by Jessica Shattuck
This story takes place during WWII in Germany. It tells the story of a woman whose husband and friends were part of a group that opposed Hitler and attempted to assassinate him. The men were caught and murdered.
The book describes the hardships people in Germany suffered during the war. For safety and to live off the land the woman takes her children to an old family castle in the countryside. This is a location many parties were held in the past. She had made a promise to a boyhood friend, a man she loved, that she would look after his wife. She goes looking for the wife and her son. She finds the wife has basically become a sex slave for a German SS officer. By force of will she is able to extracate the woman from that situation. She finds the woman's son in an "orphanage". She also befriends the wife of a Polish man who came to their house and confirmed attrocities that were being committed. This man too had been killed. She finds the man's wife and her two sons in a DP camp.
While they are on the farm the Americans invade Germany and take German soldiers as POW's. They offer her a German officer as a worker to help around the farm. She is happy to have his help until she learns of attrocities that were committed by his unit. She tells the Americans she does not want him to come back. What she doesn't know is that the wife of her friend has fallen in love with the German soldier and they eventually plan to marry. The woman is horrified she feels the young woman is betraying her husband by wanting to marry the German soldier so she intervenes by talking to the German soldier and he decides to call off the wedding.
The young woman is so distraught by the interference, she feels she is intitled to love and that the German people should have the right to start over. She leaves her friend, goes to live with family and commits suicide.
The other woman becomes a housekeeper for a local famer and eventually they marry. She is shocked when her first husband shows up and wants back in her life. We learn that she is not who she says she was. She had stollen a dead woman's identity papers. She and her first husband were acturally Nazi supporters running camps to train boys in Nazi theory.
The woman, Marianne, is shocked that the woman has lied and cuts off contact with her. Marianne is a strong woman but a bit too sure of herself and how only she knows what is right. In the end of her life she has come to regret that she interfered between the young couple and that maybe she shouldn't have been so harsh on the other woman. The story explores what we might do if threatened and what people might do reluctantly just to survive. For eg. the soldier knew what his troop was going to do and got and admin job so he didn't actually do the killing, but does that make him any less guilty?
It was interesting to read a story about what was going on in Germany during the war. It was a very well written, engaging story.
Friday, 22 September 2017
Saturday, 2 September 2017
Glass Houses
by Louise Penny
Penny has done it again, another interesting story about Inspector Gamache and the quirky citizens of Three Pines. In this story a strange character, in a black cape with a bird nose mask (like from Venice) stands in the town square silent but staring. They find out the character is like a Spanish character called a Cobrador del Frac, a conscience or "debt collector" who followed guilty people around to frame them.
Gamache approaches the character but the character won't speak. Everyone if the village fears it might be there to shame them.
There are two couples visiting the town at this time. They come to the town annually but a little later this time. There are also two new employees, a baker's assistant and a dishwasher, aspiring chef.
A few days later the black figure is gone but shortly after Gamache's wife discovers one of the woman visitor's dead in the church basement dressed in the costume.
As the story is told Gamache is on the witness stand and there appears to be friction between him and the Crown Counsel. The Judge can sense it be can't figure out why. She is unaware that Gamache has made the decision to commit perjury on the witness stand.
We learn that while the trial is underway Gamach, who is now Chief of the Surete, and his team are working to catch a major drug ring operating in the province.
In the end they find out who killed the woman (the sister of a man the woman rejected years before who killed himself) and they do catch the drug lords but not without violating some police policies so that both Gamache and the Crown Counsel find themselves removed from their jobs and under investigation.
As always a great story including the antics of the locals.
Penny has done it again, another interesting story about Inspector Gamache and the quirky citizens of Three Pines. In this story a strange character, in a black cape with a bird nose mask (like from Venice) stands in the town square silent but staring. They find out the character is like a Spanish character called a Cobrador del Frac, a conscience or "debt collector" who followed guilty people around to frame them.
Gamache approaches the character but the character won't speak. Everyone if the village fears it might be there to shame them.
There are two couples visiting the town at this time. They come to the town annually but a little later this time. There are also two new employees, a baker's assistant and a dishwasher, aspiring chef.
A few days later the black figure is gone but shortly after Gamache's wife discovers one of the woman visitor's dead in the church basement dressed in the costume.
As the story is told Gamache is on the witness stand and there appears to be friction between him and the Crown Counsel. The Judge can sense it be can't figure out why. She is unaware that Gamache has made the decision to commit perjury on the witness stand.
We learn that while the trial is underway Gamach, who is now Chief of the Surete, and his team are working to catch a major drug ring operating in the province.
In the end they find out who killed the woman (the sister of a man the woman rejected years before who killed himself) and they do catch the drug lords but not without violating some police policies so that both Gamache and the Crown Counsel find themselves removed from their jobs and under investigation.
As always a great story including the antics of the locals.
A Deadly Affection
by Cuyler Overholt
This story takes place in New York in the early 1900's. The main character Dr. Genevieve Summerland, is a recently graduated Dr. who hopes to specialize in Psychiatry, against her father's better judgement.
She meets with some women in a group setting in a Church basement and delivers her "lecture". The attendees don't seem to impressed. One of the patients tells her that she had a child out of wedlock and a doctor took the baby away from her. Genevieve assures her that she has a right to know what happened to the child and that she was wronged by the doctor. She encourages the woman to contact the doctor.
The next morning she is walking down the street and comes upon a murder scene. She finds that the patient who had had her baby taken away from her has been arrested for the murder of a doctor. Genevieve is convinced that despite the evidence her patient did not do it. She is frustrated that the police are so convinced they have found the right person. Genevieve enlists the help of a man who used to work for her family and who seems to have contacts in the legal and not so legal world. As part of the story we find that the Doctor who was murdered has implied that the woman had Huntington's. Genevieve finds the woman she thinks is the daughter of her patient and who was adopted into a wealthy family. She sees evidence of the disease in the "daughter" but none in her patient.
They discover that the patient has multiple personalities and was raped and impregnated by her father and that it was her mother who murdered the Doctor and his daughter.
This was an okay mystery, a bit to wordy and times and not much character development.
This story takes place in New York in the early 1900's. The main character Dr. Genevieve Summerland, is a recently graduated Dr. who hopes to specialize in Psychiatry, against her father's better judgement.
She meets with some women in a group setting in a Church basement and delivers her "lecture". The attendees don't seem to impressed. One of the patients tells her that she had a child out of wedlock and a doctor took the baby away from her. Genevieve assures her that she has a right to know what happened to the child and that she was wronged by the doctor. She encourages the woman to contact the doctor.
The next morning she is walking down the street and comes upon a murder scene. She finds that the patient who had had her baby taken away from her has been arrested for the murder of a doctor. Genevieve is convinced that despite the evidence her patient did not do it. She is frustrated that the police are so convinced they have found the right person. Genevieve enlists the help of a man who used to work for her family and who seems to have contacts in the legal and not so legal world. As part of the story we find that the Doctor who was murdered has implied that the woman had Huntington's. Genevieve finds the woman she thinks is the daughter of her patient and who was adopted into a wealthy family. She sees evidence of the disease in the "daughter" but none in her patient.
They discover that the patient has multiple personalities and was raped and impregnated by her father and that it was her mother who murdered the Doctor and his daughter.
This was an okay mystery, a bit to wordy and times and not much character development.
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