The Foreign Service Journal, October 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2019 41 When Beatriz is stabbed to death outside her apartment, Daphne learns the baby has survived and she sets out to find its missing father. She gets sidetracked when a friend facing life- threatening surgery asks Daphne to locate his sister, Charlie. Except for her lip ring and a nasty drug habit, Charlie could be Daphne’s twin. The search for both people leads Daphne to the Delmarva Peninsula and a woman so desperate to cover up her crimes that she is willing to kill anyone in her way. But in the pursuit of justice, a girl’s gotta cut a few corners… Caroline Taylor is the author of four mystery novels and a nonfiction book. She also published a collection of short stories, Enough! Thirty Stories of Fielding Life’s Curve Balls , in 2018; her entire output of short stories is available at www.carolinestories.com. A member of the Foreign Service from 1969 to 1972, Ms. Taylor served in Tel Aviv and Quito. Regrets Juan M. Bracete, Dorrance Publishing Company, 2019, $15/paperback, 176 pages. We never learn the surname of Albert, the protagonist of Regrets , but we get to know virtually every- thing else about him. As the novel’s title implies, Albert strives to build a fulfilling life despite childhood sexual trauma, which interferes with his ability to establish stable emotional relationships. No matter where his travels take him around the world, he remains lonely and frustrated. Juan M. Bracete was born and raised in Puerto Rico and pres- ently resides in Miami, Florida. After practicing law for several years, he entered the Foreign Service and served in Latin America for a stretch of four years. He left the Foreign Service to relocate to El Salvador in 2004, working as a special adviser on public interna- tional law to the minister of governance and public security