Killing Patton by Bill O'Reilly

Bill O'Reilly is an American right wing political commentator and a news personality, with a daily show on Fox News. Bill is like the Arnab Goswami of USA or vice versa. Outspoken and sometimes even boorish Bill is loved and hated in equal measure by his audience, although watched by millions. Bill, along with Martin Dugard, is also the co-author of several popular historical books. Most notably their popular 'Killing' series. Killing Patton is their attempt at documenting the last few years of the audacious US general, George S Patton, who led the military campaign against the Nazi forces.

The authors try and uncover the mystery behind Patton's strange and sudden death. It seems that the General was on the hit list of not only the Nazis, who regarded him as a superlative military commander but also Russians and some clandestine US Govt agencies. The reason why the latter wanted Patton dead was because by the end of the war Patton's status had grown legendary and he was planning to ascend to important political offices, but his view did not fit the new political views especially of some of his peers and these Govt agencies.

There is some genuine evidence brought forward by Bill and Martin which indicates foul play in the car accident which lead to the death of Patton. I'm not sure what the governments response has been? This incident is reminiscent of the mysterious death of another military leader SC Bose, post the second world war.

The Pope and Mussolini by David Kertzer

The period between 1930's to mid 1940's was one of histories darkest yet richest. In it we saw the rise of a galaxy of political and military leaders like Adolf Hitler, Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah, Churchill, Stalin, FDR etc. One figure out of these galaxy of leaders was Mussolini, for me Mussolini had always remained an intriguing and enigmatic figure. The media has been bullheadedly focused on Hilter for the past several decades thus for us non-Europeans Mussolini and his fascist band has remained in the shadows of their Nazi counterparts. This tome by Mr Kertzer brings to light not only the rise and fall of Mussolini, along with his fascist party but also the rise and fall of Pope Pius XI. During this tumultuous time the Roman Catholic Church had one of its best leaders at its helm, Pius XI was tenacious, iron willed and aggressive.



The book explores the journey of the two men, Pius and Mussolini. Both, had humble origins, both Italians rose to the top of their respective domains. Although the two headed very different institutions, one being the head of an extreme right political party and other, head of the biggest religion in the world, still the two had ample similarities.

The Church and the Fascist were initially opposed to each other. The two representing completely different ideologies, Mussolini was in fact, a self confessed agnostic and looked at the clergy with contempt. Mussolini soon realized in order to capture power in the catholic dominated Italy he would have to ally with the Pope and the institution that he found most odious.

Trial and Error by Anthony Berkeley

Plot: Shy and reclusive Lawrence Todhunter is suffering a fatal heart disease and before he departs he wants to do a final good deed for his fellow man. Todhunter arranges a meeting of  his close acquaintances and coaxes them in a academic discussion of what should be done by a person who wants the world to be a better place. To his utmost surprise the unanimous verdict is to commit murder! removing a vile and unscrupulous person would mean helping multiple people whose lives are troubled by this ignoble individual. 

Todhunter takes up the advise and then searches for his victim. His search ends with Miss Norwood, a film actress who seduces men by the dozens and leaves them in destitution once she has ruined their lives. Todhunter commits a meticulously planned murder and shoots the "unlady" like Miss Norwood. Todhunter after committing this great act of valor and bravery goes off on a trip to Japan. but en route he receives news that a married man Palmer who was involved with Miss Norwood has been arrested for her murder.

Todhunter is appalled at this grave injustice and returns immediately to inform the authorities that they have arrested the wrong man and it is actually him they want, but the police think of Todhunter as dangerous as a box of kittens and dismiss him as a lunatic. Todhunter's desperate attempts to get Palmer exonerated end up in vain as he is found guilty and is to be executed for killing the famous actress.

Todhunter enlists a detective and a famous barrister to help him in prosecuting himself.

Review: The plot sounds fantastic, a man plagued by a fatal disease wants to do charity by committing murder. but his plan goes haywire when someone else is convicted for his crime and now he has to prove his own guilt which is not going to be easy. Is the fantastic sounding plot as good as Berkeley's brlliant novel The Poisoned Chocolate Case?