As evening falls against the majestic backdrop of the Bavarian Alps, Charles Hirter, an American tourist, is savagely murdered. In the peace, quiet and pastoral splendor of this magnificent setting, Charles Hirter draws his last breath. Was Charles simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? Kommissar Franz Waldbaer, the German detective in charge of the case, faces an investigation that yields neither clues nor suspects nor motives. A gruff, go-it alone detective, Waldbaer is dismayed by the arrival of Robert Hirter, the victim’s brother, who insists on joining the investigation. But there is more to Robert than meets the eye. As Robert and the Kommissar uncover a nefarious nexus of evil past and evil present, they find themselves probing dark, long-forgotten episodes from the Third Reich in order to identify the present threat. Thrust into a violent world of fanatic passions, malevolent intentions and excruciating urgency, Robert Hirter and Kommissar Waldbaer must race against the clock to stop a sophisticated, covert, and deadly plot.

Yes, this book falls slightly outside my “comfort genre zone”.  However – always in for stretching myself I wanted to give this book a read.  Why this book?  Well, I do love a good mystery – and even a good thriller.  The stretch comes in the international espionage type books that just can’t hold my attention.  An international spy I will never be.  The hook for me was actually in the author, John J. Le Beau.   I like to read books where the authors really have a background in what they are talking about and John does have that.  He served as an operations officer in the CIA for over 25 years and now serves as a Professor of National Security Studies.   I have always heard that you should write what you know…. and John does just that.

I enjoyed the fact that the person going after Charles murderer was his brother Robert.  That made the story real to me… not so over the top that I couldn’t keep up.  By uncovering the pieces to Charles murder, Robert starts to bring in the reality that what has happened has a larger impact on the world then he could have ever anticipated.

A fast paced – and plenty of action read, John does deliver the book I believe he sat out to write.  I have to say that while this would normally not be a book for me, I found that John was able to write this style of book without overloading it with so many complications and twists that it left readers like myself in the dust.  I was pleasantly surprised.

My Amazon Review

I received my review copy of this book from Omnimystery

Style 1:  Mother:  “I have an idea, let’s start a mother daughter book club.  We can assign books that are better literature than those books you read all the time.  It will give us a chance to talk about the really important issues of life.  And when you hear the other mothers opinions you will see I am not the only one who thinks like I do”.

I can hear the footsteps fade as she runs the other direction.

Style 2:  Mother:  “What would you think about inviting a group of your friends over and their moms to read books and then have a get together with refreshments where you girls would get to relax and we’d all get to share what we thought of the story and do some fun activity with it?”

And with that, Shireen Dodson’s Mother Daughter Book Club is born.  This is the story of a group of mothers and their daughters and how their relationship was strengthened and changed by starting this monthly reading club.   I am going to be honest here, this book made me gush.  And now – I am going to gush about it to you so if you feel rain gear is required while I pour my heart out to you about this book then go – change… I will wait….

OK.  First of all it is easy to say that this book had me at “book club” books on books have always been a weakness.  And really – this book is not even a fit for me.  I have two sons.  Two grown sons….  no daughters.

BUT….  if I did have daughters, this would be the book….  this is the book.  First Shirleen writes this different from what I had expected.  I thought it was going to be  mostly great book choices for mothers and daughters to share.  It does have that – but it is not the main focus.  Shireen takes us from how the idea came about, how they started, what went right – what went wrong…. and even how this book became a reality.

There are great topics such as:

• Girl by Girl, Mom by Mom Building a Discussion Group
  
• Ice Breaker Games – for new friends and old
• Finding Books That Believe In Girl

and much more…  there are even tips in this book that I found would be fun and useful to apply to my book club.

In the back section of the book there are great book choices with book titles, descriptions, discussion questions, and project ideas that tie in with the book.

The more I read – the more I liked this book.  I would highly recommend it as a great read to get your own Mother Daughter Book Club going or even for great reading ideas to do with your daughter(s) on your own.

Shireen Dodson is Special Assistant to the Director, Office of Civil Rights attaché U.S. Department of State. Her second book, One Hundred Books for Girls to Grow On, offers a selection of both new and classic titles, and it serves as a companion to The Mother-Daughter Book Club. She lives in Washington, D.C., and is the mother of three children.

My Amazon Review

I received my review copy of this books from Harper Collins