Sarah R. ShaberRezensionen

Really liked the way the past life theme was handled. Felt the research was realistic

American involvement in World War II is six months old, and everybody and her sister flocks to the nation’s capital to find a job. Louise Pearlie, whose husband has died years before and can’t bear to remain in rural North Carolina, has brought her excellent secretarial skills and work experience to the Office of Strategic Services, the intelligence organization. Gossip has it that the Allies will invade North Africa within months, hence the OSS search for maps of the coastline and experts who understand the beaches.

One such authority is Gerald Bloch, a French Jew married to a school friend of Louise’s. From what little news she’s received, Louise gathers that Gerald and Rachel are stuck in Marseilles, while reports say that the Vichy government has made sure that no Jews will receive exit visas. Deportation looms, and Louise, who owes Rachel a huge debt, wishes she could help.

Theoretically, the OSS could claim that Gerald Bloch would provide necessary information concerning the upcoming invasion. But the file on him goes missing during the confusion ensuing from the fatal heart attack suffered by the director of Louise’s section. At first, she thinks nothing of this, but soon, at tremendous risk, she sets out to discover how and why a sensitive dossier could simply vanish, and whether recovering it would save the Blochs.

It’s an excellent premise, if a mite dependent on coincidence, but Shaber’s narrative has a lot going for it. For starters, I like how she’s drawn Louise. Growing up poor and churchy, Louise doesn’t quite know what to make of the big city, where old values get shunted aside in the business of making war. The tremendous crush of people in a hurry and under pressure, with ambition and money to spend, offers temptations she’s not used to, but which attract her. Her parents want her to remarry, but she enjoys her independence, even if she wonders what it would feel like to have the financial security and creature comforts she’d never afford on her own.

That said, Louise also knows that many, if not most, men expect women to keep quiet and use their brains only to help solve male problems, for which, of course, they’ll receive no credit. But her common sense doesn’t prevent her from wanting what might not be good for her. I like that complexity.

The other winning facet of Louise’s War is the atmosphere. Whether it’s fabric shortages, the bus company’s refusal to hire Black drivers, people trying to get around the sugar ration, or the habit of traveling GIs tossing letters out train windows, knowing that someone will stamp and mail them, Shaber knows her ground and deploys details with skill.

Given that keen eye and grasp of psychology, I’m surprised to stumble across a cardinal error. Louise’s first-person narration works just fine, but, for some reason, Shaber shoehorns brief, usually first-person, sections belonging to minor characters, ostensibly to reveal information Louise couldn’t know. Since these look as clumsy as they sound, you have to ask, Does the reader need to know? I doubt it.

Pretty much everything would have kept until Louise manages to discover it, and her ignorance could have heightened the tension, complicating her attempts to parse conflicting evidence. As it is, the story telegraphs answers to a couple major questions when, with little effort, the author might have shaded the account of events to create doubt and keep the reader guessing along with Louise.

Less glaring to the general reader, though unfortunately common in fiction, the Jewish characters don’t feel genuine, which turns them into a narrative convenience. I also object to how certain authors consistently say “Nazis” to identify those who invaded other countries and committed mass murder and expropriation, as though “ordinary” Germans distanced themselves from those crimes.

I can’t help think that the author, or her publisher, wants to separate people we like from those we can hate with abandon. Too bad. Similarly, the novel presents a likable, admirable protagonist, born and raised in North Carolina, who befriends the Black women servants in her boardinghouse without a second thought. That seems a little easy.

Nevertheless, in other ways Louise’s War brilliantly presents a city during conflict, a heroine whose voice draws you in, and a mystery that will keep you turning the pages.

amateur-sleuth, murder, WW2, Atlantic-ocean, historical-fiction, historical-research, historical-setting*****

From Washington DC to Liverpool on a "tin can" Liberty ship in February 1944, Louise accepts a new assignment to work in an office in London for the OSS. There's no heating and her warmest clothes are out of reach in the hold because she wasn't properly warned. It's a real trial, but nothing like what's to come in the form of U-Boats and Nazi airplanes. Sounds a little far fetched, but the journey itself was inspired by the journal of an American woman who made that very trip in that very time! All four weeks of it! I loved the story and it is truly enhanced by the verbal artistry of Jenny Hoops, narrator.
I won this audio in a giveaway.

The North Carolina coast is the site of many shipwrecks. Some weather-related merchants but many are war casualties. Blockade of the barrier reefs has always occurred in times of war and many ships lie under the water here, from the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and even WWII. The tales of treasure and artefacts within these wrecks is used by Sarah Shaber as the background for the finding of a body and the investigation of a mystery.

Local historian and amateur sleuth, Professor Simon Shaw is spending Thanksgiving with friends at Pearlie Beach, North Carolina when a body dredged from the sands that have over the years have filled the Intercoastal channel. A body identified as a naval man thought lost and drowned during WWII, a body from the time of the civil air patrol of the US coast, a body with a cache of gold coins minted in the Civil War.

The plot was more complex than I expected and very satisfying!

historical-fiction, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, Washington DC, amateur-sleuth, law-enforcement, murder-investigation, suspense*****

Don't let the fact that this is part of a series stop you from reading this book! Not only are there enough references to keep you involved but the story and and the characters and the historical references are totally engaging.
Two people walk into a bar. .. well, they did. But what came next was a bloody corpse, not a punch line. It's a good thing that the investigating detective is known and friendly to Louise or things could really get messier. Both the detective and Louise investigate separately and things get more convoluted. An excellent read!
Jenny Hoops is really great as Louise and the narrative, and even better than most at defining the other characters.
I won this audiobook in a giveaway! I really win!

espionage, nazis, FBI, women-sleuths, suspense, friendship, Washington DC, WW2

1943 Washington office of the OSS. Louise Pearlie is a file clerk supervisor who has had an experience with the more active side of the agency in order to help a dear friend trapped in Vichy France. This time she winds up with a terribly green agent who nearly blows the whole investigation into a peculiar postcard sent to an oysterman. Later she winds up with an FBI agent on a ramification of the same case and her resourcefulness is tested to the limit. Excellent read!
Narrator Jenny Hoops makes it all seem current and real while giving the characters depth beyond the written word.

espionage, WW2, Washington DC

Louise works as a lead file clerk in the offices of the OSS during WW2 but is coming to know more displaced persons and their backgrounds. At least she thinks she knows about them. One of these friends turns out to be displaced aristocracy masquerading as an ordinary citizen and has a message for Louise's superior. Lots of intrigue and suspense balanced by well researched aspects of ordinary life during that war. Well done!
I laughed at the references to having to color the oleo both in the book and in a few reviews because here in Wisconsin colored oleo was illegal from 1881 to 1967!
The audio are performed by Jenny Hoops who really makes a positive difference.

Washington DC, WW2, women's-fiction, suspense

Can you call it a murder mystery if it takes most of the book before the murder is no longer called *a heart attack*? Louise works as a file clerk for a clandestine agency and discovered that the good friend from college is in danger from the Nazis in occupied France. Just after she passed information to her boss that would help her friend and her family, the man is found dead of an apparent heart attack and his office a mess. The file that would help her friend goes missing and the story gets progressively more interesting!
The story is well worth the read, but narrator Jenny Hoops makes it even more so!

WW2, spies, prisoners-of-war, amateur-sleuth, historical-novel, historical-research, historical-setting, friendship *****

Louise is a 30ish widow working in the OSS in a clerical capacity when she is tagged for a job within the agency as assistant to a propaganda expert. The pay is better but some parts are a bit scary, like her very first airplane ride and then staying close to a POW camp to take notes while prisoners are interviewed. Lots of things are very real, like the effects of rationing and attitudes towards women. There are a couple of subplots that add interesting aspects as well.
Jenny Hoops is the perfect voice performance narrator as she really adds good things to the characters.
I was very lucky to win the audio in a giveaway!

historical-research, historical-fiction, historical-setting, spies, WW2, Washington DC, short

***** The OSS was the precursor of the CIA and it operated during WW2 (check out the biography of Julia Child!). This agency was every bit as disjointed and dysfunctional as the current one and many of the employees, both stateside and overseas were inadequately prepared for the tasks that they were assigned. Enter Louise Pearlie, government worker, widow, a woman of her time but more willing than some to get out of her comfort zone. The publisher's blurb is a good start, but I really liked the whole thing even though I hadn't read any others in the series. It's a nice length, too.
I recognized the narrator from other work she's done, and I really enjoy the narrations by Jenny Hoops!
I won this audio book in a giveaway.

Well what do you know. I only noticed one small issue, and without going back to the last book for verification, I’m not positive. The plot on this one was a bit boring, or perhaps I’ve just over-read the series. In any case, her treatment of the FBI agent didn’t quite match her previous disdain for him. imho.½

It is simply ridiculous. In one scene Louise sits down in a pair of woolen trousers and stands up in dress. In another she leaves the office wearing a straw Fedora and takes off her headscarf when she reaches her destination. These types of errors happen when revising, but are easily spotted by a discerning reader.

The main plot of this book was fresh, a new roommate was added to the boarding house, and more information on the OSS was included. It is such a shame that Shaber handicaps herself unnecessarily.½

Och lassie, I’m just that tired of rating your books 3.5 stars!
This one was pretty good. But if you had a decent copy editor, they should have caught the fact that Frederick, MD is in Frederick County Maryland, located near Hagerstown, going west.

Prince Frederick, MD is in Calvert County and borders the Chesapeake Bay in Southern Maryland.

Similar names, but it should easily have been caught. Otherwise, an interesting plot.½

Perhaps my criticism has been blunted, but this book began better than the last few of Shaber’s. But then she continually drank champagne out of a flute, rather than a coupe. Ah, this is where a copy editor enters a good author’s life. As far as I can tell, w/o a detailed search, flutes came into vogue in the mid-seventies. The real sin came, though, when Lois’s took her shoes off in the apartment and then made mention of them being still off when she visited the loo. Really? And then she ran through the hotel barefoot? Took a taxi home barefoot? That must have been quite something to see in wartime DC. Hire a copy editor, sweetie. We aren’t that expensive.½

It was a Kindle free download. Cozy and entertaining. Currently reading the rest of the series

[Simon Said] by Sarah Shaber
Book 1 in the Professor Simon Shaw Murder Mysteries
5★'s

From The Book:

Forensic historian Simon Shaw likes his murders old and cold, and his first case fits the bill. An archaeologist friend has found a skeleton with a bullet hole in its skull under historic Bloodworth House, and Simon investigates with his usual doggedness until he discovers that the corpse is Anne Bloodworth, an heiress who disappeared in 1926. Shaw feels compelled to find out who killed her. But this turns out to be more than an academic exercise when someone who wants to hide past secrets tries to murder him!

My Thoughts:

I'm not a big reader of the cozy mystery sub-genre but from the start I fell in love with Simon and his friends. Throw in the mystery and a well told story and they combine to make a light and fun tale. Those that are not big fans of the darker, gorier mysteries will find that this is a pleasant surprise. The characters are not especially "deep" but they hold their own in bringing the story alive and keeping the mystery intriguing. This is the first of the Simon Shaw Mysteries but i will be looking for more when I want something that is light and fun to read. 5 stars.

I live "inside the beltway" now, but in the District when I was in my late teens and early twenties. The physical landmarks Shaber describes are very true to the reality that was 1942 onward. I can picture my father dressed for work in those days. In a way, the book was personal even though I wasn't born until 1950.

The plot is a bit farfetched, but not beyond the realm of possibilities. If one has an elastic imagination, anyway.

But Shaber STILL doesn't employ a copy editor. At least three times she repeated herself verbatim. One sentence contained a duplicate word. A writer needs more than a spell checker. Shaber has the makings of a best selling mystery writer, but it will never happen without a copy editor. We don't charge that much!½

Professor Simon Shaw is asked to assist the police in identifying a seventy-year old corpse. A well-plotted who-dun-it. Historical documents, oral history are to be the keys to solving this mystery. Woven around this 70 year old mystery is the current mystery of who is trying to harm Professor Shaw. We get to follow two sets of clues and circumstances. A two for one!

Another almost great book by Sarah Shaber. on the one hand, she did some decent research on the migration path of the earliest humans settling in America. She brought to the fore some of the arguments for and against housing skeletal remains in museums.

But then she tried to go beyond her knowledge and introduce a relatively new system of dating artifacts that is used by specialists, called "bp" or "before present." She fell down in trying to explain the dating system, and without a full explanation, this reader thinks she should have left well enough alone. "BP" refers to the years before 1950, which, as I am reading this book in 2016, is 66 years ago. Presumably, at some future date, archeologists will begin to use a new technical term.

But St. Martin's Press continues to publish Shaber's books without first editing them. At Kindle location 328, she writes that Dr. Morgan died, "early this morning." He had died yesterday. What a difference a day truly makes.

At Kindle location 649ish, she has Julia twist her hair into a French braid. Is Sarah a pseudonym for a guy? One plaits, or braids, one's hair into a French braid (yes, it is different from an ordinary braid), and one twists one's hair into a French twist.½

This book lives up to the promise of Shaber's first book, other than one minor proofreading error and one glaring research mistake--akin to the one about the Swastika in book two--but one that is more forgivable, because so many people in this world are ignorant.

Shaber has a Jewish Rabbi refer to the "wailing wall." This is the remaining section of the Western Wall of the second temple. It is the holiest site where Jews may pray. Some say it takes the name "wailing wall" because Jews go there to wail. Others, even more dysphemistically, say it is where Jews go to wail their grief at not being Christian, or to beg forgiveness for crucifying Christ. Had Shaber had a gentile speak the term, I would have cringed, but having it come from a rabbi made it another example of poor fact checking. Please, Ms. Shaber, spring for a decent copy editor.

I loved the ending to this book!! The entire plot was fresh and well handled.½

I enjoyed Shaber's first book, so downloaded four more to help pass the time while I recuperate from a broken fibula (doing fine, thanks).

This one began interestingly, with Simon being held at gunpoint. Julia began to get on my nerves, so I was glad Shaber went somewhere with that. I enjoyed meeting Simon's family, and learning a bit about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

What I did not enjoy, and that made me wonder, once again, was what her editor does to earn a salary. What an interesting plot twist, to bring in a Malungeon! But what poor writing skill to simply lecture us from an encyclopedia. I can wiki info, too. Shaber could easily have incorporated all the facts about this ethnic group into dialog between characters.

The interesting title deserved a bit more than just a page. And again, the reader didn't need a lecture on chess puzzles--why not enlarge the character of the uncle to have him explain how chess aficionados use "puzzle books." To tie the title to the actual story, Simon ruminates later that he felt this mystery (puzzle), too, began in the middle. For heaven's sake! He is a forensic historian!! Where else would it have begun?

Shaber needs to spend a bit more time on rewrites, or she needs to hire an editor. They really are worthy of their hire.

Unlike the previous reviewer, I give this book a low rating specifically because of poor research. An author just can't decide something makes sense and is therefore true!!

The German Swastika has absolutely nothing to do with a Christian cross, Greek or otherwise. The word itself comes from Sanskrit and means "good fortune" or "well-being." The motif appears to have been used in Neolithic Eurasia. To this day, it is a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Odinism.

Mothers, at least from the 1980s, do NOT give their children aspirin. (Ever heard of REYE'S syndrome?) Perhaps Shaber or Shaber's mother gave her aspirin along with teaspoons of bourbon to quell pain, but I'm sorry for the readers' children who may now be dosed with that combination. If you have three kids, you automatically travel with a first aide kit. Or you should.

Okay, so the aspirin may have been a mistake, but failing to do the proper research on the swastika was lousy, careless researching. Hire a copy-editor!!½

Finally! A new author (to me) with a new series (to me), who did a pretty good job of introducing characters, some of whom I hope will be continuing!

Twice I found simple copy-editing mistakes. While I'm sure no one will read them, I will still list them here.

Kindle location 2730 it should have been Miss Havisham (not Haversham).

Kindle location 3888, it only really makes sense if it is written 1935 to 1965.

The plot was not a mind-boggling one, but the writing was good. I definitely recommend this book. With a bit more effort, Shaber could become a name among mystery writers.

Sarah Shaber's third Simon Shaw mystery begins with Simon completing a semester at Kenan College and receiving a strange visit. An escaped convict wants Simon, who has gained a reputation for solving crimes, to exonerate him in the murder of a young woman whom he loved forty years ago in the NC mountains near Boone. Simon plans to ignore the request/demand but gets sucked into it. Looking into the story enables/forces Simon to visit his relatives in the mountains. Simon's interactions with his aunt, uncle, and others are fun to see, and his misadventures with girlfriend Julia keep his life beyond sleuthing in the picture.

It's interesting to see how Shaber sets things up, particularly in having various characters absent from their usual haunts at key times to allow events to proceed. Simon uses a similar technique within the story to set a trap for a killer. The title refers to a checkers problem that Simon's uncle shows him; Simon reflects later that he feels he has fallen into a situation in the middle, rather than starting at the beginning. A nice addition to a fun series.½

Academia and a 70 years dead heiress. Good combo. Easy read.