Book Review: Murders Do Not Come by Accident

Book Review: Murders Do Not Come by Accident.
Edward T Cook
Page Free Publishing



John Cook retired as a detective from the Chicago police force to Marquette in Upper Michigan where the local police chief recruits him as a detective. Four fatal accidents happen in rapid succession. Nothing exciting in themselves, but together they crate a pattern that suggests murder. His investigation leads to the center of the local drug ring.

Good summer reading, and a detective who actually knows how to develop the evidence to get good search warrants.

Book Review: Eagle in the Snow

Book Review: Eagle in the SnowGeneral Maximus and Rome’s Last Stand.
Author Wallace Breem
Orion Books, DBA Phoenix books, London, UK 1970



In the winter of 406-407 the Rhine froze solid. The German tribes crossed on the ice into Roman territory. Not a just a raiding party, but a migration of entire nations who’s invasion completely disrupted the Western Empire. The provinces of Gaul never recovered, Britain passed from Roman rule, eventually Hispania, and North Africa and Italy were invaded. This novel is the story of the Roman commander’s account of the defense of the Rhine and his eventual defeat.


Paulinus Gaius Maximus was what we would call an Army brat. Of Equestrian (knightly) Roman stock he was raised in legionary garrisons as his father rose through the ranks to be the Legate of the Legio XX Valriea Victrix. He followed his father into the Army first as an Equestrian Tribune in his father’s legion before moving on to other assignments. From his father and this service learned the ideals of an earlier Rome and Roman Army, a loyalty he will serve the end.

Maximus is the son of a military family that ended up on the wrong side of imperial politics, a pagan when favor was increasingly going to Christians, but talented well above average and apolitical himself he is appointed as the Prefect (Commander) of a cohort at a critical fort on Hadrian’s Wall . A dead end job he will hold for over thirty years but he performs it well and occasionally with distinction. He learns the skills that will do him well on the Rhine

Sometime after 395 Flavius Stilicho, Commander of the Roman Armies in the West, visits Britain, and impressed with Maximus he offers him command of his fathers old Legio XX Valeria Victrix, which he is talking out of Britain to help defend Italy. The XXth has been allowed to run down to the point that is a parody of its old self. Maximus has a year to recruit it to full strength restore it as a fighting force, not the old heavy infantry legion but a modern force with both heavy and light infantry as well it’s own cavalry. A year later when he joins Stilicho he has force of 6000 men including 1500 cavalry disciplined to the standards of the old roman Army and trained for the new warfare.. After campaigning in Italy for five years Stilicho gives him a new mission in Germany. The Rhine is only garrisoned with enough forces to restrict raiding. The German tribes east of the Rhine are being displaced by the Huns and want to migrate into Roman territory, a migration that Rome does not have the ability to absorb. The mission is possible in theory because there is only one stretch of the Rhine from Worms to Koblenz where whole tribes could migrate as opposed to launching raids. This is for only a few months of the year in spring and fall, and without bridges there is a limit to how many can cross at one time. Unless the Rhine freezes.

For a year and a half Maximus struggles to make a backwater command into a fighting force, and uses bluff and bluster to convince the Germans not cross until he has built the army. He gets little willing support from the local governments or from the government in Gaul. Gradually he builds the army, the XXth as the strike force and enough Auxillaries to hold defenses. His single mindedness and integrity win the respect and even some support from the local government as well as the very grudging respect of the German leaders. But then in December 406 the Rhine freezes and on the thirtyfirst the tribes cross. After three weeks of fighting, holding with bravery discipline and skill, losing to numbers and treachery, he makes the last stand. The Eagle of the Legio XX Valeria Victix, which lead the legion for over 430 years, is melted to prevent capture while they await the final charge.


I think a point the modern reader should take away is how fast civilization can dissolve and how terrible the result would be. The introduction begins:

In the deep valleys between the black rain-lashed mountains of the western coast there is little to do of a winter’s night if you belong to a beaten people. Defeated sick of heart and afraid, you sit huddled in tattered cloak round the great sputtering fires and dream of a tomorrow that will never come. The women nurse wailing children and long for warm huts and a world in which milk is always plentiful; the young warriors sharpen their dulled spears and pray for just one victory against the men from the sea; while the old remember a time when no fires betrayed a burning village to the night sky, and there was peace in the lands from which they are now exiled for ever.

Seventy, even fifty years ago one would never see a village burning in the distance, a general peace from the Pillars of Hercules to the wall of Hadrian, from cliffs Brittany to the mountains of Italy. Men who did not join the army did not have to dream of defeating an all to likely enemy, and mothers could be sure they had enough food to have milk or could find a wet nurse. Old men remebered long ago harvests and places they safely gone and returned.

What brought this about? Well many factors but one that is key to the novel is that the upper classes of Rome had stopped believing in the ideals that made Rome. And not believing they did not act. We should not forget the if we lose the ideals that made western society and our country we could be not to many years from a similar collapse.


This is an excellent novel, well set in the larger reality of the time and place. The suspense is not in how it will end, (it’s in the notes on the cover) but in the fight against man nature and events. Maximus is a very believable character; the depictions of events ring true. The author served in the British Indian Army on the North West Frontier in World War II, which brings a strong sense of reality the account of border duty and role of the Auxiliary units. There is a good map that makes the major action clear as well as lists of key terms characters and historical events.

Strongly Recommended.

Related
Book Review: The Fall of the Roman Empire

Book Review: Rome's Greatest Defeat
Book Review: The Battle That Stopped Rome
The Advanced Guard

Friday Snippet

Gabriele of The Lost Fort is participating in Holly Lisle’s Friday Snippet meme where people post snippets of their fiction writing.

This Friday Snippets thing encouraged me to try. I know it’s awful. This is my first attempt at fiction since required class assignments in school. Suggestions for improving would be appreciated. Thanks to Gabriele for help with names.


The Advance Guard

Background: In 9 AD a Roman Army under Publius Quinctilius Varus was ambushed by German Tribesman lead by Arminius a former officer of German troops in the Roman army. The main part of the battle is at Kalkriese in the Teutobergerwald. There is some question as to the actual sequence of events; this is based on a possible scenario.





Centurion Gaius Antonius, commanding the advance guard, turned in the saddle looked back on his Cohort. – The bottom dropped out of stomach as it tied in knots. He was dead, his men were dead, their families, his children, his precious Lalage, all dead except for dying. And a voice in the back of head was saying, “just march, you didn’t see anything, just march, no one will know, just march, let some one else die”.


That morning.

Lalage pulled her husband to the side. “Don’t give me that ‘Centurion’ look. I’ve been a soldier’s daughter since I can remember, a soldier’s wife, your wife, for five years, something’s wrong! It’s not our turn for advance guard, families don’t move with the advance guard!

“Lalage sweet, quite down, no one follows a doubtful command. Senator Varus says the situation is delicate and maintaining a bluff like nothing is wrong is best.” Lalage noticed he used the civilian Senator not the military Legate. ”Staying at Minden would have been more dangerous. Families have been with the lead cohort for three days, if they aren’t today it is signaling we know something is wrong. When you bluff, bluff big. Or it won't work."

“And if it doesn’t work! We can’t hire villagers to help with the baggage, they won’t sell us food, nothing is right, we should be marching ready to fight!”

"I think it’s all right. The Fifth Cherusciorum is scouting in front of us. If Arminius’s old cohort can’t find an enemy they’re not there. I have half the men guarding our wagons and families. If the other half can’t get them out of any trouble they find it will take the whole Legion. Besides, your father recommended us, said he wanted the best cohort on advance guard, now you can’t argue with the Primus Pilus.”

“I can’t? Father’s right, your cohort is best, but if he puts families in front tomorrow; I will talk with him.”



Antonius had been told the last stretch for the day went through a place called ‘The Narrows’, A steep hill to the left a swamp to the right, in between ten feet of road that could carry a wagon!. The Fifth was sending scouts to both sides and he saw them give the all clear, and post guards to keep it clear. The wagons and families were in the middle of the Cohort and a thousand feet behind that the legion, “Damn Varus” he thought, “if the Fifth gets in trouble here I can’t support them and defend the wagons”.


In the center of the Narrows Antonius looked back, the Cohort was in good order, The princepales’s were keeping the troops in line. The men were maintaining as even a pace as the ground allowed, despite orders he had had them wear helmets and unsling their shields. -- He froze.-- From his mounted perch the afternoon light was just right. There was a wall, trampled vegetation behind it, javelin tips just over the edge. Arminius’s Fifth was guarding an ambush not the road. His four hundred in a trap to kill four thousand, do his duty and everything that was his would be gone, and a voice saying “’Just march’ like you saw nothing, the cohort will be clear the when legion dies. ‘Just march’”


Lalage had the wagon master wondering just who was in charge of the Cohort. Every one was armed; she made sure every one knew their part in ambush and laagering drill; stragglers weren’t allowed.

Lalage looked up at Antonius’s screamed command. “DROP packs! AMBUSH drill LEFT!” A surprised volley of javelins; the alarm trumpets sounding; legionaires forming ranks to attack, more javelins this time finding their mark; getting the family’s and children under cover. The Barbarian charge came in for the kill led by the Fifth Cherusciorum. She last saw Antonius leading the survivors, screaming hate and despair, into the Fifth.

Related:

Book Review: The Battle That Stopped Rome By Peter Wells
Quest for the Lost Legions By Tony Benn
Book Review: Rome's Greatest Defeat By Adrian Murdoch
Eagle in the Snow by Wallace Breem

Book Reviews: Gettysburg

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Killer Angels
Michael Sharaa
Ballantine Books




Courage On Little Round Top
Thomas Eishen
Skyward Publishing
Web page
Buy autographed copy from Author
Photo Gallery
Classroom Lesson Plans



NOTE: 08/15/2007. Mr Eishen reorganized and expanded his home page and the picture links no longer link. Start with his web page above.


The Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War, along with the Battle of Vicksburg
in the west, was the one of decisive battles of that war and a watershed event of American History. These two novels look at Gettysburg from different perspectives and together tell the story, not just of an epic event in our history, but also of the soldiers “who so gallantly gave their lives.”

Michael Sharaa’s Killer Angles is Pulitzer prize winning novel, telling the story of the leaders, mostly southern, who brought the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania in the hope of ending the war, as well as two of union officers who played key roles in defeating the South and preserving the Union. We see the thinking and emotions that went in to the battle decisions. The story of an army which in many ways allowed the sense of honor and pride that was a defining characteristic get in the way of it’s goal of victory. We see the big picture of the battle from when the armies first meeting engagement and the efforts of both armies to get good positions, the efforts of Longstreet’s Corp. to turn the Unions left flank on the second day, and Lee’s last attempt to destroy the union army, in the gallant and futile attack remembered as Pickett’s charge.

Thomas Eishen’s Courage on Little Round Top is the story of two regiments, the 20th Maine and the 15th Alabama that fought in one of the battles most important engagements on the south slope of Little Round Top hill on the second day of the battle. This is story of several hundred men on each side, on a four-year hiking expedition and camping trip, interspaced with interludes of pure violence. At the end of the fight the commander of the 20th Maine came to capture a Confederate Lieutenant at sword point. These two solidiers are followed through the events leading up to the battle and the battle itself.

Colonel Joshua Chamberlain is a university professor appointed as a volunteer officer, appalled at the loss of life and at the same time enthralled at the excitement of battle and the scope for personal accomplishment he could never have in a classroom.

Lieutenant Robert Wicker was collage student who enlisted and was commissioned from the ranks. Apparently suffering from some sort of clinical depression, he is fighting his own personal demons. I gather he was a person who would never be happy in an army, he was superceded for promotion and command of his company by an outside officer, but none the less tries to serve to the best of his ability and care for his soldiers.

While most of the details our fictional the characters are the soldiers who served, and built around actual events and authentic background gives a realistic feel for what happened to the people involved.



Items of Interest.


The situation.

The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) had marched north into Pennsylvania. The Union Army of the Potomac (AP) went off in pursuit. They met at Gettysburg, with the Confederates coming form the north, and the Union from the South. General Robert E Lee the Confederate Commander, wanted to draw the union forces in to a decisive battle, where the defeat of the Union army would force the union to accept Confederate independence. The Union army had orders to first prevent an attack on Washington and then drive the Confederate forces out of union territory.


Tactics.

West Point taught the system of the French General Jommni, one of Napoleon's lieutenants who systematized Napoleon’s tactics. A major emphasis was the full scale attack where the attacker would overwhelm the defender in a grand assault as much by the “moral force” of the assault as by numbers and weapons. This had some validity in the Napoleonic wars, though both the British and Prussian experience suggested that the defense could defeat a grand assault. In the early 1850’s the invention of the mini-ball allowed rifled muskets to fire as fast as the old smooth bore muskets and extended the effective range of the common soldiers weapon from about 30 yards to 200 yards. This allowed for firing five or six shots at the attackers instead of one or two, with a more accurate weapon. It would take the whole war before most everyone was convinced the grand assault was a thing of the past and new tactics were developed and people trained to use them. The worst part was not that the grand attacks failed but that they came so close to succeeding it was tempting to think that just a little more would win. While we are used the modern battlefield technology changing at a rapid pace, the rifled musket was the first major change in infantry weapons in 150 years and it is not really surprising that it took a long time to realize the full meaning of this change and modify tactics, and tactical organization and training to accommodate this change. (This section is from general knowledge not the books but it makes what happened clearer.)


The Cavalry.

The main role of the cavalry was to find the enemy and report their location and keep the enemy cavalry from doing the same. The days of the heavy cavalry charge had been ended by the invention of the rifled musket a few years before. Other than that, cavalry served as mounted infantry and a raiding force. Sharaa shows how the cavalry was used and misused. General John Buford, the commander of the Union cavalry has his division following the Lee and sending reports on a regular basis. When part of the Confederate army turns toward Gettysburg he reports it, finds the best position to delay the confederates and dismounts his division to fight as infantry and delay Lee long enough for the AP to react. In contrast General J. E. B. Stuart, the commander of the confederate Cavalry, sets off on a big raiding expedition, is on the wrong side of the Union army to send reports back to Lee, who is walking blind into the Union Army except for a spy hired by General Longstreet.


Longstreets Recommendation.

General James Longstreet, the ANV’s most experienced corp commander, had become convinced that the rifled musket had made the Napoleonic grand assault a thing of the past, that tactical superiority lay with the defense. He was recommending to Lee before the campaign that the ANV move north assume a defensive position where the Union would be compelled to make a grand assault on a prepared Confederate position. The evening of July 1st he tries to convince Lee to move to their right (south) and attack around the union flank rather than make a grand assault. If possible block the union supply line and force them to retreat. He repeats the recommendation on the evening of the second. Lee does not accept the recommendation, he is not convinced that Longstreet is correct, and the prize of destroying the AOP and ending the war in a massive assault is before him. Accepting Longstreets recommendation would mean withdrawing from the current battle field without victory, which he and his army would see as an affront to the honor of the their fallen comrades, the ANV, as well as their personal honor. Longstreet is frustrated at his inability to convince people on what seems so clear to him, and the fact that as the most experienced and able Corp commander it his duty to conduct attacks he does not believe in. Much of the tension of Sharaa’s novel comes from this conflict.


Little Round Top

Lee decided that on the second of July Longstreets Corp would attack on the south end of the Union line, destroy the Union forces there and then sweep north. Despite his doubts he almost pulled it off. Major General Sickles, a political appointee who commanded the Union III Corp in front of Longstreet, decided he did not like his position because there was some high ground in front of him. He moved his Corp forward against orders to occupy this position. The first problem was that it required him to double the length of his line and he did not have the troops to defend the longer line. The other problem was he left unguarded Little Round Top the high ground that really dominated that whole section of the Union defenses. Longstreets attack was achieving some success when the Union V Corp was sent to get Sickles out of trouble. As it happened the 15th Alabama was the end regiment of the Confederate line and the 20th Maine of V Corp became the end regiment of the Union line. For a short time that day the fate of both armies depended on the contest between these two regiments. This was a soldier’s battle that was over before the high command even knew it was fought. The battle was fought on a rather steep hill, too wooded for the tactics, by regiments were worn out from a day long approach march in a hotter than usual July sun. In the end it was decided by a bayonet assault when the 20th Maine ran out of ammunition. (This is the cover picture on Eishen’s book) This is the culmination of Eishen’s book and a key event in Sharaa’s

Panoramic View of the second days battle field looking east at the Union position. The partially deforested hill in the Center right is Little Round Top. The Confederates attempted to sweep to the right. The 20th Main and 15th Alabama fought on the back side of Little Round Top.

Source Wikpedia

Picketts Charge.

Lee decided to launch a Grand Assault against the center of the AOP on July 3d. Lee believed this assault could break the Union center and destroy the AOP and force the North to recognize the confederacy. He was probably right that if they made a major breakthrough the AOP would be destroyed, the question was could it succeed? The attack again went to Longstreet to conduct, but two of the three divisions belonged to another Corp. These divisions were the least tired and had not yet been in the fighting, and it would have taken too long to swap them for Longstreet’s other divisions who continued to hold the south end of the line and rest and recoup from the fighting on the second. The main division in the attack was one of Longstreet’s commanded by General Pickett. The attack was well planned and two hundred of Pickett’s men managed to make a small break in the union line but were quickly repulsed. (This is the picture on the cover of Sharaa’s book) This is a general’s battle where the preparation and planning will decide the battle. The soldiers on both sides only need to face the front and follow orders, “not to reason why but to do or die.” And much of the ANV died. After the battle the ANV had a major reorganization because of the losses, and never attempted an attack of this type again.

Panoramic View of the third days battlefield . This is the ground over which the AVN attacked. Union positions are the ridgeline in the background.



Source Wikpedia

Maps

One of the frustrating things about military history books and novels is the publisher is often to cheap to provide maps, let alone well thought maps that make the movements of the armies and people clear. Happily these books are exceptions. The maps are well designed to show the key information, but without a lot of superfluous information. The only poor map is one in “Courage at Little Round Top” where the publisher made a map postage stamp size when it should have been several inches square.

Shelters of Stone

Book Review:
Shelters of Stone
Jean M. Auel
Crown Publishers, 2002
Fan club


Twenty years ago Jean Auel published her first novel Clan of the Cave Bear set in Europe some 30,000 years ago. The premise was Ayla a girl who is physically a modern human is adopted into a tribe of Neanderthal men (The Clan) at the age of five after her own family and tribe was killed in an earthquake. Of special interest was the carefully researched background into what life was like 30,000 years ago. This has since grown into the Earth’s Children series. Shelters of Stone, is the latest chapter in Ayla story. .


The series to this point.
Ayla, discovered there was no place for her in the Clan she set out to find her own people. Along the way she discovers a new way to make fire, a spear thrower and how to domesticate animals. She has also learned much of the healing arts and has some sort of spiritual gifts. She meets Jondolar who was on a “Journey,” he set out from his tribe to see the world. They travel back to Jondolar’s tribe to be mated and settle down.


The story is of Jondolar’s homecomings and how Ayla is accepted into the Zelandonii. Ayla, as a foreigner, would be normally be the lowest status person, but Jondolar is the son of the former chief and brother of the current chief, which with his won accomplishments makes his a very high status person. His mate should be a high status person. Also the spiritual leaders recognize her gifts and want Ayla (who is not certain she wants to) to have high status so she can be inducted in to the spiritual leader ship. How this is resolved is the main plot of the book. There is also plenty of action as this hunting and gathering community struggles to survive in unforgiving ice age climate.

Like all Auel’s novels, she has thoroughly researched what life was like in southern France 30,000 years ago. Her descriptions of stone age live are very interesting and informative, but overdone to the point that they detract from the main story. I enjoyed them even so, but if they do not interest the reader they can be easily skipped. The anthropology/sociology of this Stone Age tribe seems to be remarkably “politically correct contemporary American.” Again with more detail than necessary. The religion is the presumed Goddess cult.


In Auel’s books the interest is in the incident and detail not the main story line, they are a much better read than one would suppose from a general description. This is good light summer reading, I picked it up because I began the series and became interested in the characters. Shelters of Stone can stand alone but I would recommend starting with Clan of the Cave Bear, which is by far the best in the series, and if you find the characters interesting continue to read the others. There are enough open plot lines for at least two sequels.