Here are the new library items lists for the week of Nov. 7:
New Adult Fiction Books
- Dark whisper, by Christine Feehan
- The favor, by Nicci French
- Long Shadows, by David Baldacci
- No plan B: a Jack Reacher novel, by Lee Child
- Endless summer: stories, by Elin Hilderbrand
- Racing the light, by Robert Crais
- The Matchmaker: a spy in Berlin, by Paul Vidich
- The maze: a John Corey novel, by Nelson DeMille
- The Christmas hummingbird, by T. Davis Bunn
- Bones of holly, by Carolyn Haines
New Adult Nonfiction Books
- Teach yourself visually Python, by Guy Hart-Davis
- Partisans: the conservative revolutionaries who remade American politics in the 1990s, by Nicole Hemmer
- Off with her head: three thousand years of demonizing women in power, by Eleanor Herman
- Happier hour: how to beat distraction, expand your time, and focus on what matters most, by Cassie Mogliner Holmes
- Chetna’s easy baking: with a twist of spice, by Chetna Makan
- Like a rolling stone: a memoir, by Jann Wenner
- Windows 365, by Rosemarie Withee
- Long road: Pearl Jam and the soundtrack of a generation, by Steven Hyden
- Grace: President Obama and ten days in the battle for America, by Cody Keenan
- Fen, bog, and swamp: a short history of peatland destruction and its role in the climate crisis, by Annie Proulx
New DVDs
- Flux gourmet
- King fu. The complete second season
- The innocents
- The invitation
- Outlander. Season six
- Star trek. Picard Season two
- Thor. Love and thunder
- Watcher
- Dark winds. Season 1
- Fall
New Music CDs
- Now that’s what I call music! 83
- Mercury. Acts 1&2, by Imagine Dragons
- Humble quest, by Maren Morris
- Palomino, by Miranda Lambert
- Growin’ up, by Luke Combs
- Travelin’ kind, by Ashland Craft
- Greatest hits: 19 kids, by Keith Urban
- News of the world, by Queen
Paul Vidich’s Matchmaker is a great book. If you dig Paul Vidich’s mesmerizing masterpieces about murky mercenaries or evil assassins then you may be interested in Bill Fairclough’s thriller Beyond Enkription.
In the 1990s Alexander Litvinenko worked for Russian Intelligence investigating, infiltrating and tackling international organised crime. He was poisoned with polonium-210 by the FSB in London and died shortly afterwards in November 2006. The case made headlines around the world and many books and films have been published about it.
In the 1970s Bill Fairclough worked for British Intelligence investigating, infiltrating and tackling international organised crime. He was poisoned with botulism toxin by another intelligence agency in London, went into a coma and nearly died in June 1974. No one told the press about it and in 2014 a little publicised non-fiction book was printed which disclosed what transpired.
What happened to Bill Fairclough (codename JJ aka Edward Burlington) is as described in the factual espionage thriller Beyond Enkription, the first stand-alone novel in The Burlington Files series. Indeed, in 2001 Bill Fairclough later became a favoured patient of the renowned neurologist Professor Andrew Lees in London’s University College Hospital. Why? As Lees said at the time, it was a rare pleasure being able to research a patient who hadn’t died from having been poisoned with such a large dose of botulism toxin.
Of course, if you are a true espionage aficionado and know about puffer fish poisons used by the Stasi and Ian Fleming’s “Trout Memo” you will have already studied Beyond Enkription and know a lot about not only The Burlington Files but also the links twixt MI6 Colonel Alan Brooke Pemberton CVO MBE, Colonel Oleg Gordievsky, Kim Philby and Greville Wynne. Pemberton’s People in MI6 even included Roy Astley Richards OBE (Winston Churchill’s bodyguard) and an eccentric British Brigadier (Peter ‘Scrubber’ Stewart-Richardson) who was once refused permission to join the Afghan Mujahideen.