Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante (Maggie Hope, Bk 5)
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Paperback
Okay, class, who didn't do their homework? What, Miss MacNeal, not again?
In book four of this series, it was obvious the author didn't check a lot of her facts. Book five is also laden with mistakes.
In late December 1941, no one would call Mrs. Roosevelt 'slim;' Army guards around the White House would not be wearing full field packs; there wouldn't be any blackout curtains in Washington, D.C., and the Mayfair hotel's roof wouldn't "bristle with lookouts against air raids," let alone hold air raid drills for guests.
In fact, the entire East Coast was alight at night, well into 1942, providing German U-Boats great targets as ships were easily seen against the city lights. The United States was really slow to catch on to this. For months, the U-Boats had unlimited success.
The author thinks she knows World War II history, but she doesn't. In December 1941, she has General Eisenhower and Admiral King attending a small meeting with President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill. At this time, Eisenhower was a very junior brigadier general in the army, not anywhere as important as he would later be; and Admiral Stark was still the Chief of Naval Operations, so Stark would have been at the meeting and not King.
She has Churchill stating they planned to invade France in 1942, when the British didn't even want to do this in 1943 or even 1944. Churchill wanted to invade Europe through the Balkans. Plus, in late December 1941, the Japanese weren't using Kamikaze tactics with their pilots, as one character, a semi-literate prisoner in jail remarked on.
Obviously, an author of fiction has the right to take literary license, but when they do so with their historical background, then it's a no-no. Especially, when they include a listing of history sources boasting how accurate they tried to be, as MacNeal does in this book.
Plus, MacNeal once again, as she did in the previous book, uses every opportunity to insert politically correct statements, which, for the most part, were not viewed that way in 1941 or for many years later.
Finally, she has people visiting her prisoner character in jail. As the people are assembled in the visiting room, what do the guards do? Why... they bring the prisoner his lunch, which he eats in front of his visitors. Huh? Is this a prison or the Ritz-Carlton?
Oh, I forgot to mention MacNeal has a lot of filler in the book which really has no relation to the plot at all. Why it is in there puzzles me. And there are mistakes with this filler too. She has V-2 rockets on launching sites in Germany, when the Germans didn't even begin to design the V-2s until late 1943.
It's disappointing when authors expect readers will accept poorly written and researched novels, simply because some of their previous work was good... Well, supposedly good.
In book four of this series, it was obvious the author didn't check a lot of her facts. Book five is also laden with mistakes.
In late December 1941, no one would call Mrs. Roosevelt 'slim;' Army guards around the White House would not be wearing full field packs; there wouldn't be any blackout curtains in Washington, D.C., and the Mayfair hotel's roof wouldn't "bristle with lookouts against air raids," let alone hold air raid drills for guests.
In fact, the entire East Coast was alight at night, well into 1942, providing German U-Boats great targets as ships were easily seen against the city lights. The United States was really slow to catch on to this. For months, the U-Boats had unlimited success.
The author thinks she knows World War II history, but she doesn't. In December 1941, she has General Eisenhower and Admiral King attending a small meeting with President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill. At this time, Eisenhower was a very junior brigadier general in the army, not anywhere as important as he would later be; and Admiral Stark was still the Chief of Naval Operations, so Stark would have been at the meeting and not King.
She has Churchill stating they planned to invade France in 1942, when the British didn't even want to do this in 1943 or even 1944. Churchill wanted to invade Europe through the Balkans. Plus, in late December 1941, the Japanese weren't using Kamikaze tactics with their pilots, as one character, a semi-literate prisoner in jail remarked on.
Obviously, an author of fiction has the right to take literary license, but when they do so with their historical background, then it's a no-no. Especially, when they include a listing of history sources boasting how accurate they tried to be, as MacNeal does in this book.
Plus, MacNeal once again, as she did in the previous book, uses every opportunity to insert politically correct statements, which, for the most part, were not viewed that way in 1941 or for many years later.
Finally, she has people visiting her prisoner character in jail. As the people are assembled in the visiting room, what do the guards do? Why... they bring the prisoner his lunch, which he eats in front of his visitors. Huh? Is this a prison or the Ritz-Carlton?
Oh, I forgot to mention MacNeal has a lot of filler in the book which really has no relation to the plot at all. Why it is in there puzzles me. And there are mistakes with this filler too. She has V-2 rockets on launching sites in Germany, when the Germans didn't even begin to design the V-2s until late 1943.
It's disappointing when authors expect readers will accept poorly written and researched novels, simply because some of their previous work was good... Well, supposedly good.
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