Elizabeth IronsideBesprekingen

After reading Elizabeth Ironside's The Accomplice, I was so impressed that I bought her other four books. This book is also written in a format that I particularly enjoy when it is done well, with multiple narrators whose testimony must be pieced together, so that in the end the reader knows more than any of the characters. This story is so dark that I was at first tempted to read it later, and then utterly enthralled.

The main character here is Théophile de Cazalle, a career army officer. After the German occupied France, he deserted the so-called Free France of Marshal Petain and escapes to England to work with the French government in exile. He faked his death, to protect his family. Now he returns for a brief visit to his family's last property, the farm Bonnemort, to find some of the people he left behind dead, some sent to Germany as forced labor, some as resistance workers, and his wife, with her head shaved, the mark of a collaborator. When he returns again, his wife has fled to Paris with the granddaughter of a friend of her father's. He begins to meet with her, to consider the repair of their marriage, and to attempt to learn what has happened in the years that he was gone. Was his wife a collaborator, and a lover the the German major who requisitioned the house, and was found lying naked and dead in front of it? Or was she a Resistance heroine?

Theo finds contradictory witnesses, whose testimony is dictated by their personal feelings and political beliefs. He finally has a very long talk with a Russian exile, Nikola, living in the area, Nikola, who helps him piece all the testimony together.

I am torn as to whether the conversation with Nikola is a strength or weakness of the book. Nikola likes to talk at length and in great detail, and as a reader, I shared the frustration of Theo. listening to a long-winded man whose testimony he needs, and therefore cannot hurry.

The story is told at a very interesting point in the war - the liminal time when the Germans are gone from the immediate area, but the war is not over, the people who have endured do not yet know all of their losses, and have not recovered from their privations. A time when those who united in resistance now, although not in strategy, now fracture to undercut each other for control of the hopefully glimpsed future.

I smiled a bit at the reviewer who could not believe that Theo is so obsessed with finding out whether his wife was a collaborator and perhaps lover of a German officer. They must be much younger than I. Their marriage, so unsuitable to both their families, was one of passion, which would make infidelity much more personal and cutting. The question is not only sexual jealously, but a need to know what kind of a woman she truly is. Has she has been undercutting the cause that he has dedicated himself to, and also a concern about the future consequences for him, especially should he decide to go into politics, of her conduct.

His daughter, Sabine raises a very difficult question. She has indeed suffered, but does suffering justify bad conduct? We may have some compassion, but what, exactly, do we do with it. I had a friend who argued that no-one commits a murder unless they have been wronged, not necessarily by their victim, and therefore they are not guilty, and deserve our compassion, not punishment. Be that as it may, I distressed her by saying, they cannot be allowed to continue killing people, or inflicting lesser sufferings upon them. Do we have free will? Two people may suffer the same misfortunes, and one may come out of it feeling empathy for other people, and the other may resent anyone who is more fortunate in their eyes, or turn their anger and resentment outwards on other people. What makes the difference?

I also think that it raises the question of attention to our children. Sabine was definitely abused at the convent school she attended. The nuns, when they were not vicious, were negligent. Should we take the attitude that it doesn't matter what one child does to another, it's "a learning experience" for the victim? As with Sabine, we may find that we don't care for what they have learned. I would argue that contrary to what is often thought, just because a child is old enough to left alone with regard to their physical safety, they don't require supervision for their moral and social development, and they often aren't physically and sexually safe, either.

Another question is "power over," the sometimes mysterious ability of one person to dominate another. This subplot is used three time, which I think is one time too many. In the first case, in the convent boarding school, the girl who has made herself dominate has many accomplices to help her wield her power. This probably leads to the second incident, where the victim dominates another girl. The third time, which comes at the end of the main story, not the epilogue, is one too many for me. It doesn't particular fit what we know about the character, not does it serve any purpose that I can see, unless it is to make her look bad. I hated that. That's a half-star off.

The second problem with the ending is that an adolescent girl has been given a severe beating - she even has a broken arm. Her friend decides to avenge her, but the method makes no sense at all. She baits the trap by telling the beater that the girl wants to see him. But surely he knows that she was badly hurt. He doesn't wonder why she would want to see him, or how she is in any condition to make a trek up to a cave? Is he expecting a declaration of undying love or a sexual encounter? It doesn't occur to him that when he gets to the cave, he will find her father with his sidearm? She hasn't told her family what happened yet, she's in pretty bad shape, but the beater doesn't know that? That's the other half-star. It's not so bad that it ruins the story, but once I had a chance to think about, it seemed pretty idiotic. Sometimes, when something is otherwise excellent, I'm able to mentally edit out bad scenes.

Aside from those two caveats, I found the story fascinating and thought provoking, and I love Elizabeth Ironside's writing.

This isn't a mystery in the conventional sense -- an overall mystery, with multiple suspects, that is tied up at the end. There are two distinct mysteries, neither of which is completely solved at the end, although there is the possibility that one will be, with the upending of things that seem settled. At the end, the reader knows the truth of it, one of the characters suspects it, but we are left to wonder if truth will out. A touch frustrating, but no one of those plots that trails off vaguely. In some ways, this is really more of a literary novel than a mystery, examining interactions, motives, and effects of the past on the present; it is cataloged as fiction rather than a mystery at the library where I borrowed it (before buying my own signed copy.) Either way, I thought it was excellent.

Everything revolves around a Russian/Latvian/ German émigrée, Jean, who seems to have settled in a a perfect, placid, middle-class English matron, now aging, fond of her stepchildren, to whom she expects to leave all she has. She has moved out of her marital home, Asshe House, into an easier to live in bungalow. The first monkey-wrench thrown into this serene setup is that of a Russian student, Xenia, who shares the surname of Jean's mother, and on that basis writes for assistance in coming for a visit to England -- a visit that she hopes will become permanent. Naomi, Jean's always helpful step-daughter-in-law, decides to help Xenia when Jean isn't interested, with completely unlooked for consequences. Next, renovations that Naomi is making to Asshe House reveal the body of a child -- long dead, or buried recently enough to upset the Jean's life?

Jean begins recording the biography of her tumultuous life, an account of her aristocratic family's attempt to cope with revolution and war, before she found sanctuary in England. Paralleling this, her neighbor and lawyer, Zita Daunsey, the other protagonist, the daughter of a Russian émigrée and an English father, struggles with her relationship with her mother, her son who has cerebral palsy, and the ex-husband who abandoned his wife and son. Both as lawyer and friend, she becomes involved events around Jean.

I enjoyed this thoroughly. It's an interweaving of subplots and motives that kept me enthralled until the end, which the reader understands better than the characters -- but how will all end?

Well written but I did not really like it. The people were sometimes peculiar, involved in often unpleasant situations and some behaving in a very nasty fashion. I like puzzles but don't like ugly behavior. I wished I hadn't bought it.

Theo Cazalle returns to his home in the French countryside in 1944, after serving with the Free French a few years before. Very little is the same, however. The Germans had occupied the area and had lived in his family home while his wife and child and visiting child moved to a nearby building. His wife, Ariane, was beautiful and had attracted the attention of the German leading the occupation. When Theo returned some were saying she was a collaborator. Was she?

In this book the war times and the after-war times are intertwined so that we gradually figure out what went on during those years. As important as Adriane are her two charges, Sabine and Suzie. Sabine is her daughter while Suzie is the daughter of friends from another part of France, who are very ill.

Sabine and Suzie grow into their early teens together and are seen as close. However, Sabine controls their relationship, ordering Suzie around and managing all of their activities.

Meanwhile, the family caretaker, Henri, has joined the resistance. He is cautious and circumspect so that of course not everyone knows. His wife is not happy with the situation as it threatens their lives.

Adriane is drawn into the web of conspiracies among the Germans, the Free French, and the Resistance. Is she part of any of them? Does she have feelings for the German officer? Theo doggedly seeks out the answer.

An interesting perspective of the French after and during WWII. Always it is useful to learn a little more about this period, as experienced by those in other countries.

I was a bit put off by Sabine's personality as presented here. I did not want to buy it. I believe that people often attribute base motives to others without finding out what the real motives are, and it seemed odd to me that Sabine would spring from good parents and caretakers to become so cruel. Cruelty had been inflicted on her but not by everyone. I would have appreciated a more nuanced character.

Altogether a good story with much to think about. And a bit of a mystery to be sure.

This is an excellent mystery. What starts out as the rather commonplace English weekend murder mystery (which I appreciate well enough), turns into a wonderful story that unwinds itself as slowly as a non-detective in the present time looks into the crime of the past. About a third of the way through the book, you will not be able to put it down. As delicately uncovered details are revealed about each character, you find yourself drawn back to the beginning of the story over and over again, each time explaining it a little bit, without changing the details of those original pages. And, the author cleared up the mystery at the end while tying it to parallels in the current time. This is meticulously crafted - a must read mystery.

Much more than a basic mystery, very English in a way I love.

Hugo Frencham, The Head of Chancerty, at the British High Commission in Delhi has been murdered and the Security Department in London has sent George Sinclair to make sure that it does not involve any security breach. Anyone who has lived abroad can sense the authenticity of Ironside's writing. Her depictions of the people and their behavior and the country itself is 100% right one. The story takes you from Dehli up into the Kashmir mountains.

A crackling good mystery and a great read. Only the final pages where the modern heroine is confronted with her married rival mar the perfection.
Wonderful on the 20s, world war one, and the present time.½

Set in post WWII France, this excellent novel deals with issues of collaboration and resistance, acceptance and forgiveness. Although classified as a mystery and focused around the issue of who murdered the German soldier found naked and dead in a farmyard, it is more about human nature and the moral imperatives of war and occupation. A good read and a thoughtful novel.

Who killed the German SS officer who may, or may not have been lover's with the woman whose home he occupied? Was she a collaborator or a heroine of the resistance? What role did the different factions of the resistance play in the events? When Theo Gazalle returns home with the Gaulist forces at the end of the war he can either search for the answers or resign himself to his wife's withdrawal from their marriage. The novel moves between the events of the recent past and the investigation as he pieces together the answers. Excellent.

Excellent English mystery! Covering current and past events.

The story begins in 1925 when friends gather to spend a weekend celebrating Diana Pollexfen’s 30th birthday in the English countryside. Before the weekend is over, Diana’s husband, George, a member of the British Parliament, is found dead in the garden (hence the book’s title), apparently poisoned by chemicals from his wife’s photography studio that were mixed in his whiskey. Diana is tried for murder and is acquitted by a jury of her peers.

Fast forward 60 years later, and Diana’s own death coincides with the 30th birthday of her grand-niece, Helena, who has no idea of the mysteries of her grand-aunt’s life until she begins to sort through Diana’s belongings and diaries.
What ensues is a very engaging story as Helena is determined to unravel the mystery of her grand-aunt’s guilt or innocence and to determine exactly who killed her husband George. There is a wide assortment of characters that Helena has to sort through to get to the bottom of this entertaining ‘whodunit’ tale that will leave you very satisfied.

A very good read overall.

Elizabeth Ironside writes a great mystery. Period. How could you not like the intersection of Russian genealogy, a depressed, but fashion conscious lawyer, petulant teenagers with middle class small town England, coupled with WW II secrets? Elizabeth combines it all into a believable and engrossing tale that will keep you up long before your mate goes to sleep. You won't figure this one out before the end. Think Betty Moody's cave!

I just wrote a detailed review, but lost it by clicking on the other tab before I saved. Suffice it this time around to say I received the book free, read it to fill time and expose myself to genre and subjects I don't usually read and an author and publisher I didn't know. Under those conditions, it wasn't awful, but neither did it win me over to seeking out any similar books.

My main criticisms are that I figured out all but a minor conclusion long before they were revealed, but there were other things that didn't make sense. And I don't buy, even given Y chromosomes in France in the mid-20th century, Theo's obsession with learning whether his wife had indeed collaborated sexually with the Nazis occupying Theo's family home for most of a year. In particular, no matter how little relationship he had with his daughter (from an earlier marriage), I don't buy his returning to the country from Paris because she'd been beaten senseless, and immediately setting off to interview another source about his wife's behavior (which interview involved drinking all night and being uselessly hung over, so that he didn't even go to see his daughter, all the next day).

Come to think of it, most of the men in this book were pretty cardboard characters. I don't like that any more than when men are incapable of writing women. But I did appreciate the quiet strength of the women and learned a good bit about how such women got through the war, even when there were no great battles in their area. I will always think a little more fondly of pigs, even when I eat them, and now I have a name for them. There's quite a bit of violence in the book, and vividly recounted, but other than the convent-school bullying that warped Theo's daughter, not enough to keep me from reading in bed.

The Accomplice is a highly intelligent and stylishly crafted mystery,literate,with not just the veneer of literacy and with the resonance of not very distant history. Think Dr. Zhivago with a who-dun-it attached. This is the third of Ms. Ironsides's mysteries that I have read, and I am never disappointed.

This author is known for knotty, somewhat confusing, but well written stories. This is no different. A Frenchman, who was with the Free French during World War II, comes home to his estate in the south of France and finds his wife with her head shorn (a sign of a collaborator). Although he leaves at once, ie starts to unravel what actually happened during the four years he was away--with unexpected results. Not everything becomes known to all persons involved.

Historical (1925) and contemporary blends -

At the onset of the novel, it is 1925 and Diana Pollefexen is awaiting the verdict at her trial for the murder of her husband George. The story of George's death is divulged little by little both contemporarily (to 1925) and later, after her grand-niece Helena receives word that her great aunt has died. Helena is going through her great-aunt's property and finds a journal entry telling about that day in court in 1925. Helena, through the help of other family members, friends, and further journal articles, begins to piece together her great-aunt's life, and realizes that her great aunt had a life of which Helena knew nothing. Helena is a major beneficiary in her great-aunt's will, but In order to accept Diana's legacy, she feels that she must decide for herself whether or not her aunt was a murderess.

Very well written, it will keep your attention through the end.

The characters are well drawn, the story is a good one, and I can definitely recommend this book.

Set in India, A Very Private Enterprise opens with the murder of Hugo Fencham, a British civil servant. George Sinclair is called in from London to investigate. What ensures is very much a traditional whodunit.
The trouble with whodunits is that they require interesting characters or very good writing to hold my interest. Ironside’s writing is fine—some of the descriptions are very vivid, but it’s generally merely serviceable. The characters are the real problem here. They’re just not interesting, and there are too many of them to keep track of. At 155 pages, nearly halfway in, I’m giving up. Wrong book, wrong time.

Complete review at my blog.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. The telling of the story in a non-predictable looking back through time was so much more compelling than a straight-forward from the view of the main character was delightful. A good read!

I bought this small trade paperback to read on a plane. I like English murder mysteries, but even more I like well written books. The backcover blurb compares Elizabeth Ironside to Minette Walters and have to agree. I love many of Minette's books and I loved this book also.

The book opens on a trial for murder in 1925. A woman is accused of murdering her overbearing husband, but is acquitted. Several chapters explore the woman's life and the fateful weekend that her husband died. Many decades later the woman dies and leaves her house and estate to her niece (by remarriage). No one in the nieces' family even knew that Great-Aunt Diana was ever accused of murder since the great-aunt lead a secluded life of intensive gardening for many decades. The niece, a successful intellectual property lawyer with a secret affair with a married man, decides that she must solve the murder mystery before she can keep the house. During her investigations, she learns more than she knew she would about Diane, Diane's friends and family, and eventually even herself.

If you enjoy well written and detailed stories about the recent, but becoming dusty past, then this is definitely a book that you will love.

eh, very chatty, didn't grab me

This is one of the most fascinating books I've read in a long time. The mystery itself - about an incident in the past - was gripping. But the way Ironside wove the mystery and the protagonist's personal life together was brilliant. A wonderful, thought-provoking read filled with interesting characters.

A child's skeleton is dug up in the yard of Zita Dauncey's friend and client, the elderly Jean. A local policeman is convinced that Jean is responsible and that the skeleton is that of an 8 year old boy who went missing 30 years prior. As Zita (a lawyer in a small English town) attempts to assist her friend and client, Jean's past is gradually revealed. Jean is no ordinary upperclass Englishwoman. Originally Yevgenia Chornoroukya, a Latvian princess, she endured and escaped the horrors of Eastern Europe in 1945. Her aristocratic family had mostly been destroyed by the Russian revolution decades earlier. Lots of history here but an engaging and thrilling story. I was reminded again how little most of us know about Eastern European nobility. Many families can trace their root for centuries longer than the British monarchy. As I seem to be the only member who has this book, I assume it is not readily available in the US. This is a mystery author well worth looking up. She is published in pb by Hodder & Stoughton's "New English Library" and should be available on UK used books websites (or you never know what you might find in your local used book stores).

I kept waiting for this slim mystery novel to really ensnare me -- it seemed like it should. Flashbacks, history, murder, an unusual will, diaries, hidden family connections, a possible ghost. In the end though, it was just 'OK.' Somehow the dramatic tension just never played out as it should, although I can't quite put my finger on why.