THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2024 37 in her small village on the other side of the country, and promises to lead him to the diamonds if he can help her get home. Mark Jacobs was a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay and served in Europe, Türkiye, and Latin America as an FSO. He has published ve books and more than 200 stories in magazines including e Atlantic, e Kenyon Review, and e Southern Review. His story “How Birds Communicate” won the Iowa Review Award in ction. Jacobs lives and writes in Virginia. Tipping Point: The World in 2050 – Book One George Alfred Kennedy, SETAF Press, 2024, $20.00/paperback, e-book available, 323 pages. It’s 2050, and climate change on planet Earth threatens the lives of the world’s population. What will world leaders do to preserve life as we know it around the globe? Caught between ideological hawks and their corporate industry allies and nancial donors who question this reality, will they be convinced to rethink the geopolitics of a changing global climate to avoid worldwide famine, drought, mass migration, and shooting wars? George Kennedy spent 35 years in the State Department, retiring as a Senior Foreign Service o cer after assignments in seven countries, including as consul general in Toronto, deputy assistant secretary, and senior adviser to Ronald Brown, the rst Black Secretary of Commerce. Kennedy currently lives in Arizona. The Filigree Master’s Apprentice Jeannine Johnson Maia, independently published, 2023, $12.99/paperback, e-book available, 270 pages. As Porto prepares to inaugurate Gustave Ei el’s magni cent iron bridge over the Douro River in 1877, 17-year-old Henrique ees the harsh conditions of life upriver. Behind him is a searing betrayal he wants to forget. Ahead is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to apprentice in a goldsmith’s shop. Henrique is learning the delicate art of ligree-making when an acquaintance from his past appears, dredging up old accusations of thievery and threatening all he’s built. e Filigree Master’s Apprentice is a story of resilience, friendship, and a young man’s search for the person he wants to become. Jeannine Johnson Maia worked for more than 13 years as a press specialist in the Public A airs O ce of the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels. Prior to that, she worked as a journalist in Belgium and Washington, D.C., studied international relations in the U.S. and Italy (at the University of Virginia and SAIS Johns Hopkins, respectively), taught English in France, earned a creative writing master’s degree, and lived in Cabo Verde. Her rst novel, Rossio Square N.°59, was featured in the November 2021 FSJ. Trouble in Queenstown: A Mystery Delia Pitts, Minotaur Books, 2024, $28.00/hardcover, e-book available, 320 pages. In this fast-paced contemporary mystery, Black private investigator Vandy Myrick returns to her New Jersey hometown after a personal catastrophe. As she establishes her new career, Vandy tackles a racially charged murder case connected to the family of her small community’s mayor. It seems nearly impossible that she can solve the case, but Vandy won’t back down. Delia Pitts spent 11 years as a cultural a airs and information o cer in the U.S. Information Agency, from 1983 to 1994. She served in Lagos, Nouakchott, Mexico City, and Washington, D.C. Pitts is also the author of Murder Take Two (2022) and numerous short stories. She is active in Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Color, and Mystery Writers of America. Dirty Diplomat: An American Soldier in Colombia Raul Rasay, independently published, 2022, $6.16/paperback, e-book available, 237 pages. A U.S. Army military intelligence analyst assigned to the U.S. embassy in Bogotá leaks sensitive information to drug cartels in Colombia in exchange for money to care for his ailing child. Among the results of his illegal disclosures: a federal agent gunned down, failed drug busts, and a contract hit on a drug-sni ng dog. Will this dirty diplomat get caught?
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