Turncoat [Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Aaron J. Elkins (Author), Christopher Lane (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2003

Pete Simon's all-American life was everything he ever wished for: a good home, a satisfying career, and a marriage still strong and loving after nearly twenty years. But in the days following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, everything is about to change. And it begins with the appearance of a stranger at his door.

The man ranting madly about money, death, and forgiveness is unknown to Pete -- but not to his distraught wife, Lily. Only when the man has gone does the truth come out. The unwelcome visitor was Lily 's father, whom she had claimed died long ago in their native France. The next day he is dead, his savagely beaten body washed up in a nearby marsh -- and Lily disappears, leaving a note behind begging Pete not to follow her.

As a nation mourns its fallen leader, Pete Simon is devastated by a tragedy of his own. Now, with a business card from an antiques dealer in Barcelona as his only lead, he sets out to find his missing wife, embarking on a twisted and perilous journey that will carry him to Europe, where the hideous crimes of the Nazi aggressors remain fresh in the minds of those who cannot forget...or forgive. But each door Pete opens leads him deeper into a painful and shocking past slowly revealing secrets of greed, terror, guilt, and treacherous collaboration with a monstrous enemy that could shatter everything he believes in destroy everything he loves. And suddenly he has become more than a concerned husband and seeker of a bitter truth; he has become the target of desperate, dangerous men and their terrifying vengeance.

A haunting parable of good and evil and the many shifting shades of humanity in between, Aaron Elkins's Turncoat is an extraordinary reading experience, a compelling, provocative, and rocket-paced rollercoaster ride with surprises at every turn that will leave the reader breathless.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Best known for the witty, Francophiliac Gideon Oliver mystery series, Elkins here delivers a stand-alone thriller that probes wartime guilt from multiple angles. For history professor Pete Simon and his French-born wife, Lily, Brooklyn in 1963 is worlds away from the horrors of WWII. But when Lily's father, Marcel Vercier, turns up on their doorstep begging her to view an old film, the Simons' cozy life combusts. Lily had always maintained that her father had been shot by the Nazis in 1943; now, caught in her lie and troubled by unfathomable other secrets, she refuses to answer Pete's urgent questions. Before the Simons can see the film, Vercier is murdered, and masked thugs break into their apartment, demanding to have it. Lily hands it over, then disappears, leaving Pete a cryptic note about needing space. Feeling like a sap, Pete decides to find her anyway, flying to Barcelona, where Vercier was apparently partner in an antiques dealership. A tough interview with the dead man's cagey co-partner, Charles Lebrun, reveals little about the film, the murder or Lily's whereabouts, but it does enlighten Pete as to Vercier's wartime collaboration with Nazi occupiers. As Pete delves deeper into Vercier's past, he learns painful truths about Lily's family, finally concluding, When it comes to making blanket moral judgements about people¢please, leave me out of it. Some of the characters are sketchy, particularly Lily, who never amounts to more than an incredible simulation of Leslie Caron. The plot takes familiar paths, with an ending that ties up matters rather too neatly, especially given Pete's hard-earned tolerance for moral relativity. Still, this first-person novel captivates, largely because Pete's voice, a garlicky mix of France and Brooklyn, always sounds just right.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

(*Starred Review*) One of the many joys of reading Elkins comes from sorting through his myriad plot layers. In his latest, Brooklyn College history professor Pete Simon has been happily married for 17 years to Lily, a lovely French woman he met during World War II. In 1963, two events rock Pete's comfortable world: JFK's assassination and the discovery that Lily has lied about much of her life. After finding Lily engaged in a heated argument with an elderly Frenchman, Pete learns that the man is Lily's supposedly long-dead father. Lily refuses to explain why she lied, and, when the old man is murdered, she disappears, leaving Pete only with a note telling him not to follow. Realizing that the solution lies in Europe, Pete sets off to learn more about Lily's father and to find his wife. Elkins masterfully weaves both backstory about his characters' lives and WWII history into a highly suspenseful plot. Without condoning collaborators or glorifying Nazis, he shows us that what we think of as black and white is sometimes closer to gray. Elkins is best known for his fine series starring forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver, but he also excels at WWII-era thrillers (Loot, 1998). An outstanding novel. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged edition (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786192887
• ISBN-13: 978-0786192885
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 5.1 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,843,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a former anthropologist who has been writing mysteries and thrillers since 1982, having won an Edgar for Old Bones, as well as a subsequent Agatha (with my wife Charlotte), and a Nero Wolfe Award. My major continuing series features forensic anthropologist-detective Gideon Oliver, "the Skeleton Detective."

Lately, I've seen myself referred to as "the father of the modern forensic mystery," and, by gosh, I think I am! Before "Fellowship of Fear," the first Gideon Oliver, published in 1982, you'd have to go back 70 years and more to Austin Freeman and his Dr. Thorndyke series. Between the two good doctors (Thorndyke and Oliver), there was only Jack Klugman's "Quincy," so far as I know, and he was a TV character.

The Gideon Oliver books have been (roughly) translated into a major ABC-TV series and have been selections of the Book-of-the-Month Club, the Literary Guild, and the Readers Digest Condensed Mystery Series. My work has been published in a dozen languages. Charlotte and I live on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, our marriage having survived (more or less intact) our collaboration on novels and short stories.

Although I've been a full-time writer for some time now, I also remain active in real-life forensics by serving as the forensic anthropologist on the Olympic Peninsula Cold Case Task Force.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book - carries along nicely, March 9, 2005

By 

sleeper30 "tom" (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turncoat (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a very original story about a couple living around the time of the Kennedy assassination. One day, an older man (the wife's long-thought-dead father) arrives with a roll of film. From here the entire mystery begins. He gets murdered and the wife disappears. The husband goes on to Europe to try and find her. Full of dark Nazi, french-political history, thisis another very good mystery novel from Elkins. Good job.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Elkins comes close to pulling off a classic, May 1, 2007

By 

clifford "akitonmyers" (Portland, OR, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Turncoat (Mass Market Paperback)

Turncoat is a thriller for those who want a little something more in the writing department. Elkins as an author brings a flair for literature along with him as he crafts a nice taught little story here with 'Turncoat'.

This story is not exactly like most of what you will find in the mystery/thriller genre. Elkins maturity pulls this story above the fray of Patterson's and Stuart Woods. The story almost starts off with a very English style. Elkins invests a lot of time into developing the character, Pete Simone. The story does not move quickly until it starts to resolve its many open plot threads towards the end.

Some things I liked about this story was its unique setting during the days of Kennedy's assassination, even though it merrits only a few short lines. Elkins does not really provide much of a feel for New York or Europe as individual settings, but he does do a great job of describing a character from this time period. I think of some of Ludlum's books which I have enjoyed in the past. As an author, Ludlum likes to start the action roller coaster on page one. This does not happen here. Instead, Elkins very slow style builds on itself page by page. The problem is that you might not last to the point where it starts to pay off. I remember getting pretty frustrated about half way through, the story at that point really was not very satisfying.

Some of what I did not like... The ending... I wont give anything away, its just that with the maturity of Elkin's writing, I would have expected a little more from the guy. Once the resolutions start to occur, everything is so pat and falls so nicely into place. Pete Simone does not really have to do very much to reach an ending. Over and over again, a nightmare that re-occurs crops up in this story, I was left sort of wondering why Elkins bothered to add it, since it was sort of a silly add on by the time you are let into its meaning. The periphreal characters are even talked about at the end by Pete, and how everything started to occur and this just highlights the meaninglessness of the entire story. Id go into more detail here, but that would be giving everything away.

This is not a great book, and I would not reccomend it to anyone. However, Elkins does manage to write so well, that I will happily hunt down other books by this author with the hope that they give a little more bang for the buck, and live up to the authors potential.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Aaron Elkins tries again, May 6, 2002

By 

Mike Garrison (Covington, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Turncoat: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

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....