Harriet Klausner's Review Archive
While Lady Kate Sheridan visits her grieving friend Lady Jenna Loveday, whose daughter Harriet recently drowned, local authorities ask her husband Charles, a successful amateur sleuth, to investigate the two “accidental” deaths that they now believe are homicides. He soon connects Harriet’s drowning, the deaths of the employees of the wireless company to the industrial espionage and sabotage, but that knowledge places Charles and Kate in danger from a person willing to kill to take control of the growing international communications business.
DEATH ON THE LIZARD is a fantastic historical mystery, which in spite of a wonderful who-done-it investigation, the early twentieth century communication technology takes front and center as readers cannot help but to compare it with cell phones and internet instant chat lines, etc. The story line is action-packed, but also provides a deep historical look at Cornwall and at the beginnings of the technology revolution. The key cast members, not just the sleuthing marital team, are fully developed as Team Paige is at their best with this insightful look at the late Victorian Age.
Harriet Klausner Tremor Craig Dirgo Berkley, Jan 2006, $14.00, 320 pp. ISBN: 0425207501
After being cheated out of money he should have gotten from his patents involving alternating current, Nikola Tesla vowed to keep his next project secret until the patents were secure and the robber barons of the 1890’s had to pay him for using his new invention. He was trying to find a way to use wireless electricity sent through the earth to a specific point. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams in his test project but he caused the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, although nobody connected the two events.
In the present in Serbia Galadin Ratzovik who was instrumental in the ethnic cleansing is wanted by the UN War Crimes Commission. He has Tesla’s notes and a scientist to work on two experiments to trigger earthquakes in Spain and Italy. NIA Agent John Taft is sent into Serbia to figure out what is going on and if the quakes can be related to Tesla’s experiments. A note is given to the UN demanding the release of former President of Ilic who is being held at The Hague awaiting trial for war crimes. John Taft is sent home but learns that the demands are a cover for an action that would totally decimate the United States.
The latest work of Craig Dirgo, co-author of The Oregon Files, will appeal to the fans of Clive Cussler and Tom Clancy. TREMOR is action oriented but there is enough background information on Tesla, a real nineteenth century genius, and enough fill-ins on the key characters to make this a well-rounded and balanced novel. The protagonist is a man of honor, willing to lay down his life to save otherss; his dedication will appeal to mainstream readers of both genders.