This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​Intrigue, usurpation, and murder demand all the wits of a queen in a precarious position in House of Odysseus, the second volume of the Songs of Penelope series by Claire North (Ithaca; The Pursuit of William Abbey). Odysseus still has not returned from the Trojan War. His son, Telemachus, has gone to seek him, and that leaves Penelope to maintain order and dodge the intentions of those suitors who presume that Odysseus is dead. When a ship arrives from Mycenae carrying Orestes and Elektra, Penelope is drawn into an even larger power struggle. Orestes, the new king of Mycenae, killed his mother, Clytemnestra, to avenge the death of his father, Agamemnon, and now it appears the Furies are driving him mad as punishment. Penelope suspects an earthlier cause. Either way, Elektra needs her help to protect her brother and his throne from their uncle, Menelaus, who has designs on Ithaca as well.
In spite of her novel being narrated by Aphrodite, North largely takes a realistic approach, preferring the political schemes and petty egotism of kings to the squabbles of gods and goddesses. Aphrodite's voice is blunt and sometimes modern, taking the shine off of any glory from Mount Olympus. A dose of mystery ups the stakes as Penelope, Elektra, and even beautiful and underestimated Helen jockey to maintain their positions in a patriarchal world. Fans of Circe by Madeline Miller and Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood will find much to enjoy in this revisionist epic. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​A decades-long con meets the full light of day in a thrilling true-crime debut that reverberates on the world stage, journalist Yepoka Yeebo's Anansi's Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World. John Ackah Blay-Miezah started by adopting a fake name and the title of "doctor." He declared that Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, had on his deathbed revealed that he had hidden millions of dollars for the country in a trust. Blay-Miezah, claiming a history with Nkrumah that sometimes required lying about his age, said that he knew the location of this money. Of course, he would need diplomatic status and money in order to retrieve it.
In a story that any writer of heist flicks would envy, Yeebo recounts how throughout the 1970s and '80s, Blay-Miezah played Ghanaian state officials with bright visions of their new country's future, and, at the same time, promised a financial boon to the post-colonial right-wing interests of the Nixon administration. Though he was imprisoned for fraud, he convinced his marks that he could make them--and Ghana--wealthy if only he could get out. And if all else failed, he could always fake illness and avoid arrest by disappearing en route to the hospital. But even after his death, there are still investors who believe the trust fund is out there. Readers will devour the gripping story of a lie that became a country's founding myth. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library