Book Reviews – Page 2 – Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller

“The Teachings Of Shirelle” by Douglas Green

We are accustomed to being told to look around us and learn lessons from others- human beings, of course. But learning lessons from a dog? That too a stray from the pound that got the nickname, “Knucklehead”?? This is what “The Teachings of Shirelle: Life Lessons from a Divine Knucklehead” by Douglas Green is all about. First published in 2015 by Cavalleria Press, this book makes for delightful reading. It vividly captures that beautiful – and sometimes stressful- relationship between a dog and her owner.

Green writes with great feeling about the twelve years he and Shirelle -his dog – spent together. She became the centre of his life, particularly when she was diagnosed as having malignant tumours. The story of how he never gave up hope- enjoying every minute they spent together – knowing the end had to come, touches you so deeply. He says, “Shirelle lived with no apparent awareness of death but lived each moment, as always , to the fullest.” How true it is that we take time for granted, postpone or ignore things we should do for our loved ones, until we are bluntly told that the countdown has begun. The time ahead is limited. The tough part is that no one can say with certainty when the end would come. They could only say that it would be upon him- any day now!

The story begins with the author deciding to get a dog for himself. He visits a pound in Los Angeles, where he lives, to take home a stray. His family had always got strays from the pound and never cared for a dog’s pedigree. As he walks along the cages in the pound, something clicks within him when he sees a pup which he later discovers is part husky-part Saint Bernard. She is taken home and later christened ” Shirelle”.

Douglas Green is a psychotherapist, writer and stage director. He has started, ” AskShirelle” to keep alive her memory and help kids, teens and their parents. In his practice, he uses much of what he learnt from Shirelle- the knucklehead from the city pound who changed his life- and perhaps that of so many others!

Authors, Book Reviews

“Hillbilly Elegy” by J D Vance

To be honest, I had never ever heard of J D Vance until recently. Only when Donald Trump chose him to be his running mate did I hear his name. The focus of many stories I read here in India were more about his wife Usha. That was because her parents were immigrants from India.

I then found his book, ” Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” (Harper, 2016). You must remember he wrote this long before he became a Senator from Ohio. In 2016, no one would have imagined that Vance would become a candidate for Vice President of the United States! This happened only in July 2024. We should keep this in mind as we read Vance’s book.

This is Vance’s personal account of what it was like to have a deeply troubled family life. I admired his honesty in sketching out the principal characters in his life. These include his drug -addicted much-married mother; his sister, who was his biggest support; and his maternal grandparents. They influenced him deeply as he grew up. Indeed, it was his grandmother who played a huge role in shaping his thinking . She helped him escape out of the poverty- stricken, addiction- oriented life he would otherwise have led.

Many people, especially those outside the US, believe that all white people in the US are very well off. Vance’s book describes the difficulties faced by most poor white families in small towns and mining communities. These were compounded when blue collared jobs became scarce. Manufacturing and mining took a steep dive in profitability. Unemployment grew in leaps and bounds. This phenomenon made large parts of the northeast of the United States being called the Rust Belt. As a consequence of economic downfall, social and family ties were adversely affected. The number of broken marriages, broken homes and domestic turbulence increased substantially. Vance lived through all this as a kid. It was naturally his ambition to break out of the chains of poverty.

Vance explains how his four year spell in the US Marine Corps was a turning point in his life. He then attended Ohio State University -not surprisingly the first from his family to do so. He worked hard to achieve his dream of getting admitted into and graduating from the prestigious Yale Law School.

And no, though his wife Usha is mentioned in the book, not much is written about her. Of course, Vance describes how much she helped him at Yale Law School. That apart readers in India looking for stories about her family would be disappointed. I don’t think he even mentioned that her parents migrated from India!

The book underlines how adversity is a tough teacher. You learn a lot when you are dealt with many knocks in your life. Especially when you face many hardships- financial and emotional- at an early and impressionable age.

Authors, Book Reviews

“Exit Wounds” by Lanny Hunter

Growing up in India in the 1960s and 1970s, for me the Vietnam War was far away. It was distant from our every day lives. Yet it did loom large over the decades and occupied a lot of mind space. To my mind, there were two types of people in those days. A large number of Americans seemed to believe they were true patriots. They believed they were fighting for their country’s values and objectives of defending democracies anywhere in the world. As the war dragged on and the number of dead and wounded increased by the day. A powerful anti war sentiment grew in the US. Books have been written in plenty exhorting both sides of this spectrum. I have read many of them over the decades.

A recent book, published in October 2023 by Blackstone caught my attention. It is titled ” Exit Wounds: A Vietnam Elegy” and is by R Lanny Hunter. Serving with the Special Forces in Vietnam, Dr Hunter is well placed to write about the horrors of war. He saw this for himself as a medical doctor on the battlefield. He distinctly remembers the six-day siege at Plei Me in October 1965. Here, the US Forces directly encountered the Army of North Vietnam for the first time. Dr Hunter then a Captain (Medical Corps) in the Special Forces has described this battle in gory detail. He writes about the men – whom he came to know intimately-who fought that battle. Hunter had to make quick decisions on the battlefield. These decisions saved the lives of many soldiers. Sadly, all were not saved as he worked on the age old principle of triage.

Dr Hunter returned to the United States after his two year tour of duty. He was one of the most decorated medical officers to serve in Vietnam. Amongst other awards, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross

Given the financial resources and military might of the United States, no one imagined at that time, that this war that would end the way it did. Over time, the North Vietnam Army occupied large tracts of South Vietnam. One picture remains framed to this day in our minds. It is of men desperately scrambling to hang on to the last helicopter to leave the US Embassy in Saigon. The United States exited Vietnam in 1973 when Richard Nixon was the President – after losing over 58,000 men. The long drawn war finally ended in 1975 with a comprehensive victory for North Viet Nam.

Hunter writes that during the Vietnam war – 1965 to 1975- the United States and its allies dropped more than 7.5 million tonnes of bombs in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. This was more than double the amount of bombs dropped in Europe and Asia in the Second World War! Still they lost the War – which has many insights to students of modern day warfare and geopolitics.

What sets Hunter’s book apart from most others is not just the description of his meritorious war time duties. It is the story of his return to Vietnam in 1997. He returned -three decades after he left Vietnam -answering a plea for help from Y-Kre Mlo. This was his former Montagnard interpreter of bygone days. All through the book, we see the war through Hunter’s eyes as also through those of Y-Kre. We see how he was treated both during and after the war. As is obvious, he was made to suffer a lot after the war for having helped the Americans.

There are some charming vignettes in the book. One is of Hunter taking time off his battlefield duties to answer letters from a kid back in the US. His observations of Vietnam in the ’90s are also interesting. He notices how some things had changed but many others had remained pretty much the same.

I am sure this book will interest readers keen on war and human interest stories. Highly recommended.

Authors, Book Reviews

“Resurgence- A Hyderabadi Miracle” by Ravi Krishnaswamy

If one wants an overview of interesting and impactful happenings from different parts of the world for four decades from 1975 to 2020, one should read, ” Resurgence- A Hyderabadi Miracle” by Ravi Krishnaswamy (aka K Ravi). In this book, published by Enas Publications in 2023 , he covers in considerable detail happenings during this period across various subjects like politics, sports, technology, and movies.

Seeing the litany of books, movies , songs etc described one might well ask: what is so much of information – almost Wikipeadic (to coin a phrase) in scope- doing in a work of fiction? The answer is that the author has used his imagination to good effect to create this story. In this fictional work, the main protagonist is Ram from Hyderabad, now in Telangana State in the South of India. He lives with his parents and siblings in Marredpally an area in Secunderabad which is like a twin city to the larger city of Hyderabad. Ram has a twin brother – who, not surprisingly at all, is called Shyam, like in the famous Hindi movie of that name. Sushila is their elder sister. As a young boy, Ram was an avid and even precocious reader but sadly he met with a bad accident in 1975 when he was hit by a speeding car while cycling with his friends.

Ram falls into a coma -which in this work of fiction eclipses even the record of Elaine Esposito of being in a coma for 37 years- and continues to be in that state till he miraculously recovers 45 years later. It is 2020 by then and the world is in a grip of a new and strange phenomenon which became known as Covid 19. This brought in dramatic changes all over the world. The lockdown in India for a few months helped Ram- in this story- to catch up with events of the decades that had passed him by as he lay in a coma. His parents have passed away so it is up to his sister, brother, and brother-in-law to bring Ram up to speed ( to use a modern idiom) on what has become a fascinating and new world for him. Even physical structures like some of the old landmarks of his locality have been wiped out.

The story weaves in a commentary of present day life where there have been so many advances in technology. These have resulted in developments which would have been considered impossible decades ago. But as with everything else, people too have changed. Ram notices a higher degree of greed for material successes, a hunger for consumption (and probably over consumption), and many other dramatic behavioural changes which reflect a world that would have been considered alien in the 1970s.

I was not at all surprised to hear from Ravi that he wrote this book during the Covid days. This book is very different from his first book called, “Born Smiling: A Father’s Tribute” which was more personal in nature, dealing as it did with the life and passing away of his beloved daughter.

This book is quite different in scope and character from most others. I compliment the author for choosing a difficult approach to tell a story which he assures us is not his- but set in areas very close to his heart.

Authors, Book Reviews

“Hindus In Hindu Rashtra” by Anand Ranganathan

While it is customary to start with the beginning of the book, let me start my review instead from the end! The book I write about was released on August 15, 2023 and is titled, “Hindus In Hindu Rashtra” by Dr Anand Ranganathan (BluOne Ink, 2023). If you think this book is about how Hindus dominate the narrative and events in our country, primarily because of their numbers, you must see the fuller title of the book, which says, ” Hindus In Hindu Rashtra: Eighth -Class Citizens And Victims of State-Sanctioned Apartheid” !

Dr Vikram Sampath, Historian and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, sums up the situation described by the author by succinctly writing, in his Afterword to the book, ” If, even after reading a scholarly and evocative work like this- a small masterpiece in its own right- the Hindus and the Governments of this country do not wake up to take control and address these issues, the fate of the community will sadly be akin to that of lambs being quietly led to their own slaughter.”

Let’s place this book in context of some important numbers as regards population. Since this book will be of interest to people all over the world, I wish the author had added some key statistics in the Prologue.

India’s population is presently 1.43 billion which adds to the complexities of governing a large and diverse country. Yes, Hindus do form the majority of India’s population – at least as of now. According to Pew Research, between 1951 and 2011, the percentage of Hindu’s in India’s population fell from 84 % to 79% while the population of Muslims grew from 9.8 to 14.2 %. Currently their number is in excess of 204,000,000, which is larger than countries like Russia, UK, Germany, and France. It is estimated by Pew Research that 94 % of Hindus in the world live in india. However, in terms of certain rights, as you will see from Dr Ranganathan’s crisply explained, fact based book, they are far worse off than are the ” minorities” in relation to important aspects of life such as religion, and education, amongst others.

We are nearly two and a half decades into the 21 century and with the power of technology and social media it is clear that the one who sets the “narrative” (to use today’s speak) is the winner. Or at least has the major advantage to start with. We see these days how outrageous allegations and “news items” (mostly exaggerated or even blatantly false) grab all the headlines. If this is challenged, a toned down version or even an apology is rendered- not as a headline but in some obscure corner of the newspaper which no one notices! By then the damage has been done!

Many critics of Prime Minister Modi’s Government like Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi for example, or journalist Rana Ayyub for example, say that Muslims feel attacked in India and/or there is a move to inflame hatred against them. Presenting a very different picture of what is actually going on, Dr Ranganathan explains in his book, how on the contrary for decades after Independence in 1947, the Hindus are being discriminated against. He has eight chapters in his book and each of them deal with one aspect of this discrimination such as State Control of Hindu Temples, The Waqf Act, and so on. This is the reason why he calls Hindus “eighth -class citizens” of India!

It is a must read for every Hindu in India- to make them aware of where they actually stand despite all the noise that suggests a “Fascist Hindu Rashtra.”

It’s unfortunate these days that terms are used so casually. Often people speak of “genocide against minorities in India” but the last genocides in India were against the Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s (which is covered in this book ) and before that, against the Sikhs in 1984.

I found the book to be meticulously researched and informative. I hope this will be translated into many Indian languages so as to increase its reach.

Authors, Book Reviews

“A Prince Among The Patriots” by Maj. Gen. M K. Paul (Retd)

Often books are referred to as labours of love considering the huge amounts of work that go into writing them and the unbridled passion with which they are written. Knowing the author as I do, I can say with certainty that, “A Prince Among The Patriots: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose” by Maj. Gen. M. K. Paul (Retd) is definitely one such book. This “labour of love” has been recently published by Heritage Publishers, New Delhi.

Over the decades since India became a free nation, there have been many books on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, whom I consider to be the most heroic Indian of the 20 th century. You might well ask, ” Why then should there be one more?”. To my mind, the advent of social media, the explosion of information available and a renewed interest in knowing how India won freedom from the British are factors that have propelled the writing of this book. I need hardly add that the author’s passion for the subject of the book has been a key driver.

As a keen student of literature in general and biography in particular for the last six decades, I believe a biography rests on two central pillars. The first pillar is about the subject of the biography. This addresses questions like: Who was the person the book is about? What kind of person was he/she? What characteristics and behaviours did he/she exhibit that set them apart from others?

The second pillar is about their achievements and contributions which make them worthy of being written about. How did their actions impact society around them? What were the results of their endeavours? To what extent did they succeed in achieving the outcomes they worked for?

Seen through this prism, “A Prince Amongst The Patriots” elaborates upon Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s personality and character and his stellar contributions towards winning freedom from the British. The latest available literature and accounts point out to how it was the fear of a large scale mutiny by the British Indian Army, The Navy and the Air Force that was the proverbial last nail in the coffin of the British Empire. Towards this end, the valiant actions of Netaji’s Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) which actively battled the British had a big influence on the minds of ordinary Indians serving in the British Indian Forces. It was Bose’s war cry of “Give Me Blood and I will Give you Freedom” that sent a chill down the backs of the British.This was a very different approach from one they had been used to for decades: Gandhiji’s non-violent cry of “Quit India” which they had ignored.

Netaji was an extraordinary leader who led from the front. His exploits in escaping from British India in disguise in 1941 and coming back by German and Japanese submarines to take charge of the INA in 1943 speaks volumes about his personal courage. His is a very different story than that of his more famous contemporaries in Indian history who exhorted crowds to face lathis while they never faced attacks by the police themselves. Even when they were imprisoned, Nehru and Gandhi spent time in relatively comfortable prisons as distinct from the terrible experiences Netaji had to go through when imprisoned by the British in the early years of the Second World War.

Apart from Netaji’s interactions with Gandhi and Nehru in India, the book dwells upon Netaji’s interactions with Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo in Germany, Italy and Japan. His mind was set only on one goal – freedom for his motherland. He was ready to take anybody’s help to achieve his dream. He was a man of principles, with a steadfast commitment to his cause, and a born leader with a flair for being different. Sadly, for decades after India became independent, Netaji did not get the recognition he richly deserved –

Hats off to Gen Paul for his work on Netaji Bose. I think the book could have seen better editing, but considering the author is 91, it is remarkable that he achieved one of his dearest ambitions: to write an interesting and informative book about his hero!

Highly recommended for those – especially amongst our youth – who are interested in Indian history, military history and biography.

Authors, Book Reviews

“The Mountbattens: Their Lives & Loves” by Andrew Lownie

To the reader in India, ” The Mountbattens: Their Lives & Loves” published by Blink Publishing in 2019 renews interest in a couple who played a pivotal role in the Partition of India. It is written by Andrew Lownie, a renowned journalist and literary agent. Apart from this comprehensive book on the Mounbattens, Lownie has written books on the former King Edward VIII called “The Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor” and on the Russian spy Guy Burgess, titled, “Stalin’s Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess’.

Whenever I think of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900-1979), I see an imposing figure in sparkling white Naval uniform with rows of medal ribbons on his chest. He did become an Admiral of the Fleet and the First Sea Lord in 1955 thereby fulfilling a childhood vow that he would attain a position held by his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg. Mountbatten’s father was forced to resign as the First Sea Lord following intense public pressure due to his German ancestry when the First World War broke out in 1914.

However, more than his career as an officer of the Royal Navy, we in India know of “Dickie” Mountbatten as the last British Viceroy of India. In five hectic months from March to August 1947, he presided over the dismemberment of India. He was then invited to continue as Governor-General (from August 1947 to June 1948) after India became independent by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. As the last Viceroy of India, he was often seen accompanied by his wife, Edwina, Countess Mountbatten of Burma (1901-1960). She had earned a lot of accolades for her work as the Chief of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade during the Second World War.

As the book’s title suggests, it covers more than just the official roles the Mountbattens played during their long and distinguished careers. It speaks of the innumerable love affairs they had in the course of a long marriage that lasted from 1922 to 1960 when Lady Mounbatten passed away. The author writes that the book is the “portrait of an unusual marriage- one that was loving and mutually supportive, but also beset with infidelities. Mountbatten himself claimed that he and Edwin spent all their married lives getting into other people’s beds!

Dickie Mountbatten was the great grandson of Queen Victoria, through his mother. He was thus the nephew of King George V; a cousin of his successors as Kings of Britain, King Edward VIII and George VI; and uncle of Queen Elizabeth II who married his nephew, Phillip, in November 1947. All his life, Mountbatten had a reputation of being a name dropper who got things done using his closeness to the Royal Family. He may have been a member of the Royal Family but in terms of wealth Edwina was far richer than him. Her grandfather Sir Ernest Cassell was financial advisor to King Edward VII and in his own right one of the richest men in the world. When Edwina got married in 1922, she was the richest heiress in the world!!

Lownie takes us through the different stages of Mountbatten’s career starting from when he was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant in the Royal Navy in 1916 until he retired with the rank of Admiral of the Feet as the First Sea Lord 1959. In the 1920s and 1930s, Edwina was more known for her love for parties, her many lovers, and the social circuit she thrived in more than for anything else. Her interest in Nursing and volunteering for the War effort came much later in her life. She did commendable work for the St Johns Ambulance Brigade and in nursing troops injured in battle in South East Asia where her husband was the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces.

Of special interest to readers in India will be the relationship between the Viceroy, the Vicerine, and Jawaharlal Nehru which has been described in considerable detail by Lownie. Was Edwina’s influence over Nehru used to get the Indian leader to agree to what Mountbatten wanted? Was their relationship merely a ” spiritual” one as claimed by some or much more than that? Did Mountbatten use Edwina’s love for Nehru and vice versa to his advantage? You should read the book for yourself to get all these answers. To many, this book will come as an eye opener. It describes how the high and mighty, glamorous members of the fabled “high society” lived during the height of the British Empire in England and in the closing days of the British Raj in India. After all for more than 50 years, the Mountbattens were considered close to British Royalty.

If you like history and biographies, this is a well-researched book which gives you new insights into the lives of Lord and Lady Mountbatten and the times they lived in.

Authors, Book Reviews

“Teresa’s Man & Other Short Stories from Goa” by Damodar Mauzo

My love for Goa stems from the fact that our ancestral deity is Shri Mangesh at Mangeshi, near Ponda in South Goa. We have therefore been visiting Goa for over 50 years if not longer. I loved the book I write about because most of the stories are set in Goa. The book is written by Damodar Mauzo, one of the finest writers in Konkani- which happens to be my mother tongue- and translated to English by the well-known translator, Xavier Cota.

“Teresa’s Man & Other Short Stories From Goa” is not a recently published book. It was published by Rupa in 2014 but I happened to read it only recently. Interestingly, the translator in his note informs us that this collection of 14 short stories have amongst them some written by Mauzo decades ago- but they still hold relevance to this day.

The characters are always sharply drawn in these stories. Be they Rajesh and Mithila of Goan origin hoping for a better future in Saudi Arabia; or of Halsid’du hoping for a better future in Goa! All the stories tug at your emotions as you are able to relate so strongly with the characters and the situations they find themselves in.

Over the decades, Goa, in the minds of many Indians has been typecast as THE tourist destination. Apart from the scenic beauty, tourists associate Goa with booze, beaches, and partying. I must tell you that the characters painted by Mauzo in these stories are nowhere like the typical Goan in the minds of many people. Mauzo depicts the way most of them are- simple, God fearing, hard working folk who strive to lead better lives in a tough world. Catholics and Hindus live check by jowl in total harmony in Mauzo’s stories. As I said, all the stories are interesting but my favourite was “A Writer’s Tale”.

Damodar Mauzo is a famous novelist, scriptwriter, and literary critic. He was awarded the prestigious Jnanpith Award – India’s highest literary honour in 2021. Earlier, his novel “Karmelin” won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983.

I would urge you to read this delightful book.

Authors, Book Reviews

“How TCS Built An Industry For India” by R Gopalakrishnan & Tulsi Jayakumar

If India is reckoned to be a growing economic power house, one of the key contributors to this transformation has been the Information Technology industry. “How TCS Built An Industry For India” authored by R Gopalakrishnan and Tulsi Jayakumar, published by Rupa Publications in 2019 details the pioneering role and subsequent leadership provided to the industry by TCS, a jewel in the Tata crown.

To begin with a word about the authors; Mr Gopalakrishnan is a reputed Corporate Executive who was the Vice Chairman of Hindustan Levers and later Director in Tata Sons while Tulsi Jayakumar is a Professor of Economics at the S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) in Mumbai. This book is the first in a series to be called The Shapers of Business Institutions building on the authors’ theme that Shapers of Institutions are institution builders in the true sense of the term. They are several notches above the conventional leaders of organisations. The book lays considerable emphasis on the role of Shapers in organisational building, instilling values, and shaping careers of employees in them for the long term sustainability and growth of the institution.

Two shapers described in this book- who made TCS what it is today- are Mr F C Kohli and Mr S Ramadorai. Mr Kohli became General Manager of TCS in 1969 and led the company till he retired in 1996. He was the first CEO of TCS and is rightly called the “Father of the IT Industry in India”. He passed away in 2020 aged 96. His handpicked successor was Mr S Ramadorai who joined TCS in 1969 and held many important positions over the decades. He was responsible for setting up TCS operations in the US in 1979 . He was at the helm of affairs of the Company from 1996 till 2009.

Today all of us know TCS as a giant- with revenues of $25 billion, operating in 150 locations in 46 countries with over 600,000 employees world wide. The book traces the journey of this institution since it began in a very small scale as a division of Tata Sons in 1969. We read of the foresight shown by Mr Kohli and his team and the bold decisions they took in the initial years in an environment often hostile to private businesses. Interestingly, Mr Ramadorai had a very different management style as compared to Mr Kohli. Naturally, the challenges he faced as the head of TCS were more complex and quite different from the ones that Mr Kohli had faced years earlier.

The book would have been significantly more absorbing had there been much more insight into the personalities of Mr Kohli and Mr Ramadorai. After all, one’s management style is pretty much based on one’s personality. What made them tick? What were their strengths and weaknesses- and they would have had them being human after all? Many in India, if not in different parts of the world – would have course heard of these gentlemen. Some quotes and an assessment about them from people who worked with them and observed them at close quarters would have vastly enhanced the value of the book.

Whether you are in the IT industry or not, I think this will be an educative and interesting book for all professional managers and business leaders. It will inspire them as they learn lessons from the experiences of the pioneers and builders of the IT Industry in India.

Authors, Book Reviews

“The Blood of Patriots and Traitors” by James A. Scott

At the outset, let me say that this is an advance review of a book scheduled for publication in February 2023. “The Blood of Patriots and Traitors” ( an interesting title to start with!) is by James A. Scott, the author of “The President’s Dossier” and this too is published by Oceanview Publishing of Sarasota, Fl. By the way, “The President’s Dossier” was awarded the Best Thriller/Adventure Novel at the American Book Fest in 2020.

Maxwell Geller is a former CIA officer who has had considerable success in his career, especially on the Moscow front. He is pretty much forced to come out of semi-retirement to accept a challenge which will take him back to Moscow. His assignment is to bring out a defector who has extremely valuable secrets which the CIA is desperate to get. The defector has asked for him by name based on his reputation in Moscow.

This fast paced thriller is absorbing as it is full of action. It starts with how Geller is compelled to accept this assignment as he basks in the sunshine on a Sydney beach. Things move very rapidly and the events described hold your attention from start to finish. Geller goes about his task with many twists and turns coming his way. It is one thing for him to know whom to contact and quite another to know whom he can trust. The book has a number of interesting characters. As is to be expected, some of them are not whom they appear to be. In the murky world of espionage and spying, as you can imagine, there are many ways of making someone change his/her mind and allegiance.

James A Scott has a good grasp of plotting a story and delivering it with aplomb. I am sure “The Blood of Patriots and Traitors” will be well received when it is published. Keep a lookout for this book. It is worth a read!