“In the Garden of Beasts” by Erik Larson

This was an enjoyable and informative book about the transformation of Germany by Hitler and his cronies in 1933-35. Human nature can indeed be a sorry thing. .. The point of view was primarily that of Dodd, the American ambassador and of his daughter.

“The Darkness” by Ragnar Jonasson

I always thought that a crime novel was good escapism because you can at least be sure that the protagonist will survive. Not anymore. The protagonist, Hulda, is murdered due to her dogged investigation of a last case before her retirement. But in fact, the mistakes she made during the last case, and her past history of murdering her husband whose pedophilia had led to the suicide of their daughter, left her nowhere else to go. The next novels in this series deal with a young Hulda’s investigations. I think I’ll pass.