Travis Roan is a Nazi hunter and his travels have led him to Kansas in the American Midwest and in particular to the community know as Purity First, a religious order. The founder of this sect is an elderly gentleman called Rudy Goodman a notorious Nazi better known as Rudolf Bormann, who is still adhering to evil practices on mainland USA.

It is now over 70 years since the conclusion of wartime hostilities in Europe. It therefore follows that any supporters of that regime would in all probability be very elderly and most likely infirm. This does not detract or excuse their past misdemeanours but it makes it highly unlikely that a 90 year old man would actively pursue evil practices by carrying out depraved deeds and murder. Over many years a number of children have gone missing, and it would appear that the good population of Kansas never once suspected or indeed questioned a motley group of individuals who wore "Brownshirts" acting in the manner of Adolf Hitler's SA..."all of them wearing identical brown shirts. There were perhaps twenty of them, their pink skin scrubbed clean, their fair hair neatly parted"..... In additions Rudolf Bormann owns a ranch know as the Third R which unbelievably never attracted attention from anyone in the rural community.

The hero of the moment is Trooper Skottie who certainly adds a little charm and colour to a sorry tale. Travis Roan's faithful dog Bear is at the centre of all the action, he is both deadly and loveable in equal measures and only responds to commands made in a language known as "Esperanto" (which has an estimated 2 million speakers worldwide, I am led to believe). Skottie struggles in her role as a single parent to her daughter and is drawn to the quiet reserved manner that is Roan. I quite liked the first third of this story and was prepared to overlook the fact that a very old man could be at the centre of a community funnelling drugs and people and guns and equally be the main suspect in the disappearance of young children. It was laughable to even consider that no one noticed these rather odd Brownshirts or even questioned a homestead called the third R....I suspect that if a  man in brown  shorts, neatly parted hair,  short stubby moustache and a swastika on his arm jack booted his way down main street he would probably just been seen as an oddity and ignored! If an author chooses to use Nazi ideology as the main theme in his book the story should at least have some plausibility and not be portrayed in this nonsensical way culminating in a shootout when the main culprits were finally uncovered. As a reader and reviewer on netgalley it has to be right that I view and voice my opinions whether they be good or bad. Unfortunately in "The Wolf" I cannot find anything of merit, it was a story that had a ridiculous unfolding plot and it seems to me that the only reason for using Nazism as its central plot was a cheap ploy to draw in unsuspecting readers. Best avoided and certainly not recommended...however as always thanks to the good people at netgalley and the publisher Penguin for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written.

Faithful Place by Tana French

For roll 18.1, I landed on the "Start" square, which gave me a free read! I decided to read the third in Tana French's rather brilliant Dublin Murder Squad series. Each of these books focuses on a different main character. This one centers around Frank Mackey, whom we met in the last book, The Likeness. While these books are nominally crime fiction, they are really more Irish ethnography. Frank Mackey grew up in the now rapidly-gentrifying Liberties, Dublin, child of an extremely abusive father and member of one of the most dysfunctional literary Irish families in recent memory. 

In 1985, when Frank was 19, he and his girlfriend Rose Daly, had planned to run away together, to England. On the night they were to leave, she never arrived at their meeting place. Assuming that she had gone without him, Frank left home. Twenty-two years later, the neighborhood is gentrifying, and Rose's suitcase is found in a derelict building, and Frank finally returns home to find out what really happened all of those years ago.

Frank Mackey and I are the same age - I was also 19 in 1985, so one of the most enjoyable parts of this book, for me, were the flashback scenes where Frank and Rose would talk about music. French nailed 1985. At 400 pages, this misses the $5.00 value by one measley page, and is worth $3.00!

A Pocketful of Rye by Agatha Christie

Roll 18.2 landed me on a #8, which called for a mystery. I had planned to read the newest Louise Penney, but, as it turned out, I needed a quick read for a challenge, so I grabbed A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie. 

I know that I've previously read this book, because I remembered much of the story. One of the things that I had never noticed before, though, is that this is basically the same story as Hercule Poirot's Christmas. The victim in both mysteries is a rather horrible, wealthy man who has been involved in some sort of a swindle out in India/Africa (in the Poirot version, the victim, Simeon Lee, made his fortune in diamonds, in the Marple version, Rex Fortescue was involved in some sort of nefarious dealing related to a Blackbird mine. While the solutions are different, the similarities are striking. I first noticed that Christie uses the same quote in both books, which put me onto the parallels:

"The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small."

Anyway, even when she's recycling characters and plot points, Agatha manages to make each mystery intricate, engaging and unique. A Pocketful of Rye is 256 pages long, and is worth $3.00

Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire

Roll 18.3: I am still reading Pocket Apocalypse, and expect to be done today. This one features Alex, who isn't my favorite Price, but I'm enjoying it!

Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart

For Roll 19, I needed to read something tagged gothic for Haunted Mansion #19. I decided to pick up an older Mary Stewart that's been on my shelves for a long while - Wildfire at Midnight. Set in the Hebrides, on the Isle of Skye, this was an enjoyable old fashioned gothic romance full of murder and mountaineering. Mary Stewart knew how to tell a story, and while this wasn't as good as Nine Coaches Waiting, it was a fast, fun read. Only 224 pages long, this one was worth $3.00.

The Yard by Alex Grecian

Roll 20 put me on Paradise Pier #28, which called for a book set during the Victorian period. The first book I started wasn't doing anything for me, so I abandoned it, and decided to read The Yard by Alex Grecian, which is set in 1889 London, right on the heels of the Jack the Ripper murders. This one was full of anachronisms, but it was reasonably entertaining, although not as good as I had hoped, and one of the subplots annoyed the hell out of me. I already own the second book in the series, so I'll read on at some point. This one is 422 pages long, so the reward is $5.00.

My bank is: $100.00!