Posts by Vicki J Kondelik

This is a biography of Charlotte Corday, the young woman who assassinated the French Revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat in 1793. The author, Joseph Shearing, was known for mystery novels based on true-life crimes. Even though this book is non-fiction, it reads like a political thriller or a novel of suspense.

The Long Call is an outstanding mystery by Ann Cleeves, best known for the Shetland and Vera series. This is the beginning of a new series, featuring Matthew Venn, a gay police officer in the seaside resort area of North Devon, England. Matthew lives with his husband, Jonathan, who runs the community center. He has left the strict evangelical Christian community in which he grew up. As he is standing outside the church during his father's funeral, Matthew receives a call about a dead body on the beach. It turns out the dead man was a cook at the community center, and Jonathan may be a suspect.

Murder on the Champ de Mars is part of a long-running mystery series set in Paris. A young Romany man approaches detective Aimée Leduc and says he has information about the murder of her father. As fans of the series know, Aimée has been searching for her father's murderer since the first book in the series. When Aimée goes to meet the young man, he is murdered in front of her eyes, but she never gets a good look at the killer. This book also tells of the tragic history of the Romany people in France.

The Whiskey Rebels is a historical thriller set in the years following the American Revolution, told by two main characters in alternating chapters. Ethan Saunders was a spy during the Revolutionary War, but his career was ruined after he was falsely accused of treason. Seeking to redeem his reputation, he attempts to foil a plot against Alexander Hamilton's Bank of the United States. Joan Maycott is the widow of a man who discovered a new method of distilling whiskey, only to have her life ruined by Hamilton's whiskey task. Now she is determined to get her revenge on Hamilton by bringing down his bank.

I Always Loved You is a beautifully-written historical novel about the American Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt and her complex relationship with Edgar Degas in Paris in the late 19th century. She suffers from self-doubt and receives devastating reviews from the critics before her art finally gains recognition.

American Spy is a brilliantly-written Cold War thriller about a black female FBI agent, Marie Mitchell, who is constantly being turned down for high-profile assignments because of her race and gender. When a CIA agent offers her an assignment in Burkina Faso, she accepts it, even though she suspects she was offered it because she's a black woman. She is supposed to help the CIA bring down Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso's president. Then she falls in love with Sankara, and starts to question her beliefs. Will she continue with her assignment, even if it means betraying the man she loves?

Ancient Roman private investigator Flavia Albia takes on the case of a young woman's suspicious death. The victim had supposedly swallowed a love potion provided by the local witch, Pandora, after being rejected by her boyfriend. Flavia discovers that Pandora has connections to an organized crime family, and the young woman might have been a victim of gang warfare. Can Flavia catch the killer before she becomes the next victim?

Désirée is a historical novel, in the form of a fictional diary, that tells the story of Désirée Clary, the daughter of a silk merchant from Marseille, who became Napoleon's first love, and later, through a set of extraordinary circumstances, Queen of Sweden. The major events of Napoleon's reign are told through her eyes. The book was made into a film starring Jean Simmons and Marlon Brando.

The Guardian of Lies is a Cold War thriller set in the South of France. A young woman, Eloïse, goes to Paris, hoping to follow in her brother's footsteps as a CIA agent. After a car chase, where her brother is severely injured, she goes home to her family's farm in the South of France, only to find that the area has become a hotbed of violence and political intrigue after her father sells part of his land to the U.S. Air Force for an airbase. And she begins to suspect her brother isn't telling her the truth about his activities. Can Eloïse find her way out of the web of lies and deceit surrounding her?

Liberty by Lucy Moore tells the story of six remarkable women who lived during the French Revolution. They came from a variety of social backgrounds, from aristocratic to working-class women. During these difficult times, it is fascinating to read about these women who lived during another difficult time.