Swann's war A novel

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Journalist, novelist, and former Israeli ambassador Oren (To All Who Call in Truth) opens his overwrought latest with an engaging premise: what would happen if the police chief of a normally tranquil Massachusetts island joins the Marines during WWII and his wife has to replace him during an outbreak of murders? As a series of bodies are discovered in the waters and swamps off of Fourth Cliff, interim police chief Mary Beth Swann finds herself fighting on several fronts; against skeptical and disrespectful townspeople, FBI agents, interloper Louis Corvelli, a Mafia boss from the mainland, and a multitude of suspects. The murder victims are all Italian POWs who were held at the island's prison, and the most prominent suspects include an Army lieutenant, a fellow POW, Corvelli, and a shell-shocked ex-bomber. Oren succeeds at getting readers invested, and there are some nice descriptions of the bleak setting (the ocean's waves "rose and fell uninvitingly"), though the plot strains credulity as Corvelli's henchmen attack the FBI agents, and the dialogue feels like outtakes from a B-movie. Most exasperatingly, a story that seems intended to exhibit a woman's empowerment ends up dwelling on Mary Beth's incompetence. An accomplished journalist and diplomat, Oren does better when sticking to the facts. (Oct.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Oren (To All Who Call in Truth) sets this bleak, character-driven story with a complex protagonist in an isolated New England island community. When Mary Beth Swann's husband enlists during World War II, she steps into his position as police captain in Fourth Cliff. She had been on the Boston police force, but being one of two officers on an island off the coast of Massachusetts is entirely different: the locals resent her, and the fishermen call her names. On bike, she patrols the island and its prison camp for Italian POWs and small military base, but she's not prepared to investigate a murder when a POW is found wrapped in a fishing net. When two more POWs die, FBI agents arrive to interrogate the island's residents with brutal tactics. They're followed by the Mafia, and Mary Beth can only watch, humiliated and unable to act. She's fired twice and sinks into self-pity before another tragic murder sets her on the right course to find the killer. VERDICT Fans of Jess Montgomery's "Kinship" series may appreciate another historical mystery featuring a woman struggling to take over her husband's role.--Lesa Holstine

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

During World War II, a female police officer investigates a spate of murders on a tiny island off the coast of Massachusetts. Oren's novel opens arrestingly with a local police captain discovering a fisherman's unexpected catch of a human body. Then, an initial assessment of death by drowning goes distinctly south when it turns out that the man was strangled. Things only get trickier from there since it's wartime, 1944, and the corpse is that of a prisoner of war: The island, along with its docks, trawlers, and cranberry bogs, includes a prison camp of Italian POWs and a U.S. military emplacement headed by a lieutenant who'd prefer to be on the front lines (his wealthy family ensures that he's not). To complicate matters further--especially when another murder victim emerges--the police captain is Mary Beth Swann, who took over her husband's law enforcement role when he shipped out to the South Pacific. Being a female police officer was already challenging enough; Mary Beth, originally from Boston, also has to tolerate the disrespect of the island's inhabitants. What elevates this intriguing story--comparisons with television's always engaging Foyle's War are inevitable--are the wonderfully delineated specifics of the location and characters. This island may be fictional, but it's drawn directly from the author's experiences on Nantucket, and each of the characters sparkles with their own vitality, including the town's brothel madam, the Acadian short-order cook missing two fingers, a visiting gangster, and the nearly 90 Italians waiting out the war in a remote corner of a foreign land. Sharply drawn characters, a "locked-room" location, and a tension-filled WWII setting illuminate this wartime thriller. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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"Two, three days at most," was Doc Cunningham's estimate for how long it'd been in the water. "Just after it was sawed off." "Sawed? He nodded gravely and then, with a scalpel, scraped surfaces of two exposed bones. "You see how clean these are, as if the radius and ulna were simply detached. As if the hand belonged to a mannequin." Through the smoky lamplight, she squinted at the doctor's examining table. The hand was displayed there, palm up, as if to check for rain. Her initial disgust at seeing it, wrapping it in oilskin, and transporting it to the office above the diner, was surpassed only by the knowledge that other parts were no doubt still floating out there and liable to be snagged, that she might have to reassemble them puzzle-like. This single segment would do just fine for now, she reckoned. Already, it told her a lot. "No manual laborer, this one," the doctor concluded. "No calluses. And not much of a fighter, either. No bruises on the knuckles, that is if he led with his left. No skin beneath the nails." Yet key deduction came not from the hand but from the ring the doctor removed from it. Leaning over the table, Mary Beth saw that there were eagles embossed on each of its sides, and on its face, a bundle of what looked like sticks. "Fasces," Cunningham said. "Excuse me?" "Fasces. The ancient Roman symbol for strength. One rod is easy to break but try it with a bunch of them tied together--impossible." He lit one cigarette with the smoldering end of another. "It's where they get the word fascism." "An Italian ring..." "Not necessarily. We use it, too. Just look on the back of a dime." Mary Beth fished into the pocket of the black leather jacket she had just started wearing again, for the fall, and found an old Mercury head. Holding it up to the light and turning it around, she suddenly gasped, "Jiminy Cricket." Smack in the center of the tails side, right next to E Pluribus Unum, was the same laureled bundle of sticks. "But, yes, Italian." With a yellowed finger, the doctor pointed at the inscription inside, "Oro Alla Patria." "Meaning?" "Gold for the Homeland. That is, if I recall what I learned at Boston Latin. Whoever owned this iron ring got in return for donating his wedding band." Mary Beth was stumped. "But why? To who?" "For the war effort, course." Cunningham clicked his heels comically and raised on one frayed cuff toward the ceiling. "To Il Duce."   Excerpted from Swann's War by Michael Oren All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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