The daughter of a distinguished lawyer, Lasker-Wallfisch opens her memoir with chatty family letters and her father’s painful, futile efforts to arrange emigration from Germany in the 1930s. As the persecution of Jews grew, her parents were deported in 1942; her grandmother was also taken away. “The destination was unknown; they were never heard of […]
Older sister Rikki, who’s “almost double digits,” is often tasked with keeping an eye on her rambunctious younger sister, Rai, a freshly minted 8-year-old. Rai suffers from asthma and frequently misses school, but Rikki has had perfect attendance since kindergarten. While the girls frequently bicker over chores and pocket money, they always stand up for […]
Teddy Riggs prefers to be known as Daytona: “Fastest on the field. Fastest on the road.” Third-generation scion of an oil family, he’s been cut off from his trust fund by his parents and lives with Granny, who will cook him a dozen eggs to slake the appetite he’s developed on “the juice.” His “roid […]
Lady Caroline Morton, who prefers just Caroline, has been fortunate to work for Mrs. Frogerton since her father lost both her dowry and the family fortune. Mrs. Frogerton’s money comes from trade, but she’s a kind employer, treating Caroline like a daughter and relishing the murders they’ve helped solve together. Mrs. Frogerton’s doctor suggests a […]
Now that Halloween is in the rearview mirror in Eylan Hollow, Bailey Briggs is gearing up for the Christmas season at the Lazy Bones Bookshop, which she runs with help from her dedicated crew of workers and her big furry dog, Jack. At a reception where two competing historical societies will discuss mapping the town’s […]
Zara Persil-Pendleton is a private investigator in Alameda, California, who mostly takes employment-related cases with a sideline involving the museum world, particularly regarding Judaica-related works and their provenance. As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who hid her Jewishness after the war, Zara finds this heritage connection becoming important to her later in life. That […]
As 17-year-old Maura Ellard is leaving the women’s clinic where she terminated her pregnancy, she’s spotted by Maxine, a classmate she barely knows, who later violates her privacy by revealing this information on social media. Maura is comfortable with the choice she made—she’s relieved, knowing she did the right thing for herself—but she wanted to […]
Rosenstiel, a press critic and journalism professor, presents a solid case that news organizations’ problems are bigger than they realize. Along with declining public trust and countless newsroom layoffs, the industry faces an “intellectual” crisis. Woefully behind the times, journalists must embrace “emotionally intelligent newsgathering” that “meets audiences where they are.” Seasoned reporters may blanch […]
Kagan was a renowned Jewish scholar, editor of Yiddish literature, and author of several books following his immigration to the United States from Italy in 1950. He first published the diary of his Holocaust survival in the original Yiddish in 1955. Readers now have access to an English version of this diary; Kagan’s daughter donated […]
Born Ilich Ramírez Sánchez in Venezuela, Carlos was just one of the countless fake names that “the Jackal” used. It was the one that stuck and the one that he used in Warrick’s opening episode, when Carlos and crew attacked a meeting of OPEC ministers in Vienna in 1975. Just whom he was working for […]