The Foreign Service Journal, November 2007

POETRY & FICTION Two Days of the Adder: And Other Stories from Around the World Ken Byrns, AuthorHouse, 2007, $14.49, hardcover, 216 pages. These tales of romance, adventure and suspense are set in countries all over the world. The collection in- cludes 12 short stories and three poems inspired by the author’s experiences during a 23-year Foreign Service career that took him from Iceland to Vietnam, Colorado to Belgium, and Kansas to Canada. The stories are varied and full of esoteric and entertaining detail. For instance, in South Africa, an adder is used as a murder weapon; in Mexico, it’s a bull; in France, a grenade; and in Zimbabwe, a Rhodesian lion dog. And, what really happened at the River Lip in Turkey, where a girl plunges from a precipice into the depths of a chasm, “landing on the jagged rocks at the edge of the river, a rushing tor- rent that would drown out the sounds of the impact or cries of anguish, if there were any”? Ken Byrns has published numerous short stories, articles and poems. Two of his stories have appeared in the FSJ . His first novel, The Daughter of Ramon Godoy (2002), is based on his experience as a vice consul in Mexico City. The second, A Spy Sat Down Beside Her (2006), is an espionage thril- ler, portraying events in Occupied France during World War II. The author began his diplomatic career in Mexico and served in a half-dozen posts abroad before fin- ishing his service in Izmir, Turkey, where he was con- sul general. He helped negotiate the U.S. Defense Agreement with Iceland for a naval base in Keflavik. Later, he served as the lead negotiator for the U.S. agreement with NATO for the procurement of off- shore military equipment from Europe. Byrns lives in Powell, Ohio, with his wife Ginny. N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 35 Continued from page 31