Tag: WW2

Book Review – Kane by Graham Hurley #Kane @seasidepicture @soph_ransompr

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Kane by Graham Hurley. To make it even more special, today is publication day! My thanks to Sophie and Ellie at Ransom PR for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Head of Zeus for my review copy via NetGalley

About the Book

Washington DC, 1941. Quincy Kane, hero of the Boston Police Department and scourge of organised crime, is now a Secret Service agent. His meteoric rise means he’s trusted to guard the most important man in the country: President Roosevelt.

Then Imperial Japan attacks the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.

For Kane, American entry to World War II means the most crucial mission of his career: a complex scheme of bribery and subterfuge that will see him cross the Atlantic. He could change the course of the conflict and save thousands of Allied lives.

First, though, he will have to survive a return to the world of organised crime via the City of Angels itself: Los Angeles, where every gangster has Quincy Kane in their crosshairs.

Format: Hardcover (432 pages) Publisher: Aries Fiction
Publication date: 19th June 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

I’ve become a great fan of Graham’s books which combine the drama of real historical events – often revolving around key turning points in 20th century history – with the excitement of a thriller. (If you don’t believe me check out my reviews of three of his most recent books: Dead Ground, The Blood of Others and Katastrophe.) Although all the books are part of the ‘Spoils of War’ collection, the great thing is they are non-chronological so can be read in any order or as standalones.

In this case the historical starting point is the Japanese bombing of the US naval base at Pearl Harbour in December 1941, described by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the time as “a date which will live in infamy”, and which triggered the US’s entry into WW2.

Quincy Kane’s position in the Secret Service, charged with protecting the President, places him close to the heart of things. He can see the difficult decisions the President must grapple with as well as Roosevelt’s day-to-day struggles with the physical consequences of the polio he contracted as a young man. The author creates a neat personal connection between the two men and, much later, another character.

Kane also witnesses first-hand the difficult relationship between Roosevelt, who favours order and routine, and the mercurial Winston Churchill who seems to thrive on chaos. However, what Roosevelt and Churchill do agree on is the need to stop French ships falling into German hands. A plan is hatched which requires Kane to revisit the organized crime case he solved years before which made him the toast of the Boston Police Department. The only trouble is the people involved are still serving prison time.

From this point on we’re into full-on thriller territory with Kane reunited with a former colleague with a love of reptiles and the music of Wagner. Soon however Kane comes up against a human reptile with an ego the size of a planet, a penchant for violence and a dangerous fascination with the woman in Kane’s life, LA Times journalist Lou Mahoney. Mahoney is surely every red-blooded heterosexual man’s dream: smart, attractive and skilled in the bedroom. It’s a distraction from the mission Kane has been assigned and things become even more difficult when anti-Japanese sentiment scuppers an essential part of the plan.

It’s fair to say Kane doesn’t get through unscathed. Actually, let’s be honest, he’s pretty battered and bruised by the end of the book and makes some death-defying escapes of which James Bond would be proud. The end of the book finds Kane in a different part of the world, possibly leaving things open for a future reunion.

In three words: Compelling, action-packed, dramatic
Try something similar: Betrayal by David Gilman

About the Author

Graham Hurley is a documentary maker and a novelist. For the last two decades he’s written full-time, penning nearly fifty books. Two made the short list for the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year, while Finisterre – the first in the Spoils of War collection – was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Award. Graham lives in East Devon with his lovely wife, Lin.

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Book Review – The Paris Dancer by Nicola Rayner

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About the Book

Paris, 1938. Annie Mayer arrives in France with dreams of becoming a ballerina. But when the war reaches Paris, she’s forced to keep her Jewish heritage a secret. Then a fellow dancer offers her a lifeline: a ballroom partnership that gives her a new identity. Together, Annie and her partner captivate audiences across occupied Europe, using her newfound fame and alias to aid the Resistance.

New York, 2012. Miriam, haunted by her past, travels from London to New York to settle her great-aunt Esther’s estate. Among Esther’s belongings, she discovers notebooks detailing a secret family history and the story of a brave dancer who risked everything to help Jewish families during the war.

Format: Paperback (368 pages) Publisher: Aria
Publication date: 13th February 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Paris Dancer on Goodreads

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My Review

This dual timeline story moves back and forth between Miriam’s journey of discovery into the past of her recently deceased great-aunt Esther and Esther’s experiences growing up in Paris, including during the German occupation of that city. I thought both storylines were strong and, in fact, could have been novels in their own right. However, the frequent connections and parallels between the two women’s experiences binds them together in a satisfying way.

The book description is a little misleading in that the sections set in wartime Paris are told by means of a memoir written by Esther. We never hear Annie’s story first-hand which means that some of her experiences, even quite significant and traumatic ones, we only learn about by means of letters or conversations recalled by Esther. For me, Annie was the most interesting character so I regretted she wasn’t given a narrative of her own.

Both Esther and Miriam harbour guilt about the part they played in past tragedies, the nature of which are only gradually revealed. And they have both experienced fractured family relationships. Miriam’s experiences have resulted in a tendency to self-sabotage (although she prefers to think of it as self-protection), believing that any relationship she forms is destined to end in disaster. Luckily (no pun intended) she has a encounter of the ‘meet cute’ variety with a man who resists all her attempts to push him away. (I did think his character could have been more developed.)

As we learn, for much of Esther’s life, she was prevented from forming the relationship she really craved. Her memoir, written specifically for Miriam, whilst describing the horrors that Jewish people suffered at the hands of the Nazis, is also her way of demonstrating that it is possible to move on from terrible experiences and find fulfilment, if only you have the courage to take a chance.

The author’s professional and personal interest in dance is evident in the novel, especially in the scenes set in the Bal Tabarin theatre in Paris, renowned for its spectacular floor shows, daring tableaux and gorgeous costumes. In Miriam’s story, learning to dance is shown to be both an act of self-expression and intimacy. And how, especially in the case of the tango, the concentration required to master the intricate steps can provide a temporary distraction from external worries.

Despite some reservations about the narrative structure, I found The Paris Dancer an absorbing story with moments of real tension and emotion.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Aria via NetGalley.

In three words: Dramatic, emotional, insightful
Try something similar: The Paris Network by Siobhan Curham

About the Author

Author Nicola Rayner

Nicola Rayner, born in South Wales, is a novelist and dancer writer based in London. journalist. She is the author of The Girl Before You, which was picked by the Observer, picked by the same newspaper as a debut to look out for in 2019, optioned for television and translated into multiple languages. Her second novel, You and Me, was published by Avon, HarperCollins in October 2020.

In her day job as a journalist, Nicola has written about dance for almost two decades, cutting her teeth on the tango section of Time Out Buenos Aires. She edited the magazine Dance Today from 2010 to 2015 and worked as assistant editor of Dancing Times, the UK’s leading dance publication, from 2019 to 2022. She continues to dance everything from ballroom to breakdance, with varying degrees of finesses.

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