The Foreign Service Journal, November 2020

56 NOVEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Casablanca Blue: Tales of Revenge, Romance and Riches Judith Baroody, independently published, 2020, $9.99/paperback, e-book available, 221 pages. In Casablanca Blue , Judith Baroody offers 10 short stories set in different places and times around the world from a Mediterranean Island paradise to Baghdad’s ravaged war zones. The title story takes readers to World War II–era Casablanca, where the French Resistance did all it could to battle the Nazis. Evils committed during the North African Campaign have life-changing consequences decades later for a young man fromAnnapolis. Other stories are, well, full of revenge, romance and riches. In one, the protagonist moves into a gorgeous mansion in Paris, looking for love and treasure, only to encounter ghosts looking to settle ancient scores. Another story takes readers to Hollywood, where a movie star is so desperate to land a role that she asks her best friend to do the unthinkable to help. Yet another features a visit to a mining city built by an American company on the side of a volcano in the Andes Mountains in Chile, where three young friends find that even the most idyllic settings can be deadly. Judith Baroody, who retired from the Senior Foreign Service in 2017 with the rank of Minister Counselor, was a professor of national security strategy at the National War College and a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., among many other assignments. She is a former chair of the FSJ Editorial Board and the author of Media Access and the Military: The Case of the Gulf War (University Press of America, 1998). The Reflecting Pool Otho Eskin, Oceanview Publishing, 2020, $26.95/hardcover, e-book available, 352 pages. Washington, D.C., homicide detec- tive Marko Zorn encounters the body of a deceased Secret Service agent in the Reflecting Pool. She is a supposed drowning victim, but Zorn suspects more is afoot, after learning the agent was assigned to the president’s per- sonal detail the night of her death. As Zorn digs into details and follows leads, he suspects he is on to something far larger than a murder case. In this spellbinding story the author takes readers inside the hard-charging investigation of a determined detective. Undeterred by threats from increasingly powerful characters, Zorn pursues justice with a relentless focus even as he is poised to make more enemies. Filled with witty personalities and shady power players, The Reflecting Pool is a fast-paced D.C. murder mystery where the stakes and suspense reach monumental heights. With cops like Marko Zorn on the case, not even the most powerful can hide from justice. Otho Eskin is a lawyer and former member of the Foreign Service. Active in the Washington theater scene he is a playwright whose work has appeared in New York, Washington, D.C., and Europe. The Reflecting Pool is his debut novel. The Distance Between Stars Jeff Elzinga, Water’s Edge Press, 2020, $20/paperback, e-book available, 344 pages. The Distance Between Stars takes place over 10 days in Umbika, a fictional East African country on the verge of civil war. Like many of its neighbors, Umbika replaced colonial repression with a dic- tator of its own selection. But now, after 15 years of limited social and economic progress, peaceful protests are turning violent. The president accuses the U.S. government of secretly supporting his opponents; and tribal animosities, simmering for years, spill over. Joe Kellerman, an American diplomat, is among the State Department’s best problem-solvers. He has spent his entire career engaged in tough assignments in sub-Saharan Africa. White, middle-aged and adrift in a solitary life, Joe’s work is all that matters to him. As Umbika begins to disintegrate, a controversial Black American journalist, Maurice Hightower, who has spent his career exposing injustice in the United States, arrives on a fact- finding trip. Joe is assigned to assist him, but the two men do not get along. When the journalist disappears in the highlands of the volatile country, Joe is sent to find him. What follows is an engaging story about duty, race and national identity. Jeff Elzinga has lived two rewarding careers. As a Foreign Service officer for the State Department, he served in Tunisia and Malawi. Then, for more than 20 years, he was a college instructor, retiring in 2018 as Emeritus Professor of Writing at Lakeland University in Wisconsin.