The Princes in the Tower: How History’s Greatest Cold Case Was Solved by Philippa Langley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve been interested in the case of the princes in the tower for many years, and I’ve read a lot of books about them and their uncle Richard III. The young princes, Edward V and Richard Duke of York disappeared sometime in 1483 after their uncle became king. Richard III is commonly held to be responsible for the deaths of the two boys – this has been the theory promoted by Tudor historians since Henry Tudor defeated Richard at Bosworth in 1485. And of course this was picked up by Shakespeare and so this theory became pretty much accepted as fact.

However, there is a considerable amount of evidence that one or both of the boys survived past 1485. The author is one of the founders of the “Missing Princes Project” which is searching out evidence to find out what really happened to the princes. This volume is sort of a “work in progress” report on the project so far. Most of the surviving evidence comes from archives outside of the United Kingdom – Henry VII and his historians destroyed an amazing amount of documents in the archives in England and Ireland. So it has been a struggle to find and evaluate documents in the Netherlands and other countries as well.

I don’t want to go into too much detail for fear of spoilers, but the working theory is that two of the “feigned boys” that the Tudors complained about for causing disruption by invading England, were actually the missing princes.

This is a familiar period of history to me, and so I’ve read a lot of books on the princes and their uncle and the Tudors. I do not recommend this book for someone who is unfamiliar with this era. But if you do have some background knowledge of the story of the princes, I think you may find this to be an interesting read. I liked this book, but it can be a little difficult to read – it is set up like a missing persons case folder, so there is no real narrative line. And at this point, anyway, there is no final resolution of the question.

In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors by Doug Stanton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In Harm’s Way is the story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis just before the end of World War 2 in the Pacific. The Indianapolis had delivered parts of the “Little Boy” atomic bomb to the island of Tinian, and then was making its way to Leyte in the Philippines when it was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58. The ship sank rapidly with heavy loss of life. Many sailors were able to get off the ship, but then were stranded in the water for four days because the Navy had lost track of the Indianapolis, and no alarm was raised when she didn’t arrive in Leyte on time.

The fact that over 300 men were eventually rescued is amazing, but the four days they spent in the ocean battling, thirst, hunger, the sun, their own injuries and sharks is horrifying. Hundreds of men died in the water before the rescue planes and ships arrived.

It remains a puzzle as to why the Navy decided to court martial Captain McVay for the loss of the ship. He was the only ship’s captain to face a court martial solely for the loss of his ship. The base of the charge against him was that the Indianapolis wasn’t zigzagging when it was torpedoed, so the captain was somehow at fault. One of the prosecution witnesses was the captain of the I-58 and he explained that zigzagging wouldn’t have made any difference. McVay was found guilty regardless.

It is a compelling story, but I have some reservations about this book. There are many, many minor errors that should have been caught by proofreading. None of them affect the main story though. I also found the author’s repeated use of the word “boys” to describe the crew to be somewhat annoying. There are better books than this one about the USS Indianapolis

The Devil’s Flute Murders by Seishi Yokomizo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Devil’s Flute Murders is another book in the Detective Kindaichi series by Seishi Yokomizo. This one is set in 1947 in the Tokyo area, though some of the action also takes place in Kobe. In post-war Tokyo, the former viscount Tsubaki has been found dead under somewhat mysterious circumstances. A divination is held by his family with the hope of clearing up some of the mystery, and Kosuke Kindaichi is invited to take part.

That’s about all I can say for fear of spoilers. It is a well-crafted mystery, something I’ve come to expect from this series. There are many clues to solve the mystery, but there are a lot of red herrings as well. I really enjoyed reading this book; it kept me guessing until the very end.

I recommend this book. And I’m looking forward to reading another mystery in the Kindaichi series.

The Little Sparrow Murders by Seishi Yokomizo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Little Sparrow Murders is another book in the Detective Kindaichi series by Seishi Yokomizo. This one is set in 1955 in the small village of Onikobe. Kindaichi is on vacation here along with his friend Inspector Isokawa. There was a murder in the village back in 1932 that Isokawa had worked on as a young detective, but the the main suspect in the case had never been found. Twenty-three years later, a new series of murders breaks out, with the bodies of the victims arranged to allude to verses of a children’s song.

That’s about all I can say for fear of spoilers. It is a well-crafted mystery and was a lot of fun to read. It can be a little hard to keep track of all of the characters, but thankfully there is a list of characters at the beginning of the book, along with a map of Onikibe. I did have some suspicions but I did not figure out the entire mystery, including the identity of the killer, until it was all revealed by Kindaichi.

I definitely recommend this book. I’m definitely looking forward to reading another mystery in the Kindaichi series.

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a very interesting book on the collapse of the Late Bronze Age civilizations. Before reading this book, I really didn’t know much about this period of history, other than this is when the Bronze Age ended and the Iron Age began soon after. The author sets the scene for what civilization looked like in the 12th Century BC before the collaps, and then backs up a few hundred years and there are chapters devoted to the 15th, 14th and 13th centuries BC. Then we come to the main event in the 12th century BC.

It’s almost like a murder mystery when we get to the period 1200 to 1150 BC: we know what happens, but how and why does this civilization collapse? The various kingdoms in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East had well established trading and political connections, not unlike the world today. There are many possibilities and the author takes us through them: internal rebellions, climate change, drought, famine, earthquakes and invasions from outside, like the Sea Peoples. And the result seems to be that there was no one overriding cause, but rather a combination of causes which ended the Bronze Age civilization.

The title comes from an attempted invasion of Egypt by the mysterious “Sea Peoples” in 1177 BC. The Egyptians were victorious, but the struggle weakened Egypt enough that it began to decline.

It is a very interesting and well-written book and if you’re interested in this period of history, I highly recommend it.

The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land by Thomas Asbridge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Crusades is a one volume history of the attempt by Western Christianity (or the “Latins”) to occupy the Holy Land, specifically Jerusalem, which had come under Muslim rule. There were a number of crusades, beginning with the First Crusade in the 1090s, which set up the four Crusader states, and eventually ending with the conquest of the last of the Crusader states at the siege of Acre in 1291.

It’s hard to say exactly how many crusades there were, but there are five with numbers plus several others. The crusading impulse began in western Europe, in particular France, in the late 11th century. Crusaders were promised redemption of their sins (indulgences) if they took the cross and traveled to the Holy Land to return it to Christian rule. So there were both spiritual and political aspects to the Crusades. As the crusades developed over time, the popes began to get more involved and this led to the kings of France and England and the German emperor also getting involved. On the Muslim side, there were sultanates in Mesopotamia and Egypt, but the Holy Land was kind of a border area. And there were also Eastern Christian states, including the Byzantine Empire, so the political environment was very complicated.

It’s a very interesting and very complex story and the author does a great job of untangling the complexities. Having some knowledge of the Crusades from a medieval European history course, I really appreciated learning about the Muslim side of the struggle. There are many remarkable people that we meet along the way: Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, Friedrich Barbarossa, Saladin, Baybars, Pope Innocent III and Louis IX to name just a few.

I highly recommend this book. It’s very well written and footnoted. And the final section on the legacy of the Crusades is definitely worth reading several times.

Breaking the Chain: The Guard Dog Story by Patrick McDonnell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve been a reader of the Mutts comic by Patrick McDonnell for many years, and one of the most interesting characters is Guard Dog, at least in my opinion. We don’t know too much about Guard Dog except that his owners always chain him outside. He has a human friend, a little girl named Doozy, who visits him from time to time, but we never meet his owners.

I don’t want to say much more for fear of spoilers, but you should be able to guess what happens by the title: “Breaking the Chain.”