"The Girl In Berlin" by Elizabeth Wilson / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Today’s Killer Nashville Featured Books take me around the world, but they all have two things common: non-stip suspense and brains.

Class differences are once again at play in “The Girl from Berlin,” the third novel set in the 1950s from spy writer Elizabeth Wilson.  There is Communist paranoia everywhere, along with defections, and then murder.  As one would expect in a tale of espionage, characters are not what they seem.  Paranoia will haunt you as you try to make sense of who you can and cannot trust, not only on an international level, but also personal.  Be careful of Wilson’s misdirection; she’ll lead you away.  This is the third novel from Wilson set in the same 1950s timeframe involving duplicitous characters playing various major and minor roles as the series unfolds.

Until next time, read like someone is burning the books!

Clay Stafford

– Clay Stafford is an Author / filmmaker (www.ClayStafford.com), business owner (www.AmericanBlackguard.com), and founder of Killer Nashville (www.KillerNashville.com) with over 1.5 million copies of his own books in print in over 14 languages.  Stafford’s latest projects are the feature documentary “One of the Miracles” (www.OneOfTheMiracles.com) and the music CD “XO” (www.JefferyDeaverXOMusic.com). Publishers Weekly has named Stafford one of the top 10 Nashville literary leaders playing “an essential role in defining which books become bestsellers” not only in middle-Tennessee, but also extending “beyond the city limits and into the nation’s book culture.”  (PW 6/10/13)

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Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

"Rapscallion" by James McGee / Tuesday, May 28, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

It’s the early 1800s and espionage is alive and well in jolly old England.

“Rapscallion” by James McGee is the third adventure for Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood and in this installment, without giving too much away, he is to go undercover as a prisoner of war to discover how prisoners are escaping from a floating penitentiary. Posing as an American mercenary fighting for the French, Hawkwood soon learns his assignment is a fate worse than death as he finds himself on a former man-o-war converted into a prison ship. Set first in the hull of the nasty ship where prisoners seem to make their own laws and later in the English backcountry where order and laws do not seem to matter, Hawkwood tries to get to the bottom of a human smuggling operation while continuing the ruse and his life.

I love the dark English portrayal of the Napoleonic time period.  The novel reads true.  I don’t know that I’ve personally ever read anything quite like it, though the war profiteering scheme does ring familiar in our own time.  As Rhett Butler observed, there is more money to be made in the fall of a civilization than in the building of it.

This is definitely a page-turner, especially as we reach the climax; my only problem was I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. If you’re in the mood for a dark historical, this is definitely one to get. It will make you thankful for the simple things, such as a shower or bath.

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

"The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I" by Stephen Alford / Monday, March 4, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

“Assassinations, espionage, torture, spies, double agents, cryptography, indignities. Page turning. Well-researched. This could be a spy novel, but it’s not; it happened. The Elizabethan world has never been more real to me. For those interested in history or writers of the Elizabethan world, this is a must read.”
– Clay Stafford, author and founder of Killer Nashville

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!