When a man with a gun breaks into her school, nursery teacher Louise Kennedy knows there's not likely to be a happy ending...But Jaime isn't there on a homicidal whim, and he's as scared as the hostages he's taken.
While an armed police presence builds up outside, he'll only talk to Ben Whistler, an MI6 accountant who worked with his lover, Miro. Miro's apparently gone on the run, along with a huge sum of money. Jaime doesn't believe Miro's a thief - though he certainly had secrets.
But then, so does Louise, so do the other hostages, and so do some of those on the outside - those who'd much rather that Jaime was silenced.
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"This book by Eric Foner was much more of an investment to read than I expected, but well worth it. While it is not a fast flowing narrative, I will give it 5/5 stars due to the comprehensive coverage of an important, underrated subject matter. He is very detailed in the blow by blow accounts of what happened and didn't happen in the years 1863-1877, showing how the different constituencies of each region in the South and North had competing goals and incentives throughout the period and the worked together when it suited their own needs, and competed when it didn't. This meant that the make up of the political parties, especially the Republicans, could change from state to state, geographic region to geographical region, and over time. For the former slaves, this meant they were at the mercy of political alignments focused on various economic issues. And unfortunately for them, there were few groups in the country that saw personal economic benefits of a newly freed class of workers. A few saw benefits of a new voting bloc, and very few saw altruistic motives for helping them.
Foner's analysis of regional politics shows the vast differences of issues and action in places such as Louisiana with a large former free black society and sugar economy, versus the upcountry Carolinas with smaller farms and a large poor white population, versus the cotton belt counties that were plantation dominated. He also did a great service tracking the progress of specific issues such as the development of education in the south where it is easy to see how the institutions of the 20th Century were established. Many times I thought while reading, "so these are the events that will lead to a landmark Supreme Court decision 80 years in the future." We're now how many generations out of Reconstruction? And we're still untangling the mess, even if it was inevitable."
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James (5 out of 5 stars)