Book Talk: ‘A Light Beyond the Trenches’ is moving tale of World War I

Akron author Alan Hlad’s two previous historical novels were set during World War II. The third, “A Light Beyond the Trenches,” steps back further in time, to World War I, and also makes the unusual choice for the protagonists to be German, the enemies of the Allied powers.

That’s because it’s based on a true story.

Anna Zeller, daughter of a widowed clockmaker, is working as a nurse in a military hospital in Oldenberg and is the first to admit she’s not very good at it. One day she eats a quick lunch in the hospital garden and sees a doctor walking with a patient who had been blinded in battle, accompanied by his pet German shepherd. The doctor receives an urgent call and leaves the dog with the patient; Anna witnesses the dog instinctively guiding the patient around obstacles on the path.

The doctor is Gerhard Stalling, and he decides then and there to open a school for guide dogs in Oldenburg. Anna sees an opportunity to do more good and seeks a job there.

Anna’s fiancé, Bruno, has studied chemistry to work at his family’s dye manufacturing business, but the Ministry of War has commandeered it to make chemical weapons and assigned Bruno to develop them. Bruno grows increasingly horrified by the death and injury he is inflicting.

One of those injured is Max Benesch, who had been a pianist before the war. He was blinded by the poison gas deployed by Bruno and is sent, against his will, to the guide dog school. Because he is Jewish, no one but Anna and her father will allow him to board at their home.

The characters of Max and, especially Bruno are realistic and affecting as Max contemplates his future without sight and Bruno torments himself with the atrocities he has committed.

“A Light Beyond the Trenches” (368 pages, softcover) costs $15.95 from Kensington. Alan Hlad also is the author of “The Long Flight Home,” about the War Pigeon Service, which dropped homing pigeons into German-occupied France, and “Churchill’s Secret Messenger,” about a young Englishwoman whose language skills are used in a secret sabotage operation.

‘The Last Laugh’

Anyone who read “The Initial Insult,” first book in a young-adult horror duology by Cardington author Mindy McGinnis, will be either thirsting for the conclusion or too traumatized to go on. For the former, “The Last Laugh” continues a brutal mashup of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Masque of the Red Death.”

The characters in “Insult” are Felicity Turnado, daughter of a privileged family, and her former best friend Tress Montor, whose parents disappeared when the girls were in the fifth grade. Felicity had been with them, and Tress is certain that Felicity knows what happened. She intends to extract this information by bricking a shackled Felicity up in the coal chute of an abandoned house where a raging high school party is going on above them.

In “Laugh,” Felicity’s voice is absent (guess why) and has been replaced by that of Tress’s cousin Kermit “Ribbit” Usher, son of one of the most prominent families of Amontillado, Ohio. Ribbit has joined in the community search for Felicity and knows that he will be the one to find her, because he has been obsessed with her since the night he found her, that night the Montors disappeared. Ribbit is the victim of the nastiest hazing the popular students can conceive, but he has plans for revenge.

Tress has been living with her drunken grandfather Cecil, who operates a seedy zoo with exotic animals she has to tend. Cecil often locks her out of his trailer, forcing her to sleep with the animals, and her only money is from selling drugs. She’s been attacked by a jaguar which has escaped from the zoo and her arm is held together with duct tape, which isn’t helping with the vicious infection.

“The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” are incorporated into this gruesome sequel, which has scenes that would shock even Poe. Readers should be cautioned that this is the darkest of the dark.

“The Last Laugh” (384 pages, hardcover) costs $17.99 from HarperCollins and has a publisher’s age recommendation of 14 to 17 years. Mindy McGinnis also is the author of the addiction drama “Heroine” and the survival story “Be Not Far from Me.” She won a 2016 Edgar Award in the Young Adult category for her historical Gothic thriller “A Madness So Discreet.”

Events

Ohioana Book Festival: Mindy McGinnis is one of about 110 authors who will take part in the 2022 Ohioana Book Festival, to be held virtually Thursday through May 1. Other authors include Tom Batiuk (Funky Winkerbean), Kinley Bryan (“Sisters of the Sweetwater Fury”), David Hassler (“Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Vaccine,” featured in April 17th’s Book Talk, Jyotsna Sreenivasan (“These Americans”) and Thrity Umrigar (“Honor”). Panel discussions and roundtables will include Building a Mystery, Buckeye True Crime, All Are Welcome: A Celebration of Community and Diversity in books for younger readers, and A Journey to the Past: Historical Fiction. See the list and schedule at ohioana.com.

Buckeye Children's Book Awards: “Something Good” by Wooster author Marcy Campbell is one of five nominees in the Grades K-2 category in the 2022 Buckeye Children’s Book Awards. Voting, open to any student in Ohio, begins Sept. 1 and ends Nov. 10 at bcbookaward.info.

Loganberry Books (13015 Larchmere Blvd., Shaker Heights): MV Perry signs her novel “A Revolution of the Mind,” 1 p.m. Sunday; Barb Pennington signs her photographic collection “Extraordinary Women from an Ordinary Place,” 2 p.m. Sunday.

Hudson Library & Historical Society: English documentarian James Fox talks about “The World According to Color: A Cultural History,” in a Zoom event at 6 p.m. Monday. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, James Rollins discusses “Kingdom of Bones,” 16th in the SIGMA Force action-adventure series, 7 p.m. Wednesday. Register at hudsonlibrary.org.

Cuyahoga County Public Library (Parma-Snow branch, 2121 Snow Road): Douglas Stuart (“Shuggie Bain” won the 2020 Booker Prize)” discusses “Young Mungo,” about two young men falling in love in gang-ridden Glasgow, with Cris Harris, author of “I Have Not Loved You with My Whole Heart,” 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. From 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday, former FBI Task Force officer Paul Holes talks about “Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases” and his work that helped to identify the Golden State Killer. Tickets are $25 and include a signed copy of the book. Advance notice for an event sure to be popular: Don Winslow (“The Force”) talks about his new novel “City on Fire,” a crime novel set in 1980s Rhode Island, 3 to 4 p.m. May 1. Register at cuyahogalibrary.org.

Dover Library (525 N. Walnut St.): Robin Yocum, whose “A Brilliant Death” was nominated for a 2017 Edgar Award in the Best Paperback Original category, will talk about his Ohio-set fiction including “The Sacrifice of Lester Yates,” 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Register at doverlibrary.org.

Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library (Coventry Village branch, 1925 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights): Eugene Marten reads from his thriller “Pure Life,” 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday. Register at heightslibrary.org.

McKinley Presidential Library & Museum: Gretchen Sorin, author of “Driving While Black,” will present a virtual book talk at 7 p.m. Thursday. Register at McKinleyMuseum.org.

Music Box Supper Club (1148 Main Ave., Cleveland): Radio executive John Gorman, author of “The Buzzard: Inside the Glory Days of WMMS and Cleveland Rock Radio – A Memoir,” former WMMS radio personalities Ed “Flash” Ferenc and Denny Sanders and buzzard logo designer David Helton join the Cleveland Stories Dinner Party series at 7 p.m. Thursday. Dinner is $20; the lecture is free. Go to musicboxcle.com.

Trust Books (1884 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls): Clarence Bechter will sign “The Time of My Life with Bubba’s Pampered Pedalers: 3000 Miles from San Diego, California, to St. Augustine, Florida,” 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Appletree Books (12419 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights): Jacob Joseph signs “Abandoned Ohio: Rustbelt Derelicts,” noon to 1:30 p.m. Saturday; Tim Hartnett signs “No Beard or Bowtie Required: Cocktails for the Craft-Curious,” 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Visible Voice Books (2258 Professor Ave., Cleveland): Jamie Lyn Smith reads from her debut short story collection “Hometown,” and Kate Norris reads from her novel “When You and I Collide,” 7 p.m. Saturday.

Email information about books of local interest, and event notices at least two weeks in advance to BeaconBookTalk@gmail.com and bjnews@thebeaconjournal.com. Barbara McIntyre tweets at @BarbaraMcI.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Alan Hlad’s new historical novel is ‘A Light Beyond the Trenches’