True Places

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 Set against the tension-charged backdrop of 1920s New York, True Places is a historical novel that blends the intellectual thrill of espionage with the emotional resonance of one woman’s search for truth—in the world and in herself.

At the center of the story is Claire Winslow, a quiet but brilliant cryptanalyst working in the shadows of the American Black Chamber, a real-life organization devoted to decoding foreign communications in the years between the world wars. Claire is not a spy in the classic sense—there are no car chases or gunfights—but her world is no less dangerous. What begins as the methodical work of breaking codes becomes something far more personal when she stumbles across an inconsistency that suggests something is wrong—something deeper than a mistranslation, something intentional.

As the world outside flirts with modernity—radio towers rising, streetcars clattering down Broadway, and political tensions simmering in Japan and Europe—Claire finds herself entangled in a mystery that no one else seems to notice. And perhaps, no one else wants her to solve.

True Places is a story about intelligence—not just the kind measured in IQ, but the emotional and moral intelligence required to navigate shifting loyalties, institutional secrecy, and the blurred lines between service and silence. Claire’s work may revolve around deciphering foreign telegrams, but the real code she must break lies closer to home: Why are certain names being changed in the decrypted messages? Who stands to benefit from a fabricated translation? And what will it cost her to speak up?

Inspired by the true history of American cryptography between the wars, the novel explores how overlooked women like Claire helped shape the geopolitical decisions of their time—not with bullets, but with brilliance. The prose moves between stark clarity and atmospheric depth, giving readers both the precision of a cipher and the fog of a noir. It’s a world where subway tracks rattle underfoot, the ink of a mimeograph machine stains your fingers, and a single telegram can tilt the balance of power.

Perfect for fans of The Alice Network, The Secrets We Kept, and All the Light We Cannot See, True Places is a literary mystery rooted in history, character, and the quiet suspense of a mind that sees what others miss.

 San Juan Island, 1859: A quiet corner of the Pacific Northwest where the Americans and British are embroiled in the most absurd military standoff ever—over a dead pig. Tensions are simmering, musket barrels are glinting in the fog, and there’s a lingering whiff of bacon. But things take a sinister turn when an American settler turns up dead… on British soil.

With nerves fraying and tempers rising faster than a British officer’s mustache, enter Captain Nathaniel Wilder, a surly and cynical army surgeon who’d rather be stitching wounds than solving murders. Reluctantly roped into investigating as the most neutral party, Wilder is soon knee-deep in the island’s secrets, cutthroat smugglers, and high stakes politics 

Can Wilder unravel the tangled web of betrayal, and misplaced loyalties before the two nations trade bullets instead of barbs? One thing’s certain: it’s a killer of a mystery, with a dash of danger, a dollop of dry wit, and enough hogwash to make even the hardiest soldier snort.

Perfect for fans of historical whodunits and irreverent humor, The Affair of the Pig serves up a delightfully cozy tale of murder, mayhem, and military absurdity.

Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing Vitruvian Man comes from a description by the ancient Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, who wrote the only major work on architecture or engineering to survive from classical antiquity.

Vitruvius remains a mystery. We know he was not wellborn and that he was exceptionally well educated. Yet, he held the position of military engineer under Julius Caesar and took part in many of Caesar’s campaigns. He also counted Octavian as his patron later in life.

SE OMNIBUS DUBITANDUM

Be suspicious of everything

This historical fiction story begins as eighteen-year-old, Vitruvius’s comfortable world shatters when his father is murdered while in Rome, seeking money to repay loans on the family farm and land.

In his father’s possessions, Vitruvius finds a mysterious scroll which places he and his family in mortal danger.

Vitruvius travels to Rome with his tutor’s niece to secure money to keep his family’s land and to grapple with his father’s murder. Those who sent the scroll pursue them, and he must somehow disentangle his family from Republic politics and avoid the executioner’s noose.

Andy  Anders, a captain in the  British Army, lost his lower left leg in  Afghanistan. He survived, but  some of his men did not. Now he struggles  with PTSD and survivor’s guilt  while trying to make a new life as a  history professor in Scotland with  his mobility dog, Mike.

All  that is left of Andy's family is his grandmother and an  estranged  sister. When his grandmother dies, he discovers a box of  letters and a  priceless pendant from an ancestor of his, an officer who  fought in  Spain and Portugal during the Napoleonic War. The letter’s  author, and  pendant’s owner, are clearly related to him—but how?

Thus begins Andy’s journey to uncover the pendant’s story: an  exhilarating historical fiction into a long-ago battle for control of the Iberian  Peninsula and the human cost of its victories. Told through letters and  alternating timelines, the story of one soldier, Ian Anders, and his  extraordinary love affair with the mysterious Portuguese spy, Alondra  Garay, comes vividly to life. As Andy unravels the mystery, he also  comes face to face with the truths of his own experience: of guilt and  loss, of hunger to find meaning and reconciliation in the aftermath of  war, and, ultimately, of the need to seize each precious opportunity for  love and family, as both can so easily slip away.

Someone picks up the wrong luggage at the airport. The police arrest an innocent man. You hug a childhood friend you run into on the street, except she isn't. The results can range from humorous to life changing. 

 What happens when five writers are given the challenge of producing a pair of short stories, one flash fiction and one normal length based on the theme 'A Case of Mistaken Identity'? 

This monograph addresses a theory of war in cyberspace from an  historical perspective and describes how it has become necessary to  change currently understood theories to make them applicable to the  unique characteristics of cyberspace.

This monograph is a  synthesis of two papers. The first paper, from which the title is  derived, was originally written in 2012 when the notion of a fifth  domain of warfare, the cyber domain, was just emerging, and militaries  were struggling to develop a concept of multidomain operations that  included the cyber domain. That paper has been required reading at  various military academic institution.

The second paper was  written in 2013 to extend some of the concepts of the original paper to  address the nature of operations in cyberspace as irregular warfare.

This monograph is the result of a synthesis of those two papers into a coherent concept .