The Foreign Service Journal - November 2017

40 NOVEMBER 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Envoy of Jerusalem: Balian d’Ibelin and the Third Crusade Helena P. Schrader, Wheatmark, 2016, $22.95/paperback; $6.99/Kindle, 512 pages. This award-winning work of historical fic- tion is Part III of a biographical series about Balian d’Ibelin, who served as an envoy for Christian crusaders. Balian survived the devastating defeat of the Christian army in the Battle of Hattin, and walked away a free man after surrendering the city of Jerusalem to the sultan, Saladin. But he is left as the baron of nothing in a kingdom that no longer exists. Haunted by the tens of thousands of Christians now enslaved by the Saracens, he is determined to regain what has been lost. The arrival of a vast crusading army under the soon-to-be- legendary Richard the Lionheart offers hope—but also conflict, as natives and crusaders clash and the French and English quarrel. See the November 2015 FSJ for write-ups on the first two volumes of this story. Helena P. Schrader is a career Foreign Service officer cur- rently serving in Africa. Her previous assignments include Oslo, Lagos and Leipzig. Though determined never to earn a living through writing, Ms. Schrader has been writing all of her life. She published her first book in 1993, when her doctoral dissertation on the resistance to Hitler was released by a leading academic publisher in Germany; a second edition followed after excel- lent reviews in major newspapers. Since then she has published numerous historical novels set in World War II, ancient Sparta and the Crusades. Visit her website: www.helenapschrader.com for a complete description and reviews of her work. The Haven H.K. Deeb, CreateSpace, 2017, $12.99/paperback; $2.99/Kindle, 308 pages. Early one September, a young man known only as F. arrives by train in Hamburg, Ger- many. Impeccable in manners and appear- ance, he soon secures a job, an apartment, a girlfriend and an environment in which his soul feels at peace. At night, however, he is plagued by visions of violence and cruelty. In time it becomes clear that F. has a past he would gladly leave behind. A cast of characters—most of them women—cannot help but wonder about this handsome foreigner, whose cha- risma and fluent German are more than a little suspicious. Incorporating elements of Franz Kafka and the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, The Haven is both a literary mystery and a modern fable about immigration and nostalgia. Hadi K. Deeb, a Foreign Service officer, is currently posted in Tashkent, and previously served in Mexico City, Moscow, Baku and Manila. Prior to joining the State Department, he lived in Germany for four years, including one year in Hamburg. Making Ghosts Dance Gregory E. Buford, Moontower Press, 2017, $10.99/paperback, $7.99/Kindle, 350 pages. Chris Kelly, a first-tour Foreign Service officer, spends his days behind blast-proof glass interviewing visa applicants at the U.S. embassy in Cambodia—not exactly the glamorous lifestyle he’d had in mind when he joined the State Department. Chea Phyrom is the nephew of Cambodia’s prime minis- ter. He’s what people at the embassy call an “MRE”—morally repugnant elite—and he is the king of Cambodia’s sex industry. Protected by his uncle, he makes a fortune fulfilling the needs of the sex tourists who swarm into Cambodia every year. Chea’s nemesis is Sochua Nika, the only female general ever in Cambodia’s armed forces. The prime minister made her the head of his anti-human trafficking unit with the tacit under- standing that she would look the other way, but Sochua has other ideas. Kelly secretly volunteers for IRM, an organization that rescues children from sexual slavery. When Sochua’s elite anti-trafficking unit, acting on a tip from IRM, raids Chea’s flagship brothel, Kelly finds himself at the nexus of a deadly political power game he didn’t bargain for. Chea vows to make an example of every- one involved—and he doesn’t give a damn about diplomatic immunity. Gregory E. Buford has lived in Japan, India, France, Cam- bodia and Switzerland. He and his wife, Dana, a former FSO, currently live in Austin, Texas, with their children. Making Ghosts Dance is his first novel.