Operation Last Chance - Efraim Zuroff

Zuroff is more of a "modern" Nazi hunter. His journey is trying to track down men and women who have escaped justice for many years. The prey are, in many cases, over 80 years old. The book was originally published in 2009, so there were still a fair number of criminals hiding.

He faces more than his share of hate and pushback, which I found unfortunate. It was disappointing to read how the different countries were apathetic or outright protecting these people. One of the common excuses was related to the amount of time that had passed. I didn't really understand that. I equate it to a cold case. If your relative had been brutally murdered, would you care how long it had been? Wouldn't you want justice?

On the other side of the problem was the long-term consequences of the hunt. It made me think of the children of parents who are murderers. Granted, these criminals are so old, their family either already knows of their past, or they're old enough to cope with it. But I feel like the family would suffer more than the hunted. Many of the criminals died while waiting for the governments to decide what to do with them or didn't spend much time in jail. In a perfect world, these people wouldn't have gotten away with their crimes in the first place, so this whole operation wouldn't have been necessary. I guess what I'm trying to say is I have no sympathy for the criminals themselves, but for the innocent, (and I mean those that didn't know and share the views of their family member) I do have sympathy.

The book itself was a lot of dealing with governments. A few specific hunts are described in detail, but they don't really have a satisfying ending. How can they when these people lived for so long without any consequences for their actions? I think the best thing the operation accomplishes is making sure the criminals knew they weren't safe in their anonymity, and the Holocaust isn't forgotten. The latter is probably more important in 2024, as there probably aren't many Nazis from WWII still alive.

Nimona - ND Stevenson

This graphic novel was recommended to me by my daughter, so I was excited to read it. I didn't know anything about it.

Nimona is the new sidekick to the villain Ballister. He's bitter because the person he believed to be his friend attacked him and took his arm. Now they're on opposite sides. Goldenloin feels bad about the rift, but he also is part of the Institution pursuing Ballister. Nimona starts creating chaos around her, and Ballister isn't sure what to do about her.

I liked the story with this one. It made me smile a few times. My main complaint is the print. It was so tiny most of the time, I had troubles figuring it out at times. That bothered me through the whole story. The end was sweet. It didn't take me a long time to get through this one, but it was a neat read. Good Book!

Death - Neil Gaiman

One of the most interesting side characters while I was reading the Sandman series was his sister, Death. This book collects a couple installments from the Sandman and has some others as well. From Sandman, the issues 'The Sound of Her Wings,' 'Façade,' and 'Death and Venice.' Then it had two miniseries 'The High Cost of Living' and 'The Time of Your Life.' Finally, a couple short stories are sprinkled in there: 'A Winter's Tale,' 'The Wheel,' and 'Death Talks About Life.'

I'm not going to go through and explain the plots of all of these unconnected stories. There's a reason I gravitate toward this particular character, and it's because Gaiman has some interesting things to say about life and death. He reminds me of things I'd forgotten or started taking for granted. And the stories are so unique. The man is talented. There's not much else to say. Good Book!

Assassin's Creed: Forsaken - Oliver Bowden

I had been watching the first book of this series on eReaderIQ, because I thought it would be interesting. When we went to HPB, I was shocked to see three copies of this book in the clearance section! After a quick search to make sure it was okay to read them out of order (it is), I snagged this one up. It was in perfect condition and was only $2! 

This is the fifth book in the series. If you know anything about the Assassin's Creed video games, the books are separated the same way. There's a period of history the game/story focuses on, and the story is centered and unique to that particular era. I don't know a ton about the lore associated with this series, but that's my impression of it.

In this book, Haytham is still a young man when his father is murdered, and his sister is kidnapped. His father was teaching him to fight, and a Templar named Birch takes Haytham under his wing. As he ages, Haytham learns that both Assassin and Templar believe in what they're doing, and he ends up caught in the middle, not sure he really believes in either. The era is what I would call American Revolution.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the writing style, even though it was in first person. It takes away some of the tension you would feel for the main character, because there wouldn't be more book if he had died, but Haytham's life was a sad and lonely one. The book was really good, and I look forward to reading more of Bowden's work. Out of the 10 books currently in the series, only 8 are written by Bowden. I'm not going to keep track of the others at this time, but you never know what the future holds! Good Book!

Sergeant Rex - Mike Dowling

My next nonfiction book was an easy pick. I love dog stories. Rex was a MWD and one of the first sent to Iraq. At that point, there hadn't been any K9 units since Vietnam, so the entire group was going in as guinea pigs. The troops they were stationed with weren't sure what to do with them. Mike had to take the initiative to show the officers what Rex was capable of. In no time, the K9 team a vital part of the group.

Rex has a personality the guys in the 2/2 Warlords end up loving. The team gets into firefights, but Rex and Mike prove their bravery every time. Not only were they courageous, Rex found caches of weapons and materials that would've been used for IEDs.

This is one of the better autobiographies I've gotten to read. Rex's personality really comes through. Mike sprinkles his past in the story at various points, but it wasn't in a jarring way. The writing style was easy to read, and I was invested in the story.

One thing I will point out is the pictures. The whole time I was reading, Mike would mention taking pictures, and I kept wondering if pictures were included. I hit the epilogue, then the acknowledgements, and then...there they were! The pictures were wonderful and cover many of the moments I wanted to see.

SPOILER: I'm sorry Mike wasn't able to adopt Rex. He did a wonderful thing by passing the opportunity on to a fellow soldier. It was a heartbreaking end to the story of a man who loved Rex so much. Even if it was the right thing to do, it was a bummer. I'm happy Rex made it through all his tours and got to live out his life in retirement.

Good Book!

Murder with Puffins (Meg Langslow #2) - Donna Andrews

When I saw this book at HPB, I knew I had to have it. I love birds, so seeing it was an instant purchase. It was $2. I knew absolutely nothing about it. I just saw "murder" and "puffins," and I was on board. Even though I was burned recently with the absence of owls in An Owl Too Many, this was a totally different author. And I couldn't resist the cute puffin.

Meg has come to the small island of Monhegan off the coast of Maine to spend some quiet time away from it all with her boyfriend, Michael. To her dismay, most of her family appears to be on the island as well. To top it off, a hurricane has picked the island to torment, and the local curmudgeon ends up dead.

The murderer is trapped on the island, and it seems that everyone is a suspect, including Meg's father and her aunt. Meg has something of a reputation (according to her father) as a detective, since she recently solved another mystery. That happened in book 1, Murder with Peacocks.

I really enjoyed this book! The writing was easy to follow, and there were actual puffins! Okay, so the entire book isn't cover to cover puffins, and one of the puffins isn't in the best shape (as in it's dead), but I learned facts about puffins that I didn't know, and it wasn't shoehorned in there in an irritating way.

In total, there are apparently 37 books in this series. That was a bit of a downer at first, but I did a bit of research, and it doesn't look like they have to be read in order. I added the author's name to my watch list on eReaderIQ, so hopefully, I'll be able to get more bird-related murders solved in the future! Good Book!

The Hastings Conspiracy - Alfred Coppel

This was another one of my epic finds from the trip to the book store a few months ago. This particular book was on a clearance rack, and I ended up getting it for $1.

The book has a number of story lines, which overlap at times. A member of the CIA has taken the details of a contingency plan with the intent of sharing it. It's a plan for the invasion of Britain. A spy, Brede, is sent to Britain to meet up with an old friend. When Brede arrives, his friend's car blows up, taking away any chance for him to relay what he knows.

What follows is a twisty, turvy road involving multiple countries and a lot of nefarious intentions. Some of the characters had similar names, which gave me fits at times. The Russian guys that all started with K were the bane of my existence. Even if I could differentiate one name from the other, then I had to keep their roles separate. Then there was the Davis/David scenario. These two confused me as well.

The last part of the book was fairly interesting. I could tell it was a James Bond-ish story, so it had to have the obligatory disposable woman (although at the end, he goes back for her). She was more of a hindrance and only really came in handy once, so I wasn't really a fan of her. She also had a very strange attitude about the man who was taking care of her (the blown up guy). Not a fan of her.

So, the book was okay, but I wasn't sucked into the story. I didn't care about the characters since they would only show up for brief periods of time and disappear. I never really understood the son's motivation since he was barely in it. It was an okay book, but I don't see myself recommending it to anyone.