October Titles Continued

I am going to start off this week by covering 3 new nonfiction titles with a military bent. I am not sure why this is the month for these but they seemed like they might gather some interest here in Columbus.

Yochi Dreazen has The Invisible Front: Love and Loss in an Era of Endless War coming out on Oct 7th. This is the story of Major General Mark Graham and his family. He and his wife lost both of their soldier sons within 9 months. One died in Iraq while serving his country. The other was in an ROTC program at the University of Kentucky when he committed suicide. Because of their tragic experience and the different reactions of friends and the military to the two losses, the Grahams became advocates for suicide prevention. This story is very effective and leaves you with the most respect for the Grahams.

John Nagl has Knife Fights coming out on Oct 16th. Nagl was the author of Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam. He had realized early that traditional methods of fighting would not work against guerrillas and terrorists. Here, we get an inside look at HOW we are learning to eat soup with a knife.

Finally, on the military theme, Daniel Rodriguez with Joe Layden has Rise: A Soldier, a Dream, and a Promise Kept coming on Oct 7th. Before becoming an honor student at Clemson and a star wide receiver for their football team, Rodriguez was a soldier in Afghanistan where he won both a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He promised a friend who did not make it out of Afghanistan that he would try to fulfill his dream of big time football. His story is one of inspiration.

OK, now on to the fiction.

The Missing Place by Sophie Littlefield comes out on Oct. 14th. Two mothers come to an oil rig town in North Dakota looking for their two lost sons. The mothers and their backgrounds are as different as night and day but they must learn to work together to overcome the roadblocks that the oil company puts in their way and also the indifference of the local police force. A wonderful sense of place and good character development as well as a mystery to solve.

If you have read either of Robert Olen Butler's first 2 Christopher Marlowe Cobb WWI thrillers, you will for sure want to pick up his third in the series. The Empire of Night arrives on Oct. 7th. Cobb, the Chicago journalist turned into a spy for American intelligence is sent to 1917 Berlin to find a mole inside the British government. The person the government pairs him with happens to be his stage actress mother.

John Connolly has the 12th of his Charlie Parker series, The Wolf in Winter, coming out on Oct. 28th. The people in Prosperous Maine are, well, prosperous and they like it that way. After a homeless man is killed and his daughter goes missing, Charlie Parker comes to town to investigate and the town people feel threatened. They don't want their secrets uncovered. How far will they go to stop Parker?

Last for this week is an espionage title by Matthew Dunn. Dark Spies arrives on Oct. 7th. Dunn is a former senior field operative with MI6 so his work is very true to life in this series featuring Will Cochrane. Cochrane comes to the US and sees a Russian spymaster who's supposed to be dead. He has trouble understanding why the CIA tells him not to take a shot at the guy. Will he listen? Doubtful. If he doesn't, what will happen.

Enjoy! Back with more next week.