Turncoat

Rating:
Summary: Secrets from the past poison a couple's relationship.
Review: Aaron Elkins once again mines the subject of the Holocaust in his new suspense novel, "Turncoat." The year is 1963. Pete Simon, an associate professor of history at Brooklyn College, has been blissfully married to his French wife, Lily, for seventeen years. Pete thinks that he knows his wife well, but he soon discovers that Lily is keeping some shocking secrets about her past. Lily's father, Marcel Vercier, whom she claimed had died many years ago, turns up one day on her doorstep, very much alive. Shortly thereafter, Monsieur Vercier is murdered and Lily disappears.

It turns out that both Lily and her father have much to hide about their activities during the Nazi occupation of France. Pete spends much of the book traveling to Spain and France in order to unearth the truth about what Lily and Vercier really did during the war years. Pete endangers his life as he tangles with a corrupt businessman, former members of the French Resistance, a French Inspector and even some Corsican bandits. Pete learns that the Nazi occupation was a moral litmus test that proved very challenging to the natives of France living under this oppressive regime. He also discovers that the fallout from those horrible years still has major repercussions even after all this time.

The writing in "Turncoat" is somewhat simplistic. The protagonist, Pete, is an underwritten character, whose blind love and faith in Lily is unrealistic given the lies that she has fed her husband throughout their marriage. The tone of the book is seriocomic; the many humorous passages in this book seem designed to provide comic relief as a counterpoint to the serious nature of Pete's discoveries. However, this mixture of comedy and tragedy is occasionally jarring. In addition, the denouement of the book is too pat and contrived. Given the importance of the moral issues that Elkins raises in this book, he should have made his plot more coherent and realistic, instead of settling for a superficial treatment of a very serious subject.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed for the first time...
Review: I've read everything by this author and enjoyed every book....except this one. Perhaps it was because I have developed such expectations based on his past works. There were too many segments where things just dragged on and situations that just repeated themselves. Lily and Pete were too shallow and neurotic for my tastes, although somewhat improving by the book's end. The ending was a nice twist but not enough to push the overall rating of this book higher. I've certainly missed Charlotte's works lately and hope she will have something new coming out soon.

Rating:
Summary: A Solid Read with a Solid Ending
Review: It took a while for this one to get going - after 50 pages I thought that I was going to put it down. But then it heated-up. In addition to being a solid read, with an excellent plot line, I actually learnt about the French Resistance in WW2. I am not a fan of war history, so actually learning something while enjoying the suspense of the novel was a bonus. I will recommend this Aaron Elkin novels to friends - as it was the first book by Elkin that I read, I'll try to track down others of his as well.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating thriller
Review: Peter and Lily Simon have been happily married for seventeen years. Although both were born in France, they met in England where he served during World War II as an army air officer and she worked at the nearby Free French headquarters. They have been living the American dream for years but it becomes a nightmare in 1963 when Lily's father knocks on the door.

Lily told Pete when they first met that her father died at the hands of the Germans. When Lily closes the door on her father without giving him a chance to speak to her, Pete demands explanations that Lily refuses to give. When her father is murdered, Lily disappears and Pete travels to Barcelona then to Veaudry, France where he learns what Lily has spent so many years trying to hide. After almost getting killed, Pete is finally able to find his wife only to have her kidnapped by professionals for hire.

TURNCOAT is a fascinating thriller but it is also a family drama about a woman tortured by her past and the man who loves her so much that he wants to break the chain that bind her to a world that no longer exists except in memory. Aaron Elkins is a gifted storyteller and readers will come away from his latest endeavor wanting to read his previous works.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: A Solid Read with A Solid Ending
Review: Suspense takes a turn for the sinister when a tale is set in foreign locales. Edgar Award winner Aaron Elkins knows this well and utilizes it to perfection in his latest thriller "Turncoat." Following on the heels of his acclaimed "Loot" and "Skeleton Dance," we knew it would be a riveting read. We weren't disappointed.

Opening lines set the scene and pique interest: "For everybody else in America it was the day JFK was killed in Dallas. For me, it would always be the day Lily's father turned up on our doorstep... P> Elkins's portrait of good and evil is stunning in every way. "Turncoat" is a taut thriller, and startling reminder of how the present is affected by the past.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: A COMPELLING PORTRAIT OF GOOD AND EVIL
Review: Suspense takes a turn for the sinister when a tale is set in foreign locales. Edgar Award winner Aaron Elkins knows this well and utilizes it to perfection in his latest thriller "Turncoat." Following on the heels of his acclaimed "Loot" and "Skeleton Dance," we knew it would be a riveting read. We weren't disappointed.

Opening lines set the scene and pique interest: "For everybody else in America it was the day JFK was killed in Dallas. For me, it would always be the day Lily's father turned up on our doorstep...P>Elkins's portrait of good and evil is stunning in every way. "Turncoat" is a taut thriller, and startling reminder of how the present is affected by the past.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: Aaron Elkins tries again
Review: What is it that drives Elkins to write suspense stories about Americans getting caught up in European intrigue? He's demonstrated a fine ability to write technical murder mysteries (Gideon Oliver, Chris Norgren, the golf mysteries with his wife Charlotte), but he seems to want to write spy novels instead. And unfortunately, he's not quite as good at them.

The first Gideon Oliver book was a spy novel set in Europe. So was the first book in the Chris Norgren series. And so was Loot. Now we have this one.

It was OK, but not great. I was able to set it down halfway and only finish reading it a week later. I can't do that with Helen MacInnes novels that I have already read ten times!

The story is pretty typical of spy novels -- an innocent man gets caught up in intrigue, his wife disappears, he searches for her, etc. The most interesting twist is the things he learns about his wife during the process. But it's not interesting enough.

Please Aaron, write another mystery....