On Pain of Death: A Sumach Mystery

The talented Jan Rehner, winner of the Arthur Ellis Crime Fiction award for Best First Novel, has moved smoothly into historicals with ON PAIN OF DEATH, a trade paperback from the distinguised Sumach Press (2007). The narrative begins as the Germans march into Paris. Chapters alternate between the story of Juliette, a young Canadian who has come to study at the Sorbonne and is trapped in the conflict, and Gabrielle, recently widowed as her resistance husband is executed for a murder he did not commit. Circumstances weave a cunning tapestry to unite these brave women in unmasking a killer in this intelligent page-turner. The meticulous period detail and the fast-moving story carry the reader from the labyrinth of underground Paris, across occupied France and to the Spanish border. The realities of torture and betrayal under these world-shaping pressures are well-portrayed without a touch of stereotype. Rehner does not capture the world as black and white but as a series of greys...a human tragedy that sparkles with glimmers of hope for a better world. Here's a chilling excerpt from the Canadian naif (born in Chapleau in Northern Ontario) caught in the snares of war: "Within hours a new city was constructed in place of the old. The buildings and the monuments were still there, but they seemed to shrink and flatten, as if transmuted into two-dimensional facades, or trompe l'oeil paintings. Faux Paris was draped in huge, ugly swastikas. Tanks patrolled the streets, and men in jeeps with loudspeakers trolled along, warning people not to panic....Posters appeared that read 'Abandoned French People. Put Your Trust in the German Soldier." And yet the light of compassion shines in at least one of the "enemy." Suddenly it is too late to flee. The horrors of the next five years cannot be imagined, and yet there are beacons of self-sacrifice as the forces of good try to save one Jewish child and send her to the storyland of Scotland. Rehner brings alive a nightmare, proving at the same time that the human spirit can never be extinguished.

I read for plot, character and a sense of place. "On Pain of Death" has them all. Set in World War II, this superbly plotted thriller follows the perils of Juliette Benoit, a Canadian Sorbonne student trapped during the German occupation. Juliette joins the French Résistance and takes a dangerous journey through France to save a young Jewish girl. The book captures the essence of France especially in one riveting scene when the Résistance sabotages a Burgundy Canal lock. This is a book for those who enjoy suspense, romance and history.