This review was originally published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
Readers first meet a calculating William Abbey in a World War I army hospital, under the care of an unassuming nurse. Thirty-three years earlier, William watched the lynching of a Zulu boy in Natal but did nothing to stop it. When the boy died, his mother looked at William and cursed him, making him a truth-speaker: he is pursued always by the boy's shadow, and the closer it gets, the more he perceives and is compelled to speak the truth that he sees in the hearts of others. If the shadow catches him, the person he loves the most will die.
In The Pursuit of William Abbey, Claire North (The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August) combines a sprawling epic of colonial wrongdoing with a tense espionage thriller. Naturally, the British Empire has uses for a truth-speaker, and because William must keep out of the shadow's reach, governmental support that can get him onto a fast train whenever he may need it is invaluable. In his travels, William meets other truth-speakers, with whom he forms bonds that go beyond the governments and causes which they serve.
In rich, compelling prose, North weaves together the threads of imperial control, ideological conviction, love and the thrill of power. Readers will remain eager to the end for answers regarding what brought William to that hospital, and what the nurse to whom he tells his story will do when the time comes for him to execute his plan. The Pursuit of William Abbey is a lyrical and sometimes surreal approach to espionage and its thrills. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: In an espionage epic spanning three decades from the late 19th century to World War I, a man is literally pursued by the shadow of his guilt.

In the latest in Dayton Metro Library's project with The Rubi Girls, India Summer and I discuss Lock In by John Scalzi.

This review was originally published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
Eugene Bullard's life could have inspired many shelves of books and more than one motion picture, yet he has remained largely unknown until now. His father, born in slavery, raised him on tales of France as a land free from the racist animus of his native United States. As a young teen, he ran away from his home in Georgia and embarked on a journey that would eventually take him there. Bullard made a living as a jockey, an entertainer and a boxer, and had already lived a life of adventure before the Great War broke out. He then enlisted in the French Foreign Legion, where he would eventually become the first African American combat pilot. In the interwar years, Bullard played in and eventually managed a jazz club, where he employed such future celebrities as Josephine Baker and Langston Hughes--and also spied on Nazi officers.
In All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard--Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy, Phil Keith (Stay the Rising Sun) and Tom Clavin (Wild Bill, The Dimaggios) take great care to examine any discrepancies in differing sources, and they build the intrigue with cinematic detail. In one case, a night at Bullard's club involved Nazis, members of the French resistance who couldn't know his motives in entertaining them, and Dooley Wilson, who would go on to play Sam in Casablanca. This is a fascinating look at a life that, if it were fiction, would be too amazing to be believed. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library
Discover: The thrilling life of Eugene Bullard was filled with adventure and intrigue, yet has until now received far too little notice.