Silverview

This novel by John Le Carré was published posthumously by his youngest son, Nick Cornwell, with--according to him--only minor editing required. It is a short but evocative story of the disillusionment of one former agent of MI6 who turns his back on country rather than on his ideals. Former City financier, Julian Lawndsley, has left the hustle and purchased a small book shop in an East Anglian seaside town, even though he knows absolutely nothing about the business. He is seemingly rescued by one of the town's residents, Edward Avon, who browses but doesn't buy, but offers up the idea of converting the basement to a literary haven, which would stock all the writers and philosophers who are not the usual bookshop fare. Edward, a Polish emigre, lives with his wife, who is dying of cancer, in the manse Silverview, just outside of town.

Meanwhile, when the head of security for MI6, Stewart Proctor, receives a note from a former agent warning of an intelligence leak, his queries lead him to this same quiet town and to Julian. 

The reviews tend to focus on Le Carré's career as a whole but do offer some specifics about this final work. According to The Guardian, "Silverview has three outstanding set pieces, any one of which more than outweighs weaknesses of plot. Proctor’s interrogation of two retired colleagues, in which Edward Avon’s history is anatomised, is le Carré at his finest, revealing character and backstory through dialogue with an economy and grace beyond most writers. The service funeral is pure social comedy...reminding us that no one was better at showing that spies are just like everyone else. And then there’s Proctor’s visit to a classified outpost...here the conversational duelling is as exciting as a car chase...Because chaps, surely, are le Carré’s subject, here as always; chaps and the loyalties they inspire, the causes they embrace, the institutions they betray...In the intelligence community, we learn, anything short of pragmatism can be a grave security risk. While le Carré’s villains betray their countries for ideology or – worse – money, his decent people do so for love and idealism..."

The New York Times says that Le Carré's "last completed spy novel crowns a career attuned to moral ambivalence." There are additional laudatory reviews from The Wall Street Journal, Kirkus, and The Washington Post, among others.

The Witch Haven

This is the debut novel by Sasha Peyton Smith and I enjoyed this well plotted, well characterized and atmospheric story of a young woman coming into her  magical powers in early 20th C New York City. The protagonist, 17-year-old Frances Hallowell, is toiling away in a dress maker's sweatshop as the book opens. Working late one night, the shop's owner, drunk and abusive, comes to the shop and attacks her, only to end up dead with a pair of scissors--Frances' of course--embedded in his neck. But Frances, who is mourning the death of her recently murdered brother, the subsequent loss of her mother to an insane asylum, and hence her home, has absolutely no idea how they got there from across the workshop. When the police come to investigate, Frances is the obvious suspect, but, just as she is about to be hauled away to jail, two women in nurses'capes, driving a battered old ambulance, show up. They declare Frances has been diagnosed with TB and is being taken to Haxahaven Sanitarium. Thus is Frances introduced to a haven for women with witching powers, where she makes friends, makes enemies, and figures out that Haxahaven is a prison of sorts as well as a shelter.

When Frances starts receiving dream messages from a former friend of her brother's, Finn, she discovers ways to practice larger magic than the director of Haxahaven allows. And he promises to help Frances find and avenge the murder of her brother. The magic is not limited to women in New York City; an exclusive men's club also shelters and cultivates their members' powers, and the head of that organization wants Frances to join her powers to his in order to control the city. 

Kirkus calls the book "intriguing" in it's examination of pushing back against the limited roles allotted to women. Publishers Weekly calls the book "gritty" but also "affectionate" in it's treatment of grief and empowerment. Booklist calls it "spellbinding" and says it offers a "feminist twist" to the "familiar vibes of a magical boarding school."

The Labyrinth of Death

I took this book from the holiday gift exchange my mystery book group had and really enjoyed it. I had never heard of author James Lovegrove, but he has written several other books (this is the 5th) featuring the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson pair of protagonists. Set in 1895 (Victorian) London and in the English countryside, the characters seem believable and fairly consistent with past representations. The case here is initiated by a high court judge who comes to Sherlock, upon the recommendation of advocates and police officers he has encountered in court, to find his missing 29-year-old daughter. She is apparently quite a "free spirit," very intelligent and quite outspoken. The judge's wife died recently and he has been less than attentive to his daughter, taking solace in alcohol. It's not long before Sherlock and Watson track down the judge's daughter, but Hannah Woolfson has inserted herself into a unique organization under an assumed name in order to find a missing friend and Sherlock wants to leave her in place since they cannot get closer to the group's setting or founder as both are guarded by armed ex-soldiers referred to as the Hoplites. The term is taken from ancient Greece as is the name of the group--the Elysians. The mastermind of this community is a lauded and titled architect, Sir Philip Buchanan, who is convinced of the superiority of ancient Greek society and plans to train promising individuals and insert them back into British society at large to better it. He doesn't seem to care what the cost might be to the members of his group. When Sherlock reports back to judge Woolfson, he is of course furious, but Sherlock promises her safety. Hannah and the Holmes/Watson pair communicate via letters as to the progress of Hannah's investigations. Watson, who is widowed, is quite taken with Hannah and not at all happy with the arrangement and the potential danger to which Hannah might be exposed. After one particularly disturbing letter, Watson overrides Sherlock's admonitions to stay distant and falls into a trap set at the Elysian community by a man who Hannah had thought to be an ally. Sherlock and Watson must outwit a series of puzzles in an elaborate labyrinth in order to survive.

A middling review from Publishers Weekly.