Customer Reviews

Murder in the Chateau: An Eleanor Roosevelt Mystery

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It is June of 1941. The United States is at peace, but war is only six months ahead. President Roosevelt asks his wife, Eleanor to represent him at a secret meeting of leaders plotting to overthrow Hitler to stop the spread of war. After American agents slip her into a chateau in German-occupied France, she finds that the plotters include German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, SS Colonel Artur Brandt, and French General Paul Rousseau. Just as the conference begins, Eleanor Roosevelt finds Colonel Brandt murdered. This could destroy the conference and bring the SS down on them. She keeps the murder secret while she sets about to solve it in the gracious, but astute, manner that we see in other books of the Eleanor Roosevelt series. This is not a thriller that grabs you and won't let go. Instead, the writing is easy-going, with a minimum of gratuitous violence and gore. It's strong point is the true picture of America and Americans in the quiet days before war came to the United States. Elliott Roosevelt was there, and his insight alone makes the book worth reading.

I found this book to be mildly entertaining and quick-paced, yet definitely not A material. The book didn't really give me a sense of what WWII was like, maybe because it took place in a remote chateau. It also failed to fully describe the character's thoughts and motivations. Because the book is based on non-fictional characters, it was hard for me to differentiate between fact and fiction. This book required more knowledge of the WWII era, than the information it provided on the subject. I did not get a sense of the time, and furthermore, felt that if I did not know about WWII, I wouldn't have understood the book. To understand some phrases in this book, the reader must be able to understand French and German. Because I do take French, it was easy for me to translate those phrases. However, I do not speak German, and there were many important phrases in the book in which the author gave no translation. Overall, I would not recommend this book. I would give this book a C to C-, because even though it was a fast-paced book, it was not a page-turning story, and the realistic aspect was lacking. For example, if this meeting was so secretive and dangerous, why would entertainers of the time be invited to the chateau? THe dailogue of this book was also very trite. For example, when Mrs. Roosevelt found a dead body on the ground she said, "Who killed him?". This was very unrealistic. If you have any comments, please write back.

I believe I now have every one of the Eleanor Roosevelt mysteries written by Elliott Roosevelt. And I love them all. My only complaint is that there aren't enough of them. thank you for providing this one to me.