There are occasions when I read a book and I love it so much I do a little research on the author.  Knowing a bit about who is behind the pages enhances my reading experience and provides a greater understanding of the writing process.

Ronald H. Balson caught my attention with Once We Were Brothers.  This book was published in 2013 and I was a little late to the party; I had heard raves about this novel but didn’t get around to reading it until recently.  Briefly, it is about two boys ending up on opposite sides during the Holocaust.  One was accused of being a former Nazi officer and the accuser, with personal reasons spurring him on, hired an attorney to press charges.

The second book, Saving Sophie, is about a Chicago lawyer who’s Palestinian wife passes away and his daughter Sophie is kidnapped by the grandparents and taken to the Middle East.  To get his daughter back he is involved in embezzlement and there are suspicions of terrorism on the part of the grandfather with lots of Israel/Palestine history and suspense.

The third book is Karolina’s Twins, about two childhood friends and how they make acceptable lives for themselves during the horrible conditions of the Holocaust.  When one gives birth to twins it took a lot of scheming and dedication to keep them alive and many years later it was imperative to find out if they survived.

All three of these novels were compelling page turners I could not put down.  History, lawyers, spies, Middle East, and love…each one checked every box for me.

I was interested to learn that Ronald Balson has been a civil litigation attorney in Chicago for over 40 years and also taught business law at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business for 25.  He has done extensive traveling for work and the inspiration for his first book came after many trips to Warsaw.  His interest and knowledge in history and the Middle East were evident in the second book and meeting WWII survivors on his Once We Were Brothers book tour inspired the third which is based on one woman’s actual story.

The lawyer and investigator characters are reoccurring in all three novels, which is very appealing to me…but each book is a stand alone and not to be missed!  Thank you Ronald H. Balson; can’t wait for your next book!