Daddy [Hardcover]

Loup Durand (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With superb plotting, mesmerizing characters and brilliant chase scenes, Daddy will enthrall connossieurs of suspense and intrigue from its opening sentences to the emotionally charged denouement. At the heart of this taut, psychological, action-packed thriller set in the early 1940s is Thomas, an exceptional 11-year-old boy whose mind, a well-oiled, precise "machine," contains the complicated codes to 724 secret Swiss bank accounts, a fortune the Nazis have been trying to get at for many years. Their operative is a 46-year-old professor of philosophy, reputed to be the most intelligent man in the Third Reich. Like two chess grand masters, the hunter and his quarry ingeniously outmaneuver each other, each understanding the superior intelligence of his opponent and able to anticipate the other's moves several steps in advance. The drama is heightened by the boy's intense relationships with his beautiful and elusive mother, who trained him for his mission, and with his almost-invisible Spanish bodyguards and a network of supporters from France, Switzerland and Spain set up by her in advance. Particularly poignant is Thomas's relationship with a well-connected American banker who did not know of the boy's existence until asked by the woman he once loved to endanger his own life to save his son's. As sensitive as he is intelligent, Thomas guards against attachment to the man who is his father: too many people he has loved have been savagely murdered by the Nazis. Durand has written several French bestsellers under a pseudonym; Daddy , the first work published in the U.S. under his real name, was a leading bestseller in France. Considering the mastery he displays in this popular genre, readers will anxiously await more. Dual main selection of the Literary Guild; Reader's Digest Condensed Book Selection; optioned to Columbia Pictures. $225,000 paperback floor.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 374 pages
• Publisher: Villard (December 10, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394570480
• ISBN-13: 978-0394570488
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,573,160 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't Put It Down!, December 6, 1999

By 

Eric Q. Sabre (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Daddy (Mass Market Paperback)

When this book first came out in the mid to late 80s, I was in high school. At that time I wasn't an avid reader nor did I truly enjoy reading. It was this book that changed that perspective for me. This book was wonderful and exciting to read. The details made visualizing the story easy. Now, as a 29 year old teacher, I still love to go back and reread this book. Granted, I love Harry Potter as much as the next person, but for a truly mature suspense thriller "Daddy" is a sure fire winner. Tom Clancy has nothing on the suspense and emotional investment in the characters that are developed while reading "Daddy." I only wish an excellent screen writer would take it and develop a mini-series. A long major film would lose too much detail and character development in the translation.

This was the FIRST book that "I couldn't put it down! "

The Harry Potter books were the 2nd, 3rd and 4th! :-)

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a terrific read, March 23, 2001

By 

Matt Cohen (Sherman Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Daddy (Mass Market Paperback)

I've now read Daddy at least 6 or 7 times, and each time, after the first few pages, I'm sucked in for the next few hours. A young boy, with the access codes to hundreds of millions of dollars stashed in his memory, is on the run from the Nazis and in particular, a sadistic, brilliant academic the Nazis have recruited to track the boy down when the military's efforts have failed. Thrown into the mix is the boy's American father, who didn't know he even had a son. Durand nails everything here; the plot goes breathtakingly fast, yet believably, and the characters are terrifically well drawn, particularly Thomas, the young genius.

Jaguar was so-so, and I gave up on Angkor Massacre after the first couple pages, but Durand got it all together for Daddy.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Euro-Western Thriller, February 9, 2003

By 

T. Patrick Killough "All about Patrick" (Black Mountain, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Daddy (Hardcover)

This story would count as a very long THRILLER, if done by Graham Greene. It tells of an endless chase on behalf of wartime Nazis of a prepubescent multi-lingual boy who carries in his head data on hundreds of accounts whose contents have the smell of wealth to the masters of the Third Reich. It is about human intelligence and its foibles: in the boy, his German tormentors and his Daddy--a title which his playboy turned hero biological father earns in spades as he seeks to save his reluctant son not just from Nazis but also from his inner demons.+++

It is hard to believe that this is a translation from another language (French) into English. I would go so far as to say that this is the first translated novel I have ever read that does not read like a translation.

So kudos all around. This is sheer diversion. Made for a movie serial.The game's afoot!
-OOO-