Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Accomplice
Joseph Kanon
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Accomplice
Joseph Kanon
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Accomplice, by Joseph Kanon, is about Aaron, nephew of Max, and takes place in Hamburg, Germany after World War II. Max has made it his life’s work to find and prosecute the Germans who murdered thousands of Jews and those they considered undesirables, in concentration camps. Max has aged in this exhausting endeavor and asks his nephew, a CIA desk agent to help him find his final criminal. This is a supposedly dead German named Schramm, whom Max sees in his dreams. Aaron is the only one left of his family — all were murdered in Auschwitz. When Max and Aaron meet in a sidewalk café, Max has a heart attack. An ambulance takes him to hospital. A German journalist they both know, Felix, accompanies him in the ambulance.
Max rests, gets better, gives the key to his living room/office to Aaron and convinces him to follow up on Schramm. They think he went to Argentina with Peron’s assistance and changed his name and his persona. Max thinks he sees him walking in a crowd. He’d know that walk anywhere. Perhaps he faked his death in an auto accident. Aaron is convinced to work with Max. Felix, the journalist, wonders why Schramm would come to Germany. Perhaps a relative has died — a funeral? Felix looks up funeral notices and they go to the funeral of Schramm’s ex-wife. Felix found her maiden name. As they walk to the gravesite, Aaron recognizes the walk of one of the two men. It is Otto Schramm for sure. Felix yells “Otto” and the man turns around. Felix takes a photo, the other man tackles Felix and smashes his camera and tears out the film. He beats and kicks Felix badly. The Germans run to their car and drive away. Aaron goes to the American hotel, guessing that Otto’s American daughter whom he saw at the funeral, might be staying there. She has checked out and gone to Buenos Aires.
Aaron goes to Buenos Aires to search for her and meets her at a hotel bar. He gets her phone number. They talk a long time over drinks, and the dialogue is realistic. They sleep together in Aaron’s hotel room.. He wonders if she knew her father was a monster. Is Aaron doing research to find Schramm or is he attracted to this woman? His friend, Jamie, puts a tap on her phone and gets Aaron an invite to a party at the Brazilian embassy. He follows her everywhere. What is Aaron missing? Where does she see her father? Hanna is her name and she knows important German people at the party. Aaron is told by one of them that he should leave Hanna alone because he is a Jew.
Later, in his hotel room, Aaron finds in Hanna’s purse, a visa to Brazil under a different name: Erich Kruger. He tells Felix. Hanna goes to a psychologist twice a week. Aaron follows her there. Is it really a psychologist’s office? Or an apartment for her father? Author Kanon is good at suspense. Questions remain: do the Israelis get him? How does he plan to leave Argentina? Will Aaron stay close to Hanna? What is Aaron’s plan? How to grab Schramm, in public or in private or to make him a counter-spy for the Americans?
Find this suspense-filled novel in the fiction room with several of Joseph Kanon’s other books at your Mendocino Community Library.
Max rests, gets better, gives the key to his living room/office to Aaron and convinces him to follow up on Schramm. They think he went to Argentina with Peron’s assistance and changed his name and his persona. Max thinks he sees him walking in a crowd. He’d know that walk anywhere. Perhaps he faked his death in an auto accident. Aaron is convinced to work with Max. Felix, the journalist, wonders why Schramm would come to Germany. Perhaps a relative has died — a funeral? Felix looks up funeral notices and they go to the funeral of Schramm’s ex-wife. Felix found her maiden name. As they walk to the gravesite, Aaron recognizes the walk of one of the two men. It is Otto Schramm for sure. Felix yells “Otto” and the man turns around. Felix takes a photo, the other man tackles Felix and smashes his camera and tears out the film. He beats and kicks Felix badly. The Germans run to their car and drive away. Aaron goes to the American hotel, guessing that Otto’s American daughter whom he saw at the funeral, might be staying there. She has checked out and gone to Buenos Aires.
Aaron goes to Buenos Aires to search for her and meets her at a hotel bar. He gets her phone number. They talk a long time over drinks, and the dialogue is realistic. They sleep together in Aaron’s hotel room.. He wonders if she knew her father was a monster. Is Aaron doing research to find Schramm or is he attracted to this woman? His friend, Jamie, puts a tap on her phone and gets Aaron an invite to a party at the Brazilian embassy. He follows her everywhere. What is Aaron missing? Where does she see her father? Hanna is her name and she knows important German people at the party. Aaron is told by one of them that he should leave Hanna alone because he is a Jew.
Later, in his hotel room, Aaron finds in Hanna’s purse, a visa to Brazil under a different name: Erich Kruger. He tells Felix. Hanna goes to a psychologist twice a week. Aaron follows her there. Is it really a psychologist’s office? Or an apartment for her father? Author Kanon is good at suspense. Questions remain: do the Israelis get him? How does he plan to leave Argentina? Will Aaron stay close to Hanna? What is Aaron’s plan? How to grab Schramm, in public or in private or to make him a counter-spy for the Americans?
Find this suspense-filled novel in the fiction room with several of Joseph Kanon’s other books at your Mendocino Community Library.