Turncoat [Import] [Hardcover]

Aaron J. Elkins (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print Books Ltd (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184395401X
• ISBN-13: 978-1843954019
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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
(REAL NAME)   

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
(REAL NAME)   

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....