Kaleidoscope [Import] [Paperback]

J. Robert Janes (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 294 pages
• Publisher: Orion Books (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752827030
• ISBN-13: 978-0752827032
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,309,592 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Different Kind of Collaboration, August 29, 2010

By 

Douglas S. Wood "Vicarious Life" (Monona, WI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Kaleidoscope (Paperback)

J. Robert Janes is a Canadian author who has managed to create one of the more interesting detective duos among the many such pairs available in popular detective literature: a detective in the Paris police or sureté, Jean-Louis St. Cyr and a former Munich detective now in the Gestapo, Hermann Kolher. The two work as homicide detectives - after all even during the Occupation there were murders to be solved.

Kaleidoscope is the third book in Janes' series and while not essential, I recommend starting with Mayhem, the first book in the series that provides much of the back story about the protagonists and their developing relationship. St. Cyr is attempting to hold on to his dignity and his patriotism and is quite wary of Kohler. Fortunately, Kohler is a detective first and a Gestapo only several steps distant and not a Nazi at any step however far removed.

The relationship between St. Cyr and Kohler is evolving; the relationships between them and their bosses and between those bosses and the competing German and French security forces is, to say the very least, complicated. Lines of authority are constantly blurred as these forces vie for superiority. Among the goals of the leaders are the accumulation of loot and the exercise of brutal power. This complexity is a primary strength of Janes' writing that gives him a voice of vérité.

The clarity of his writing, however, suffers from this penchant for complexity. On the other hand, Janes' writing gets better as the series goes on, so if you don't feel the need to know all the background, feel free to dive in anywhere.

Kaleidoscope is set in the rural Provence in southern France. A woman is murdered by crossbow. Turns out she was engaged in the black-market, but was she doing `more', i.e. was she helping the resistance smuggle pilots, escapees, and insurgents, into Spain? And fi so, who killed her and why?

Janes keeps getting better. Recommended.

3.0 out of 5 stars Merde, too much kaleidoscope and not enough story, September 26, 2011

By 

Grey Wolffe "Zeb Kantrowitz" (North Waltham, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Kaleidoscope (Paperback)

Janes has created a collaboration between a Gestapo agent and a member of the Surete. They work together in Occupied Paris in 1942 investigating crimes (mostly murders), they are slowly beginning to trust each other and realize that it's mostly them against the world. Everyone in Janes books has an agenda. Whether it's to survive the Occupation (like St.Cyr), to keep themselves away from the Nazis fanatics (Kohler) or like their boss (Boemelberg) to enjoy his time in Paris and keep from getting shipped to somewhere in the East.

This case in set in Provence near the Riviera coast. The Germans have just move into Unoccupied Vichy France. A woman has been killed by a bolt from a fifteenth century crossbow. Why was she killed, and who killed her. The local Gestapo believe that she was working with the Maquis (The Resistance) and was killed to shut her up. If our two detectives cannot find the 'real' killer, they will wipe out the town where she was found using the excuse that the town was protecting The Resistance.

This would have made a good story but at this point the book veers off into black market smuggling, homosexuality, incest, escaped POWs from Italy trying to get to Spain and more convolutions and contortions than my sixteen year old daughter trying to explain why the bumper on the back of my car has a dent in it, when she doesn't have a license or car keys. This is too bad (no my daughter did not wreck my car, well not that time) because there is a good story here but Janes tries to give us more 'color' than the book really needs. Maybe the next one will be better.

Zeb Kantrowitz