Murder in the Chateau: An Eleanor Roosevelt Mystery

It is June of 1941. The United States is at peace, but war is only six months ahead. President Roosevelt asks his wife, Eleanor to represent him at a secret meeting of leaders plotting to overthrow Hitler to stop the spread of war. After American agents slip her into a chateau in German-occupied France, she finds that the plotters include German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, SS Colonel Artur Brandt, and French General Paul Rousseau. Just as the conference begins, Eleanor Roosevelt finds Colonel Brandt murdered. This could destroy the conference and bring the SS down on them. She keeps the murder secret while she sets about to solve it in the gracious, but astute, manner that we see in other books of the Eleanor Roosevelt series. This is not a thriller that grabs you and won't let go. Instead, the writing is easy-going, with a minimum of gratuitous violence and gore. It's strong point is the true picture of America and Americans in the quiet days before war came to the United States. Elliott Roosevelt was there, and his insight alone makes the book worth reading.