Turncoat by Aaron Elkins April 2002 isbn 006-01977-06 Morrow

World War Two and the aftermath have yet to be fully mined for good stories. Aaron Elkin, in Turncoat, gives us Pete Simon’s. Born in France, Pete and his family become Americans. Pete flies a few missions in WWII as a door gunner. Late in the war he flies a desk. It’s then that he meets Lilly Vercier. They fall madly in love, marry and spend the next seventeen years in bliss. That bliss is shattered when Lilly’s father appears at their door in New York.

Lilly had always told Pete her father had been killed in the war. Marcel Vercier tries to give Lilly a film canister. She finally takes it but slams the door in his face. Later, Marcel is beaten to death. The Simon’s are robbed. Lilly has been lying and the marriage Pete thought perfect is breaking down. When Lilly leaves without saying where she’s going and only a vague excuse that she needs some time to think things through before she explains everything to Pete, he thinks she’s lying again and goes after her. Through his searching for Lilly, Pete solves the mystery behind the film.

Elkin fashions a plausible reason for caring about why something from the past could harm a presumably innocent party. That and believable characters, acting fairly logically, given the circumstances, make for a good story.

The touches of Elkin’s light humor are present and although there are several deaths I wouldn’t call this novel the darkest of noir. There is just enough of a twist ending to keep the reader turning the pages. You don’t have to be a fan of historical mysteries to enjoy Edgar award winner Aaron Elkin’s Turncoat.

David Biemann