Salamander [Paperback]

J. Robert Janes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

St-Cyr of the Sret and Kohler of the Gestapo are sent to Lyon to capture an arsonist.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sandman, the previous title in Canadian author Janes's series about an unlikely team of detectives in Occupied France, was chosen by both PW and the New York Times as one of the best mysteries of 1997. This new titleAonly the fourth to appear here but actually written in 1994 and one of nine books in the series already published in EnglandAis equally compelling. Chief Inspector Jean-Louis St-Cyr of the French S?ret? and Inspector Hermann Kohler, attached to the Gestapo in Paris, arrive in Lyon on the day before Christmas, 1942. They are investigating an arson fire in a movie house that has killed 183 peopleAmany of them railway workers gathered to watch Jean Renoir's La B?te humaine. "They were a pair, these two detectives," a Nazi officer observes. "St-Cyr was a patriot and therefore untrustworthy; Kohler a doubter of Germanic invincibility. They'd been in trouble with the SS far too many times." And indeed, the two cops quickly raise the hackles of Lyon's top NazisAincluding ambitious Obersturmf?hrer Klaus BarbieAas they search for an arsonist known as Salamander who has struck at least three times previously. As in previous books in the series, sexAtwisted and perverted by the timesAplays a large part in the investigation. One example of Janes's artistry: in a city starved for food, he spends three richly ironic pages describing the remains of a Christmas Eve feast in an exclusive bordello without slowing down the action or lessening the power of his terrible vision of a world full of large and small crimes.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In another installment of Janes's mystery series set in France during the German Occupation (e.g., Stone Killer, LJ 5/1/97), Detectives Jean-Louis St-Cyr of the French Surete and Hermann Kohler, a Gestapo agent, seek an arsonist who has set a devastating fire in a crowded movie theater just before Christmas. The evidence resembles that from previous fires and points clearly to a serial killer. The detectives pursue his trail through the backstreets of Lyon and the brothels, tenements, and cathedrals as they try to piece together the relationships among the arsonist's prey before another fire is set. As in his previous novels, Janes creates a distinct picture of the decadence and dissolution of Nazi-occupied France, focusing on the victims as well as the oppressors. Even St-Cyr and Kohler mistrust each other, and their complicated dance to solve the crime without giving any advantage to the other is interesting to watch. The reader should be cautioned that there are graphic descriptions of sex and violence. Recommended for public libraries, especially those that own previous novels in the series.?Kathy Sorci, IIT Research Inst., Annapolis, MD
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Soho Crime (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569471576
• ISBN-13: 978-1569471579
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,851,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surete-Gestapo fight WW II crime, March 13, 1998

By 

Susan Rose, [e-mail] (Belleair, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Salamander (Hardcover)

Jean-Louis St. Cyr of the Surete and Hermann Kohler of the Gestapo make unusual partners in the fight against crime in WW II Occupied France. Two days before Chrstmas in 1942 in Lyon, France, a fire was set in a crowded cinema; 183 people died. The arsonist was known as the Salamander and had reputedly set fires in the summer of 1938 in Germany. Hermann's boss, The Sturmbannfuhrer, is under pressure from the Head of the Gestapo in Berlin to catch this arsonist. As Jean-Louis and Hermann sift through the wreckage of the theater and reconstruct lives for the corpses, they discover leads to railway workers, the Resistance, houses of prostitution, and the civic theater. Janes has the ability to transport the reader to the penetrating cold of a winter without fuel, a Christmas without feasting, and into the minds of people trying to survive. Jean-Louis and Hermann have forged a friendship in conflict. Salamander is the third in the series that I have read; each is better than the last.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Starts great, bogs down, and sprints to the end, October 27, 2003

By 

Mark Ames "tanekaberi" (Takoma Park, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Salamander (Hardcover)

Well this was my first of this series. I will say that it took some adjustments. Yes it is not always clear who precisely is speaking and what about. Yes the phrases are repeated frequently but hey you ever speak to a frenchman in french??? Yes these two tendencies caused the book to be a bit of heavy reading through the middle half. Don't despair, as the final quarter gets going this technique makes sense. It had created drudgery and a grind that was equal to the protagonists. So when things get going the writer alters tactics and goes to a quite successful conclusion. I strongly encourage folks of a patient nature to give this a try.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Big Confusion, July 1, 2001

By 

Jos Halligster (Amsterdam) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Salamander (Paperback)

Well, I read it to the end, but this was a hard piece of work! The story is pretty weird and so is the style of Mr Janes. You never know who's talking or who's thinking what. There are way too many characters introduced - Kohler and St Cyr are confused most of the time and after a few pages the reader's in the same situation. But at least St Cyr makes the right remark about all this on almost every page: "merde".