The Foreign Service Journal, November 2015

44 NOVEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL has worked as a freelance reporter for The Washington Post and as an economist at the U.S. Senate. No Circuses James F. O’Callaghan, Tacchino Press, 2015, $13.95/paperback; $8/Kindle, 356 pages. In No Circuses, readers are introduced to Max Lacey, an American Foreign Service officer deployed to a fictional South Ameri- can country, the Republic of Engañada. As director of the Engañada-American Cultural Center, Max is thrown into a world of dysfunction— a decaying building, an unhelpful embassy supervisor and internal plots against the nearly bankrupt center are a few of the obstacles he faces. O’Callaghan weaves adventure, romance, humor and a critique of bureaucracy through this drama, mixing in elements of diplomatic life. As a corrupt government and convoluted politics present new dilemmas and dangers, Max finds himself developing allegiances with the Engañadan people. When civil war eventually looms, Max’s loyalties are tested—will he choose what’s best for America or for Engañada? Retired FSO James F. O’Callaghan served in Latin America, Italy, Africa and Washington, D.C. He has published various short stories, articles and poems in The Foreign Service Journal , New Oxford Review and Homiletic & Pastoral Review. He and his wife, Giovanna, live in Maple Valley, Washington. Secrets of State Matthew Palmer, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2015, $27.95/hardcover; $16/paperback; $13.99/Kindle; $26.95/audiobook, 432 pages. Career diplomat Matthew Palmer offers his second international thriller with Secrets of State , the story of how one former FSO uncovers a corporate plot to upend the political balance between India and Pakistan. After being bypassed for promotion, Sam Trainor trades his Foreign Service career for a position in the private sector with Argus Security. What should have been a cushier, higher-paying job turns out to be something else entirely when he stumbles onto information pointing to a deliberate scheme to spark nuclear war in order to encourage profits. Sam is shocked to discover that one of the major players involved is his lover, Vanalika Chandra, a political counselor at the Indian embassy in Washington. Sammust get to the bottom of everything in time to prevent the world from changing forever. In an interview with Palmer, The Huffington Post proclaims Secrets of State “a gut-churning international thriller whose all-too-real plotline makes one contemplate the dangers of the world in which we live.” Matthew Palmer is a 20-year veteran of the Foreign Service, currently serving as director for multilateral affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. While on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, Palmer helped design and implement the Kimberly Process for certifying African diamonds as “conflict-free.” This experience served as the foundation for his first book, The American Mission (see the November 2014 FSJ for a review). Knight of Jerusalem Helena P. Schrader, Wheatmark, 2014, $15.95/paperback; $4.99/Kindle, 316 pages. The first volume in a trilogy of biographi- cal novels about crusader Balian d’Ibelin, Knight of Jerusalem follows Balian’s life before he negotiated the surrender of Jeru- salem against Saladin in 1187. Schrader chronicles Balian’s rise from obscure, landless knight to trusted companion of King Baldwin IV, as well as his scandalous and advantageous marriage to the dowager Queen of Jerusalem, Maria Comnena. The book opens in 1171 in Ibelin as Balian’s older brother, Hugh, dies. Balian travels to the court of Jerusalem and becomes a riding tutor to the future king. In time, he is appointed the pres- tigious, but dangerous, title of Constable of Ascalon. Schrader follows Balian’s meteoric rise, detailing his martial exploits as a hero of the Battle of Montgisard in 1177 and his diplomatic suc- cesses integrating into the royal family. As Schrader explains, her objective for the series is “to tell Balian’s story and to describe the fateful historical events sur- rounding the collapse of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem in the last quarter of the twelfth century, of which Balian was a part.” Knight of Jerusalem was a finalist for the 2014 Chaucer Award for Historical Fiction and a Book Readers Appreciation Group Medallion Honoree. Helena P. Schrader is a career FSO currently serving in Addis Ababa. Her previous assignments include Oslo, Lagos and