On tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club: A Most Unlikely Man (A Tale of Resistance) by J.P. Rieger

A Most Unlikely Man

(A Tale of Resistance)

By J.P. Rieger

Isadore Levinsky is a survivor. No stranger to concentration camps, he’s been freighted by boxcar to yet one more, possibly his last, before death by rifle or neglect. He’s survived this far because he’s done what any person would do under the circumstances: everything possible, irrespective of the consequences for others. At the nearly deserted Natzweiler-Struthof camp, Levinsky matches wits with fellow prisoner Otto Beck, a self-proclaimed pacifist, gentile and admitted liar. Beck has decreed that all food and water will be shared equally. He’s rallied the men and challenged his Nazi overseers, willingly taking their beatings and abuse.

But is Beck a charismatic con man or a liberator? Previously convicted for treachery, Beck is architect of an escape plan specifically designed to assist his Nazi captors.

Can Levinsky and the men survive Beck and find their way to freedom?

A Most Unlikely Man: A Tale of Resistance is a story that resonates with our own times. Uplifting and inspiring, the story draws us into a dark past we must never forget, while shining a ray of hope for our future.

Publication Date: September 23rd, 2025

Publisher: Blue Cedar Press

Pages: 107

Genre: Historical Fiction / Magical Realism

Praise 

"The story is a very quick, short, easy read. There’s absolutely no indication that any of it has any basis in truth; so it’s merely based on an interesting, theoretical plot, and it is fun to consider."

Marcia C., Amazon 5* Review

An interview with J.P. Rieger.

What inspired you to start writing?

I was probably born a writer. My mother encouraged us kids to read and I’ve loved reading my entire life. Once my formal education was complete and my law career established, I decided to try my hand at writing.

 

I always loved Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Poe’s detective and mystery stories. I also enjoyed The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes edited by Hugh Greene, which compiled Victorian and Edwardian detective stories featuring sleuths operating during the Sherlock era. These characters, in theory, competed with Sherlock for detective business and are hence referred to as “rivals.” Greene’s book led me to even more Victorian and Edwardian mystery writers like Arthur Morrison, R. Austin Freeman and Guy Boothby. 

I decided to create my own puzzle-solving character for my first novel, The Case Files of Roderick Misely, Consultant. My love of mysteries has driven me to write mostly in the mystery, crime and satire veins. A Most Unlikely Man: A Tale of Resistance is my first foray into historical fiction.

What was the hardest part about writing this book?

Perhaps the most difficult part was in trying to communicate the gravity of the prisoners’ experiences in a way that would not be too horrifying for the reader. It’s a tough balance. There are some scenes featuring Nazi brutality against the prisoners. Those scenes had to be included. But they are balanced with other scenes that (hopefully) uplift the human spirit. Otherwise, this was a fairly easy book for me to write. I came up with the idea one sleepless night. I lay awake in bed developing the ideas for the characters and plot and then, the next morning, immediately began writing the story. It’s just a novella and it only took a month or so to complete.

Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?

My book features two protagonists who spend most of their time at loggerheads with one another. Both are special to me. Isadore Levinsky is a cynic and pessimist who survives by taking more than his share of the food, even knowing that such is morally wrong and harmful to the fellow prisoners. Otto Beck is a gentile and a pacifist. He’s been inexplicably thrown into the otherwise all-Jewish concentration camp. He is an optimist who constantly feeds hope to the other prisoners. He decrees that all food will be shared equally and declares that he has an as-yet undisclosed plan for their liberation. I relate to both characters, the cynic and the dreamer.  

If your book was to be made into a movie, who are the celebrities that would star in it?

Because we writers do enjoy our daydreams, I have pictured the book being made into either a play or a movie. The male actors would mostly range in ages from twenty to fifty-five. I see the production as being more of a film festival-type movie that probably wouldn’t feature (or be able to afford) any celebrities. And that is quite okay. Maybe a low-budget movie production will create a new star? For what it’s worth, one of the reviewers mentioned that a young Frank Sinatra would make a great Otto Beck.     

What do you hope your readers take away from this book?

I want the reader to feel encouragement and hope. I want to uplift the reader’s spirit. I want the reader to believe, as I do, that we can survive the harshness of our times by not giving in to hatred and despair. Hang in there with me, readers. Things will get better! 

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J.P. Rieger

J. Paul (J.P.) Rieger is a mostly retired Maryland attorney and author of five books, The Case Files of Roderick Misely, Consultant, a mystery featuring a wannabe lawyer anti-hero published in April, 2013; Clonk!, a police farce set in Baltimore and published in May, 2023 by Apprentice House Press (Loyola University, Maryland), The Big Comb Over, a slipstream comedy of manners published in April, 2024, Sunscreen Shower, a Clonk! sequel, published by Flock Publishing in October, 2024 and A Most Unlikely Man: A Tale of Resistance, published by Blue Cedar Press in September, 2025. 

J. Paul and spouse live in Towson, Maryland.

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On tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club: The Traitor's Son by Wendy Johnson

The Traitor's Son

By Wendy Johnson

Caught between a king and a kingmaker, young Richard Plantagenet knows he’ll have to choose...

1461: Richard Duke of York, King by Right, has been branded a traitor and slain by his Lancastrian foes. For his eight-year-old son—Richard Plantagenet—England has become a dangerous place.

As the boy grapples with grief and uncertainty, his elder brother, Edward, defeats the enemy and claims the throne. Dazzled by his glorious sibling, young Richard soon discovers that imperfections lurk beneath his brother's majestic façade. Enter Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick—cousin, tutor, luminary—whose life has given him everything but that which he truly craves: a son. A filial bond forms between man and boy as they fill the void in each other’s lives. Yet, when treachery tears their world asunder, Richard faces an agonizing dilemma: pledge allegiance to Edward—his blood brother and anointed king—or to Warwick, the father figure who has shaped his life and affections.

Painfully trapped between duty and devotion, Richard faces a grim reality: whatever he decides will mean a fight to the death.

In "The Traitor’s Son", Wendy Johnson weaves a tapestry of loyalty, love, and sacrifice against the backdrop of England's turbulent history. Through the eyes of a young Richard III, readers are transported into a world where every choice is fraught with peril, and the bonds of kinship are tested to their limits.

Perfect for fans of Hilary Mantel, Annie Garthwaite and Sharon K. Penman.

Publication Date: April 14th, 2024

Publisher: Made Global

Pages: 422

Genre: Medieval Historical Fiction

Praise for The Traitor's Son

"Exquisitely written. An evocative and thoughtful retelling of the early life of Richard III."

~ Philippa Langley, MBE

"Wonderfully woven story of a young Richard III. Woven with a sure knowledge of the history and a realistic telling of a story about a young boy finding his way through tragedy and triumph, uncertainty and a legacy he cannot escape.

Brilliant debut which promises more and more."

~ Cris, Amazon 5* Review

"Sometimes the perfect use of the written word takes my breath away. Not very often but this book is it. A wonderful story written so beautifully that I shall not forget it for a long time. Everything to my mind is perfect. The language, the story, the pacing. Just wonderful."

~ Amazon Reviewer, 5* Review

An interview with Wendy Johnson.

What inspired you to start writing?

I’ve loved books for as long as I can remember, and to write a novel—particularly an historical novel—has been a long-held ambition. At school, one of my favourite lessons was English Language, especially composition, and I also spent many a happy hour writing stories for pleasure at home. Medieval history has also been a great passion of mine since childhood, and I’m driven by the idea of bringing that period to life in my writing.

What was the hardest part about writing this book?

As the novel is based on real events, I wanted it to remain as true to the facts as possible. Research, therefore, was a fundamental part of the writing process and that can prove long and arduous – but in the end extremely rewarding, as it helps to recreate the period in an authentic way. Of course, as a novelist, I need to put flesh on the bones – to humanise the people of the past – but I feel it’s terribly important for truth to underpin the story and I was determined not to stray too far from the known facts. The hardest scene to write, I must admit, was that which describes the battle of Barnet, I found this extremely difficult, but if, like me, you write a book set during the Wars of the Roses, battle scenes are unavoidable!

Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?

The novel is the first of a proposed trilogy charting the life of Richard III, who has been my historical hero for over fifty years. He is also the protagonist in ‘The Traitor’s Son’, which is the first in a proposed trilogy covering his life and times. The novel begins with the death of his father, the Duke of York, and spans the following ten formative years of Richard’s life—telling how a grieving, fatherless eight-year-old grows to become a courageous warrior of eighteen. Richard’s own death on the battlefield of Bosworth at the young age of thirty-two cut short a reign which promised to be one of the most enlightened in English history. His concern for justice and for the welfare of the ordinary person was uncommon for the time, and his only parliament introduced laws which protected the most vulnerable in society. Richard’s story—his real story, not the Shakesperean myth—is a truly tragic one, and one which needs to be told. 

If your book was to be made into a movie, who are the celebrities that would star in it?

I’m not really a movie buff, so this is a difficult question. However, if I could select actors from both past and present, I think I would cast a young Daniel Radcliffe as the teenage Richard, a young Russell Crowe as the charismatic Edward IV, David Oakes, who played the perfect George duke of Clarence in The White Queen, and the late Welsh actor Stanley Baker as Richard Neville, earl of Warwick. These artists really accord with my mental picture of each of the characters. As for the female roles, I think a young Tara Fitzgerald would be a good fit for Richard’s pragmatic sister, Margaret, and perhaps Dame Judi Dench for the matriarch, Cecily Neville, duchess of York.

What do you hope your readers take away from this book?

I hope readers enjoy the book and feel that they’ve learned a little about the characters and the times they lived in. Hopefully readers will come to understand them as people – their needs, their motives, their loves, their hates, what drove them - and not just as names from history. My greatest hope is that they will see Richard as the noble man he was, and feel they have experienced the events of his life in real time, in the way he experienced them himself.

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Wendy Johnson

Wendy Johnson has a lifelong passion for medieval history, its people, and for bringing their incredible stories to life. Her specific areas of interest are the fifteenth century, the Wars of the Roses, and Richard III in particular. She enjoys narratives which immerse the reader in the past, and tries faithfully to recreate the later Middle Ages within in her own writing. She has contributed to a number of historical anthologies and was a runner up in the Woman and Home Short Story Competition 2008.

Wendy is also a founder member of Philippa Langley’s Looking for Richard Project, which located the king’s lost grave in 2012. She co-authored Finding Richard III: the Official Account of Research by the Retrieval and Reburial Project in 2014, and in 2019 received the Richard III Society’s Robert Hamblin Award.  

THE TRAITOR’S SON, volume one in a Richard III trilogy, is Wendy’s debut novel and she is currently working on the sequel.

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