The Foreign Service Journal, November 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2020 61 Enlivened with period illustrations, the book is full of wit, word play and dark insights. Richard Major is a teacher, academic and journalist, as well as a novelist. He was educated at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and has degrees in history, literature and theology. The spouse of FSO Kristen Fresonke, a political officer in the Palestinian Affairs Unit, he is currently posted in Jerusalem where he does public diplomacy work. The couple have two teenage children and have previously served in South Africa, Hungary, Slovenia and India. Pauper and Prince in Harlem Delia C. Pitts, BookBaby, 2020, $12.49/paperback, e-book available, 216 pages. In this fourth book in the Ross Agency Mystery series, Rook confronts his toughest assignment yet. It’s Harlem’s hottest summer night, and drive-by assassins fire into a crowded play- ground, killing the 14-year-old friend of private eye SJ Rook. The teenager was smart, friendly and full of potential, and his sudden death stabs Rook in the heart. Was the boy the victim of a cruel acci- dent, or did the gang hitmen target him in a ruthless display of power? Rook tries to enlist the help of another teen, Whip, in his effort to find the killers. A transgender boy living on the street, Whip has been drawn into the realm of a violent mob kingpin and doesn’t want to be found. Rook’s search becomes a dangerous journey through some of the toughest corners of Harlem, from desolate homeless camps to corrupt high-rise palaces. “Rook is a modern, hard-boiled antihero; as the story carries on, he demonstrates ability, humility, decency and respect and concern for Harlem and its inhabitants,” says Kirkus Reviews about the main character in the series. “Pitts lovingly illustrates what life is like in a vibrant Harlem. …The neighborhood features prominently not only as a setting, but as a character all its own.” Delia C. Pitts, a former Foreign Service officer, university administrator and journalist, is the author of the Ross Agency Mystery series, featuring private investigator SJ Rook. The series includes Lost and Found in Harlem (2017), Practice the Jealous Arts (2018) and Black and Blue in Harlem (2019). She lives in central New Jersey with her husband. Poachers: Seeking a New Life in Tanzania Patricia Lee Sharpe, Sunstone Press, 2018, $19.95/paperback, e-book available, 192 pages. After leaving the U.S. Foreign Service to marry the wrong man, Diana Forrest is reinstated and sent to Tanzania during the Cold War to counter Soviet pro- paganda. She discovers that socialist ideals there are diminished by rampant corruption, and that the country is a hot spot for poachers who slaughter elephants for their ivory tusks. Diana develops a relationship with a Tanzanian subordinate who has a safari business on the side and spends her weekends in the bush. She wrestles with her conscience, troubled by safari companions involved in petty poaching. Worse, one of themmay have been involved in the murder of a conservation-minded headman. Meanwhile, Diana’s excellent job performance will land her a great subsequent assignment, but she grapples with whether she’s willing to leave her new life in Tanzania. Patricia Lee Sharpe spent 23 years working for the U.S. Information Agency, where she was posted to Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Tanzania, Sierra Leone and the Dominican Republic. A former journalist, she also has a doctorate in American literature that led to a Fulbright lectureship in Pakistan. She has published four poetry collections and a collection of stories, Driving Under the Influence (Wayward Press, 2014). The Reconstitution of South Zaigepia: The Great Seven Day Debate Caleb A.A. Constantine, independently published, 2020, $19.99/paperback, e-book available, 345 pages. Set in a fictional developing country, The Reconstitution of South Zaigepia is the simple story of how a country reconstituted itself, going from a near- failed state to a “First World” country in a single generation. The author details the high-level meeting that set this national transformation in motion, and uses stories from Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa to propose a theory