A Good Death (Felony & Mayhem Mysteries)
by Elizabeth Ironside
List Price:
Our Price: $2.00
You Save: $12.95 (87%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth IronsideEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10
ISBN: 1934609196
Number of pages: 340
Publisher: Felony & Mayhem
Book Reviews of A Good Death (Felony & Mayhem Mysteries)
Book Review: Hard to Resist
Summary: 4 Stars
In this very noir mystery, Col. Theo de Cazalle returns home to his small estate/farm Bonnemort ("good death") in Southern France. It is September 1944 and the region was liberated from the Nazis less than a month before. Just after the French defeat in 1940 the wounded Cazalle had faked his own death (to protect his family) and joined DeGaulle in London, one of the few professional officers to do so at the time. This would have made him a criminal in the eyes of the collaborationist Vichy regime and a deserter in the eyes of his Army colleagues.
Instead of the unchanged haven that he naively expected, Cazalle finds everyone at Bonnemort irretrievably marked by the war. His wife, Ariane, has had her head shaved as a "collabo" for supposedly being the lover of the commander of a small SS security unit that arrived at Bonnemort soon after the Normandy invasion. Henri, Cazalle's long time friend and employee, was captured while leading a resistance unit and executed just three weeks before. Also at Bonnemort are Sabine, Cazalle's angry and sullen 13 year old daughter, and Suzie, a Jewish girl being protected by Ariane. Cazalle had married Ariane just before the war started in 1939 after a very brief courtship. They were passionately attracted to one another and he cannot even talk to her when he sees her shaved head. On top of everything, the SS unit commander was brutally murdered on the day that his unit left Bonnemort for good, and his naked corpse was dumped in front of Cazalle's house.
Cazalle decides to find the truth about his wife, about the death of the German officer and about the execution of his friend Henri. He also must fulfill his duty to his daughter who, unbeknownst to him, was brutally mistreated in her convent school and in the village school, incidents which have left her (as one character says) "a very strange person." Cazalle soon discovers that truth is a hard commodity to find in regard to the resistance.
Author Ironside is clearly familiar with how badly split French society was not only by the defeat of 1940 but by the ensuing four years of the Vichy regime (supported by most of the French), the Nazi occupation and the Allied victory. There was no massive and unified resistance to the Germans, and those who did resist often spent as much time opposing rival groups (internal French politics remained just as bitter and divisive as in the prewar Third Republic). Treachery, betrayals and revenge were common between and among rival resistance groups and the community at large.
Cazalle works out answers that, though not complete, are at least acceptable to him. But he cannot know the "full truth" for sure. The reader will share this fate. Just as in the real France of the time, not everything is tied up and there is no complete justice.
The writing is excellent, but if ambiguity, lack of total resolution and a very dark world are not your things, the book is not for you. There is a brief epilogue set in 1999, but if anything it raises more doubt and provides no new information. One lesson is clear: Avoid civil wars.
Summary of A Good Death (Felony & Mayhem Mysteries)
It?s 1944 and Theo Cazalle is returning to the family he left in Bonnemort, an estate deep in the French countryside, when he went off to fight with the Free French. Memories of Bonnemort have sustained him through four years of war, but when at last he comes home, he finds his world in tatters. The house has been abandoned, a family servant has been shot, Theo?s wife has been accused of collaborating, and a Nazi officer has been found dead in front of Bonnemort?s front gate. To save his sanity, Theo must restore order to Bonnemort, but first he must understand the disorder into which it has fallen. Is his wife a whore? A murderer? Or could there be another alternative?Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.67
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
Death of a Hollow Man: The 2nd Inspector Barnaby Mysteryby Caroline Graham
Felony & Mayhem; Published: 2006-02-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.88
Price in other shops:
The Suspect (Karl Alberg Mysteries, No. 1)by L. R. Wright
Felony & Mayhem; Published: 2008-06-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.68
Price in other shops:
A Scandal in Belgravia (Missing Mysteries)by Robert Barnard BSC
Poisoned Pen Press; Published: 2000-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.21
Price in other shops:
Death in Disguise (Felony & Mayhem Mysteries) (Inspctr Barnaby)by Caroline Graham
Felony & Mayhem; Published: 2007-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.93
Price in other shops:
The Killings at Badger's Drift (Inspector Barnaby)by Caroline Graham
Felony & Mayhem Press; Published: 2005-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
Written in Blood (Felony & Mayhem Mysteries) (Inspctr Barnaby)by Caroline Graham
Felony & Mayhem; Published: 2007-11-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.94
Price in other shops:
Accompliceby Elizabeth Ironside
Felony & Mayhem; Published: 2006-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.95
Price in other shops:
Death in the Gardenby Elizabeth Ironside
Felony & Mayhem; Published: 2005-10-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.89
Price in other shops:
The Art of Deceptionby Elizabeth Ironside
Felony & Mayhem; Published: 2009-12-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.25
Price in other shops:
A Very Private Enterprise (Felony & Mayhem Mysteries)by Elizabeth Ironside
Felony & Mayhem; Published: 2007-11-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.88
Price in other shops: