The Wealth of Shadows by Graham Moore

(36. - 1219) The Wealth of Shadows by Graham Moore - World War II is about to begin. Ansel Luxford is a quiet tax attorney in Minneapolis. He has a loving wife, Angela, and a 2 year old daughter. He is a clever man. He understands statistics, especially economic data. Ansel and Angela have a passion uncommon in the America of 1939. Amidst the indifferent and the isolationists of the U.S.A. they are passionately anti-Nazi. 

Ansel is recruited to join a secret team that will fight the Nazis. It is an unlikely band of brothers and a sister to go to war. They are lawyers, accountants, economists and professors. Not a bullet will be fired nor a bomb dropped by them but in the words of their leader, Harry Dexter White:

“We’re going to crash the German economy.”

 I was hooked. As a lawyer who has spent his life fighting through words I loved the premise of paper warriors taking on the Nazis.

The team will need vast amounts of statistical information to go to economic war. The greatest source will be German. The Reich Statistical Office is leading the world in compiling economic statistics about Germany. Under Hjalmer Schacht, the Dark Wizard of Global Finance, an army of German statisticians is analyzing the gathered data. 

Through personal contacts White has been able to get hundreds of boxes of German data.

They are blandly called the Research Department.

Germany has been rapidly expanding its military for 5 years and is now at war. The official records neither show large increases in the money supply nor huge amounts of borrowing by the government. 

Ansel is called upon, as the economic storyteller of the Department (I think lawyers are good storytellers), to explain to FDR’s trusted economic adviser and friend, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. how the Nazis are financing their war.

Ansel sets out how Schacht created Mefo bonds which are issued by a company owned by the government. Banks are required to purchase the bonds which pay 4% interest which they then pay to the accounts of their depositors but the depositors cannot take out the money and repayment of principal keeps being extended by the government. The Mefo bonds are a shadow currency.

The flaws in the scheme are consumer spending and imports. German citizens at some point will want to use the money in their accounts to buy goods. To pay for imports the Nazis are looting and stealing from Jews, Czechs and now Poles. The Nazis have to keep expanding their empire to pay for the war.

Having identified the weaknesses in the Nazi economy, how will the Department exploit the weaknesses?

As the Department plots Angela gets a job as a secretary at the FBI. Ansel and Angela solemnly vow not to reveal to the other any secret information they get at work. The vow lasts barely a day.

Angela hears the Soviets have a spy inside the Department. They agree to keep the shared knowledge of the spy secret from both the FBI and the Department.

White then tasks the Department with developing a strategy which will allow FDR to transfer American weapons to Britain and France without breaching The Neutrality Act. To give or sell the weapons would breach the Act unless the same offers were made to Germany.

The greatest opposition to The Department comes from fascists within the State Department. A bureaucratic war ensues.

Ansel and White meet with Lord John Maynard Keynes, the most famous economist of the first half of the 20th Century.

There is a substantial discussion on the history and use of money which was getting tedious. The essence of the analysis was that money is based on trust that it will have the value tomorrow that it has today.

 Fortunately, the book livened up again as the Nazis sweep across Western Europe in 1940. The Deparment plots to damage the Nazis and allow financing of vast amounts of weapons to be manufactured in the U.S. 

Ansel and Angela are charmed by Keynes and his Russian wife, Lydia. 

The personality clashes between White and Keynes, the conflicts over monetary policies, the manipulation of statutes to allow governments to spend billions of 1940’s money are tense and fascinating. I was reminded of how Stanford law professor, Paul Goldstein, wrote three compelling works of mystery fiction involving patent law.

As long as a work of fiction involves betrayals and large amounts of money it has a good chance of success.

What was most surprising was the effort at The Deparment, before the U.S. was even a part of of WW II, to work on creating a global economic policy for the era after the war has ended.

Many historians talk about the importance of U.S. military might ensuring the Axis powers would be defeated. Few discuss how America crushed German and Japanese access to money and goods.

The book climaxes with the meeting at Bretton Woods in 1944 to work out the post-war financial structure. Will the planned World Bank and the International Monetary Fund be supplied with dollars (the plan of Harry and Ansel) or Bancor (an international currency governed in London by bureaucrats like its proposer, Keynes).

As at any great moment in history the decisions are made by a few men (now but not then it is just as likely to include women). Harry and Keynes face off at 2:00 in the morning with Ansel trying to moderate. The arguments are ferocious. Harry believes American generosity during the war to Britain gives the U.S. the edge. The Britons counter with a strategic move of their own involving Amerca. You will need to read the book to find out what happened. 

The future of money in the world is to be decided by a pair of intractable subtle adversaries. There are further meetings and carefully worded documents. 

The book demonstrates how important words are in determining the fate of the world.

****

Moore, Graham - (2011) - The Sherlockian and Email Exchange with Graham Moore, Author of The Sherlockian on Self-Garroting; (2017) - Last Days of Night and Paul Cravath; Hardcover

The Long-Shot Trial by William Deverell

(35. - 1218.) The Long-Shot Trial by William Deverell - Arthur Beauchamp’s efforts at savouring quiet days in his Gulf Island home with a cup of tea, the Goldberg Variations playing softly in the background and a good book in his hands, perhaps a literary thriller, are shattered when his wife Margaret, also known as his life companion, hands him the second edition of Wentworth Chance’s biography of the esteemed barrister.

Arthur is aghast that Chance’s calumnies of the first edition, clumsily addressed in the second edition, have actually been exacerbated by the inclusion of a chapter on the murder trial of R. v. Angelina Santos. The assertion in the book that during that time Arthur dallied with a pair of “women for hire” has aggravated Margaret. He decides to set the record straight or at least put his actions in context by writing his own memoir of the famous trial which took place 56 years earlier in 1966.

He heads to his spartan cabin near his home, places paper in his aged typewriter and writes of his stalwart defence of Miss (it is well before Ms.) Santos in Fort Thompson (Fort Tom), near the Yukon border in northeastern British Columbia. She is a 20 year old Filipina immigrant.

A domestic servant, she is charged with murder for shooting her employer, Frederick C. Trudd, with his rifle. She alleges he had raped her three days earlier. The local townspeople have raised $15,000 for the defence, a major fee in the 1960’s. The community despised Trudd.

Arthur’s section head, Alex Pappas, considers her doomed. Fueled by several double Scotches (he did not quit drinking until 1987) Arthur vows:

“If she goes down it won’t be because I didn’t fight for her”.

At the same time Pappas, with Arthur’s aid, is preparing for the murder trial of Vancouver’s richest man, Herb MacIntosh. 

Arthur, raised in one of Vancouver’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, by a pair of university professors, recognizes he is ill-equipped to understand life in the distant forests of northern British Columbia.

Arthur is dismayed by his client’s honesty:

But I would find it awkward relating to a client who, apparently, was incapable of telling lies. Most of my defendants hadn’t suffered that handicap.

She is a Catholic woman of great faith. She refers to her unborn child as a “beautiful miracle”.

She remembers little of the crucial moments before shooting Trudd. A prison doctor believes she has repressed these memories.

She is a woman without guile which disconcerts the young Arthur.

Unfortunately, the socially awkward inhibited Arthur does not conduct a detailed discussion with Angelina concerning the rape and its aftermath.

The case draws one of the province’s newest judges, Wilbur Kroop, a combative Federal prosecutor before ascending to the bench. Arthur and Justice Kroop have an intense mutual disdain.

Prosecuting will be an aggressive, though lazy, loudmouth from Vancouver, Ed Santorini. He will be assisted by a young lawyer, Clara Moncrief.

Heading north for the trial, Arthur’s flight is cancelled and he unwisely takes the bus. It is a 30 hour ride beset by breakdowns and belligerent adults and crying children.

Arthur spends the days before the trial in Fort Tom working to build a defence. 

He is beguiled by the comely Miss Moncrief. Will he venture into a relationship with a Crown?

His client believes God will stop the government from taking away her baby if she is convicted of murder.

Occasionally the plot drifts back to 2022 where Arthur’s memories of 1966 are aided by the mouse nibbled transcript of the trial his law firm unearthed from its archives.

Ridden with anxiety - few lawyers are any different before a trial - Arthur appears mentally unready for a capital murder trial but, when Order is called, he rises and becomes the experienced barrister of 5 years at the bar.

While Angelina had told Arthur only “God will decide her guilt or innocence” she does plead not guilty.

Shortly after the trial begins the Crown plays the recording of Angelina’s call to the RCMP:

“Please come. I think I shot Mr. Trudd and he’s dead.”

The reason for the title of the book is made clear through those two sentences.

The Crown case proceeds with Arthur engaged in skilful cross-examinations. It is a challenge to question those either experienced with testifying, police officers, or having expertise, doctors, but there are opportunities when they are arrogant or careless.

No one writes trial evidence better than Deverell. 

I found Arthur’s doubts and hesitations about calling a witness who might identify an alternative killer misguided. No defence lawyer can worry about the consequences to a legitimate alternative. His/her duty is to advocate for their client. If your client’s interests are secondary you must withdraw as counsel.

It took me awhile, though I was ahead of Arthur, to figure out there would be a mighty twist because of the pregnancy.

Arthur’s quick wit and willingness to tread over legal boundaries makes the trial entertaining. There are consequences.

In the end, Arthur faces the greatest challenge of defence lawyers. Should Angelina testify?

I was shaking my head at Arthur’s hubris at the end of the trial. If found guilty of murder the sentence was bound to be that Angelina was to hang though Arthur certainly knew that the Federal Cabinet had commuted all death sentences as a matter of policy since 1963. With hanging no longer the punishment Angelina would have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

His address to the jury is mesmerizing though it would have faced valid objections over raising facts not in evidence.

The Long-Shot Trial is another excellent Deverell mystery. The trial is riveting. The stretching of trial proprieties was present but not over done. Deverell is a master craftsman of legal mysteries. Arthur Beauchamp is a barrister nonpariel.  

****

Deverell, William - (2011) - A Trial of Passion; (2011) - Snow Job; (2012) - I'll See You in My Dreams; (2012) - "D" is for William Deverell; (2014) - Kill All the Lawyers and The Lawyers of Kill All the Lawyers; (2015) - Sing a Worried Song and Truth is Stranger Than Fiction - Sing a Worried Song; (2018) - Whipped and A Fictional Porcupine Plain; (2021) - Stung and A Fictional Defence of Necessity

If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr

(34. - 1217.) - If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr - In 1934 Bernie Gunther has gone from being a police detective to a house detective at the Adlon Hotel because of the Nazi takeover. He expresses his opinion of the National Socialists as he watches a military parade:

“ … the traffic jam of Nazi flags and banners the soldiers were carrying - an entire haberdasher’s store of red and black and white curtain material."

A confrontation after the parade with an arrogant police officer, August Krichbaum, ends with Gunther delivering a powerful punch to Krichbaum’s stomach. When Krichbaum dies Gunther has to live with the uncomfortable knowledge he is a witness away from being arrested.

Gunther learns of impending measures against Jews from a former police colleague Otto Trettin, now a member of the Gestapo. Germans with four Jewish grandparents will bear the brunt of the new laws. Trettin recommends full Jews leave the country now. He tells Gunther, who has one Jewish grandparent, that he is a “crossbreed” (second-grade mixed race) and should find a way to make his Jewish grandparent disappear. He provides the name of a man who can change history. Gunther undergoes “an Aryan transfusion” in which Gunther’s Jewish grandmother will become his great-grandmother.

At the hotel Gunther is occupied by issues arising from hotel guests entertaining visits by “joy ladies”.

Mrs. Hedda Adlon’s dear friend, the beautiful and wealthy and Jewish Mrs. Noreen Charalambides, from New York wants to write an article of her own for the Herald Tribune on German Jews.

Hitler wants to burnish the Third Reich’s public image by hosting the 1936 Olympics. His desire is aided by American IOC President, Avery Brundage, absurdly concluding Jews are not being discriminated against in Germany.

Irritated by her righteousness Gunther points out to Mrs. Charalambides that Blacks are lynched and discriminated against in the U.S.

Gunther, enthralled by Mrs. Charalambides, offers but token resistance to becoming her personal investigator and protector.

They look into the past of a Jewish German boxer found floating in the Spree River as the focus for her story.

Gunther’s sarcasm peaks as he amuses Mrs. Charalambides.

He is deflated when Mrs. Charalambides calls him a cynic even though she is right.

He is inflated when Mrs. Charalambides says she wants to kiss him.

Love is an ill-fated word in crime noir.

They learn of the corruption around the vast new Olympic Stadium project. The 1936 Games are 2 years away and the Stadium is a hole in the ground. Workers are in such demand that even Jews, though secretly, are hired to work upon the Stadium.

The German Organizing Committee is composed of dedicated high ranking Nazis intent on pleasing the Fuhrer and enjoying the economic opportunities of the Games.

On seeing the gigantic pit where the Stadium is to be built Gunther is overcome as the area reminds him of No Man’s Land in WW I. Memories of a continuing nightmare in which he is sinking in the mud of a shell crater overwhelm him - “... I had to drop down on my haunches and take several deep breaths in an effort to pull myself together.”  

I thought of an English lady I knew well who had been an air raid warden in London during the Blitz in WW II. Forty years later she could not be in a room where balloons were popping.

Kerr is so skilled at creating vivid scenes. 

As Gunther is being suddenly released from a stint in police custody outside Berlin he is taken through a room with a falling axe:

Constructed of dark polished oak and dull-colored steel, the mahine was about eight feet in height - just a bit taller than an executioner wearing his customary top hat.

I shivered along with Gunther contemplating the guillotine before him.

Upon stepping outside he lifts his face up to falling rain:

The rain felt even better than it looked, and I rubbed it across my chin and hair the same way I’d washed my face with it in the trenches. Rain: it was something clean and free and fell from the sky and wasn’t going to kill you.

Gunther is a bulldog. He cannot give up the investigation no matter the risk.

Following up information takes Gunther to Wurzberg and the limestone industry. More dangers await him in Potsdam and Berlin.

Abruptly over three-quarters of the way into the book Gunther is in Havana in 1954. He has changed his name to Carlos Hausner. In Havana he has unexpected reunions. Gunther has mixed emotions about the reunions. Trying to live a quiet life without drawing attention is impossible for Gunther. 

The shifts in power and the hard experiences of life before, during and after the war create new dynamics in the relationships. As in Argentina, Gunther is no longer at the mercy of thugs, Nazi and non-Nazi.

Gunther is asked by a group of businessmen, members of the American Mafia including Meyer Lansky, to find a killer. Equally wanting answers are members of the Cuban elite. Gunther will be well paid and have unlimited authority. He is given even more power than he had in Argentina. It is irresistible for Gunther that he is asked to exercise rather than restrain his detective instincts. His obsession to find killers is indulged and he is assured that the methods he undertakes are not limited by traditional police policies.

In the least likely description possible for Gunther he is described as a Knight of heaven. He responds that his “armor’s very dirty”.

Despite his professed indifference to “doing good” he places himself in yet another dangerous situation to help. In his soul Gunther is a knight errant who cannot turn away from helping no matter the risk.

Gunther’s sarcastic wit permeates the book. He cannot carry on a conversation without a biting comment or two or more.

Kerr is gradually filling in the gaps of Gunther’s pre-war life in Nazi Germany but not in a linear way. Over the 6 books I have read in the series, readers have learned about his life before the Nazis took over, during their reign from 1933 to the start of WW II, what he did during the war, the immediate aftermath of the war and his escape to Argentina. While I have set out the time frames chronologically the books weave in and out of the eras of his life.

Bernie will never have a routine life, though I found Kerr went overboard on the number of Gunther’s narrow escapes from death in If the Dead Rise Not I will keep reading to find out what dramas befall him in the next books in the series.

****

Kerr, Philip – (2004) - Dark Matter; (2016) - March Violets; (2016) - The Pale Criminal; (2016) - A German Requiem; (2016) - Berlin Police and the Holocaust - Part I and Part II;  (2016) - Comparing Serial Killers in Three Totalitarian States; (2023) - The One From the Other; (2023) - A Quiet Flame; Paperback

The Puzzle Box by Lisa Adair

(31. - 1214.) - The Puzzle Box by Lisa Adair - In August of 1985 Amy Young, 16 years old, is living with her aunt, Jeannie Young, in the fictional small town of Glenmere in northern Saskatchewan. Between them they work four jobs to sort of make ends meet. They hope there might be some money from the estate of Dorothy Young, Amy’s grandmother, but the lawyer has been waiting months for documents and has not even read the will to the family. 

Amy is a cashier for $4.25 per hour at Family Grocer’s. Her aunt works as a part-time receptionist during the day for the town doctor and as a waitress at Frankie’s Diner in the evening. The Diner uniform is “an orange striped shirt, black dress pants, and a blue apron with matching orange ruffles”. Amy occasionally busses tables and washes dishes at the Diner.

Amy had been living with her grandmother at the family farm because her mother died when she was 6. She does not know her father. Her grandmother had collapsed in town and died a few months earlier. Aunt Jeannie is her only relative and that is by marriage. It is Uncle John, Aunt Jeannie’s unlamented and long gone ex, who was her grandmother’s son.

Every dollar is hard earned and extra food from the diner is appreciated.

While not discussed in the book the mid-1980’s were a hard time for rural Saskatchewan. Grain prices were down and farms were struggling to survive. I remember dealing with too many clients in deep financial trouble.

Grandma Dorothy had told Amy that a puzzle box at the farm was “something really special. She said that, if I could open it, I would have everything I ever wanted”. It is a wooden box with little panels.

A shifty stranger is in town trying not to draw attention to himself. 

Break-ins are occurring and modest items pilfered.

The meeting with the lawyer and the distribution of the estate were not plausible to me as a lawyer. There are multiple legal issues with the will and the marital status of Aunt Jeannie and Uncle John. Had it been said the will was a holograph will instead of a will prepared by a lawyer there would have more credibility.

Thankfully Amy reports matters to the police. She would not have been a credible investigator. More authors should give the police a meaningful role.

Later proceedings in Court and the actions of a criminal defence lawyer were so wrong I was gritting my teeth in exasperation.

A small issue but a matter that shows the extent of an author’s research, for authors depicting Canadian court proceedings there are no gavels in Canadian courts.

The plot stretched my suspension of disbelief. Partly because I am a lawyer and partly because the plot has both a mysterious stranger who is pretending to be a local and another mysterious stranger.

What kept me reading were the small town characters and their interactions. The residents of Glenmere are believable. The convrsations are real. Their personalities fit rural Saskatchewan.

Amy is a nice young woman. The losses in her life have shaken her but she is doing her best to move ahead.

I expect it was a coincidence that in consecutive years I have read mysteries set in small town Saskatchewan written by women and featuring a sleuth who is a teenage girl dealing with profound family loss. Last year it was A Snake in the Raspberry Patch by Joanne Jackson which won a Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence.

Adair has significant work to do on her plotting of a mystery and her research. She is skilled at creating a premise and characters.