Charlie M

Brian Freemantle has written a whole series of books about Charlie Muffin, who really dislikes being called Charles. I'd never heard of them, and can't honestly remember now how I found out about the series, but it sounded like he'd found a winning formula so thought I'd check it out by reading the first one. Set during the Cold War, Charlie is a spy--a leftover from a previous regime that apparently had some embarrassing events which resulted in a new Director and a wholesale housecleaning of the staff. Charlie cultivates a rumpled, even shabby appearance, but is still the most knowledgable agent they have. His ruthlessly ambitious and probably sociopathic new boss, Cuthbertson, sets Charlie up to get captured while crossing from East Berlin. Charlie, ever a  survivor, outwits the treachery, although a man Charlie was trying to help escape to the West gets killed in his place. His new boss also attempts to diminish the importance of Charlie's recent capture of a major Russian spymaster operating in Great Britain, but this backfires, so Cuthbertson is forced to keep Charlie on staff. He does manage to shove Charlie into a former broom closet of an office and is threatening a demotion. Now a major player in the KGB is making noises about defecting, and after Cuthbertson's still wet-behind-the-ears agents get killed or captured, Charlie is brought in to save the play. I was caught totally unawares by the plot twist in this first novel of the series and I'm definitely curious to see where things go from here.

The Prince of Mist

A year or so ago, I read and wrote a post on The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I just finished reading a translation of his first book, which was written specifically for young adults and I'm copying the review I wrote for Children's Literature database.
When Max and Alicia’s father decides they must move from the city to a small coastal town in England to be safer from the war (WWII), the family is less than excited. Thirteen year old Max, our narrator, is distraught at leaving behind friends and familiar places, and older sister Alicia withdraws even more into herself. The suspense begins the moment they arrive at the village train station when a large cat adopts their younger sister Irina and then seems to be keeping an eye on the family once they move into their new beach house. The house and grounds also seem to be watching and maneuvering family members in mysterious way. While exploring town, Max becomes acquainted with Roland, a young man who will be going off to war in the fall. Roland introduces Max to diving in the bay and shows him a wrecked ship, the Orpheus. Once Alicia and Roland meet, a tentative romance is begun, but events really begin to spin out of control when Irina is rushed to the hospital after an apparently accidental fall down the stairs. Alicia, Roland and Max all discover that they are being haunted by the same images of a malevolent clown—in their dreams, in a statue that seems to move in the overgrown garden, and even on some old family movies discovered in the garden shed. Roland’s adoptive grandfather, the self-appointed lighthouse keeper Victor Kray, reveals under pressure the story of his escape from the wrecked ship. Kray had been in pursuit of an evil man named Cain who was responsible for the death of a childhood friend, and originally believed Cain had died in the shipwreck, but now he’s not so sure. Cain, also known as the Prince of Mist, has come back to reclaim a promised prize, the firstborn child of the beach house’s former owner. Supposedly the child, Jacob, drowned when he was seven years old, but Max discovers from viewing the old films that Jacob is in fact Roland, who Kray has been attempting to hide and protect for over 10 years. This is a quick reading suspenseful story from beginning to end, with a believably brave young male narrator who will appeal to boy readers.
The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Translated by Lucia Graves)
BIBLIO: 2010 (originally published in Spanish, 1992), Little. Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group. Ages 13 to18, $17.99.