The Foreign Service Journal, November 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2014 57 FSOMark Atkisson has been in the government for more than 40 years, serving in the U.S. Navy and as a civilian in federal and local agencies. He lives with his wife, Kathleen, and two teen- age children in Canada, where he is the management officer at Consulate General Montreal. J. David Kay has more than 34 years of U.S. Army and federal government experience. He and his wife, Irene, are currently posted to Embassy Baghdad. Under Chad’s Spell Michael Varga, CreateSpace, 2014, $16.99/paperback, $9.99/Kindle, 369 pages. This novel follows the lives of two young people, Charlene and Madison, who travel to Chad as Peace Corps Volunteers during the turbulent 1970s. Former lovers, they are assigned to two different parts of the coun- try. In a city, Charlene immerses herself in teaching English. She struggles to communicate in French and African languages and adjust to the strikingly different customs of the country, and feels isolated from both Chadians and the other volunteers. Madison, by contrast, finds himself in a remote village, where he comes to know the country and its people intimately, engaging in tribal rituals and eventually living with a Chadian wife. When civil war breaks out, the ambassador orders all Ameri- cans to evacuate. Charlene begins to worry when Madison fails to show up for departure via truck to neighboring Cameroon. She faces a difficult decision: leave Madison behind and return to the safety of the United States, or stay and try to save him. Retired FSOMichael Varga is a playwright, actor and author who served in Chad as a Peace Corps Volunteer. After that experi- ence, he joined the Foreign Service, serving in the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Morocco and Canada. Settled now in Georgia, he is working on a new novel that focuses on the Foreign Service. The Great Game Murders William S. Shepard, Seth B. Cutler Press, 2013, $2.99, Kindle, 230 pages. In this latest volume (Book 5) of the “Rob- bie Cutler DiplomaticMystery” series, the president of the United States has decided that, in view of Chinese threats over the region, American forces should be reconfigured from theMiddle East in a strategic “tilt toward Asia.” Secretary of State Ronald Adams flies off in Air Force Two on amission to reassure allies throughout Southeast Asia. His staff assistant, Robbie Cutler, helps plan the trip to Australia, Singapore, Hanoi, Manila, Bangkok and NewDelhi. Along the way, al-Qaida hatches several assassination plots against the Secretary—with the help of Chinese covert operatives in the region. The rivalry between China and the United States calls tomind the Great Game of the 19th century, as Britain and Russia struggled over the approaches to India.The new version concerns much of the same region, but with far higher stakes in the nuclear era. But is official China aware of the working alliance with al-Qaida? FSOWilliamS. Shepard created the diplomaticmystery series and its protagonist Robbie Cutler after retiring froma Foreign Ser- vice career that took him to five overseas missions and numerous assignments inWashington, D.C. “Career diplomats see somany sources of information, that the connection of diplomacy and crime solving seemed natural,” says Shepard. He has since produced four books in the series, in addition to a guide to French wines and other works (see http://www.diplomaticmysteries.com/) . Multiple Exposure: A Sophie Medina Mystery Ellen Crosby, Scribner, 2013, $16/ paperback, $16.99/Kindle, 320 pages. “This assured tale of love, loss and secret agendas offers a complex portrait of our nation’s capital, with its historic beauty and roiling underbelly of deceit and danger,” says Publisher’s Weekly of Multiple Exposure , the first installment in a new series by veteran mystery writer Ellen Crosby. SophieMedina is a photojournalist living in London. She returns froman overseas assignment to find that her husband, Nick, a geologist and covert CIA operative, has been abducted. Several months later, a friend in the British government tells her Nick has been spotted inMoscow. He is not only a suspect in his boss’s murder, but may also be involved in illicit Russian oil deals, she is told. When Sophiemoves back toWashington, D.C., to be near family and friends, she is drawn into a high-stakes game of Russian roulette as she tries to find Nick and prove his innocence. Ellen Crosby, the wife of FSOAndré de Nesnera of the Voice of America, began writing mysteries under her maiden name when her husband was posted to Geneva. She has since published eight books—six in the Virginia wine country mystery series featuring winemaker Lucie Montgomery and Moscow Nights, a standalone based loosely on her time as Moscow correspondent for ABC Radio News in the late 1980s. Her ninth book, Ghost Fiction and Poetry continued from page 51