Hollywood now. As part of a cross-Studio movie deal, he finds himself sent to Paris to film a movie. A famous actor turned spy (this is a spy novel) could easily turn to cliché, but Furst easily humanizes Stahl, while staying true to the perks that would come with being a well-known actor. As Stahl crosses the Atlantic on an ocean liner, he finds himself on a deck chair with his arms around a married woman (Stahl is unsurprisingly successful with the ladies). And yet:

“They lay together on the deck chair, she in formal gown, he in tuxedo, the warmth of her body welcome on the chilly night, the soft weight of her breast, resting gently against him, a promise that wouldn’t be kept but a sweet promise just the same. Edith, he thought. Or was it Edna?”

In two sentences, Stahl is rendered as maybe a cad for potentially sleeping with a married woman, a typical actor who doesn’t even remember the names of women he’s with, and yet he sends her back to her husband without taking advantage.

Furst effortlessly re-creates the era. Starting the story on an ocean liner immediately creates context. The attention to period detail is deep without being boring. Furst includes verbatim a daily ship’s newsletter (I assume it is fictional), with world news (Neville Chamberlain meeting with Hitler, preparing to sell out Czechoslovakia) and sport news (Whizzer White the football player injured) right next to tomorrow’s shuffleboard schedule.

Pre-war Paris is also quickly and effortlessly evoked. Within pages, you are ensconced in a cafe tasting the croissants, out and about on the warm September Paris evenings….

“Walking slowly, looking at everything, he couldn’t get enough of the Parisian air: it smelled of a thousand years of rain dropping on stone, smelled of rough black tobacco and garlic and drains, of perfume, of potatoes frying in fat. A warm evening, people were out, the bistros crowded and noisy.”

And yet, bad things are afoot.

“On the wall of a newspaper kiosk, closed down for the night, the day’s front page headlines were still posted: CZECHOSLOVAKIA DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY.”

Mission to Paris is about the fall of Paris. Germany militancy is rising, and there are two camps in Paris, those who want to resist Germany and those who do not. Those who do not speak the language of peace: Rapprochement, Mutual Respect, Reconciliation, Peace, “avoid war at any cost”. But the implication – Capitulation – is painfully clear. Any many of those on the side of “Rapprochement” are wittingly or unwittingly in the service of the Germans.

What mission to Paris is really about is how easily one can be seduced to the wrong side by fair words, noble concepts and good intentions, together with bribes disguised as “speaking fees” or advertising budgets, and ultimately it’s about the lies one tells oneself to sleep at night.

Many well-known names are named by Furst as working to bring down the French Government – Taittinger of the famous Champagne, Hennessy of the famous Cognac, the Michelin brothers who led the tire empire. It’s almost painful to listen to the cocktail party chatter about the benefits of peace and avoiding war at any cost with the Germans, knowing what horror the Nazis will bring to the world. Stahl chooses sides – the right one – but as a famous personality is constantly beset by forces from both sides that want to use him. Along the way, he finds love, adventure, and the courage to do what’s necessary.

If you like historical fiction or spy novels, you will not be disappointed. Mission to Paris reads smoothly and rapidly with great characters and period detail, and, as with all great historical fiction, contains lessons and perspective for today’s world as well.