Four new books to check out in November
WWII London murders, Roaring Twenties Wallis Simpson, and a double dose of J. Edgar Hoover
Man, you’ve gotta feel for the authors who have books hitting shelves in the next few weeks. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be nice to turn off cable news, close tab, and curl up with a bit of narrative history as the world burns? I absolutely loved Paul French’s MIDNIGHT IN PEKING; and John Oller’s ROGUES’ GALLERY is essential reading in the canon of New York’s Gilded Age underworld, so I was delighted to see that both authors have new works out this month. But I’ll shut up now so you can get back to the Election Needle—if that’s even happening?
From the publisher: “A gripping new history of London during the Blackout … Fear was the unacknowledged spectre haunting the streets … during the Second World War; fear not only of death from the German bombers circling above, but of violence at the hands of fellow Londoners in the streets below.” The Times of London: “It’s the unheroic normality of the accounts that makes this a compelling read. … UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS isn’t really about the murders at all, but about life during wartime and, paradoxically, it reinforces the picture of a resilient city, clinging on amid the rubble and rationing.” (Yale University Press, November 5)
From the publisher: “New York Times bestselling author Paul French examines a controversial and revealing period in the early life of the legendary Wallis, Duchess of Windsor—her one year in China.” Kirkus: “French does … strikingly render an oft-fetishized time and place, countering the familiar mythologizing of both the Roaring Twenties, with its Eurocentric literary obsessions, and the path of China from dynastic to communist rule. An occasionally entertaining look at a little-known bridge between American, British, and Chinese history.” (St. Martin’s Press, November 12)
From the publisher: “In Policing Show Business, Francis MacDonnell explores the starring role played by J. Edgar Hoover in the development of the Hollywood blacklist in the 1940s and 1950s. … MacDonnell approaches the Red Scare through biography using FBI records on such luminaries as Marlene Dietrich, Walt Disney, Hedda Hopper, Adolphe Menjou, Lena Horne, Fredric March, Cecil B. DeMille, and Burl Ives to present in unexpected, surprising, and sometimes poignant ways the rich human dramas experienced by both targets of the bureau and its collaborators.” (University of Kansas Press, November 12)
From the publisher: “The enthralling, can’t-put-down account of the birth of the modern FBI. … John Oller transports readers right to the most harrowing and consequential raids of the 1930s, with fast-paced action that shows the lengths both sides would go to win.” (Dutton, November 26)