kld718's Full Review: James Patterson - See How They Run
Seeing as I am a crazed James Patterson fan, it was a great gift to me to find this book on the markdown table at my favorite bookstore while shopping for Christmas presents. I have the frame of mind at Christmas that I buy one for you, buy one for me, buy one for you, buy one for me...
I kidding about that, but I do buy an awful lot during the holidays for myself. I just cannot seem to turn down good deals. So I found this book and immediately snatched it up and took it with me on my winter vacation. I was quite surprised with the premise of this story as I was expecting it to be almost the same as all his other books, but it definitely wasn’t.
Jerusalem - October 1979
Three concentration camp survivors, Benjamin Rabinowitz, Michael Ben-Iban, and Elena Cohen Strauss, the three members of the secret Jewish Brotherhood meet at the King David Hotel to discuss what events were going on. The two others learn from Benjamin that the Nazi’s are planning to take over everything very soon, but Elena does not believe him. She makes it known to them that she cannot support their plans against the Reich. Her long-time friend, Benjamin, feels betrayed by her words...he feels that she has broken her oath.
Scarsdale, New York - April 1980
The American part of the story begins here, with a murder committed in Westchester County.
Mount Sinai Hospital
Dr. David Strauss begins his day the wrong way by delivering a baby at 2:45 in the morning to a 17-year old mother. A baby that is born without breath.
That night, he is traveling to a family gathering with his wife, Heather. David and Heather are happy when the family welcomes her to the gathering, since they have never accepted her before this.
Meanwhile, the pretty and petite woman, nicknamed “the housewife” stands watch outside of the Strauss mansion where the gathering is being held, waiting for the plan to be set in motion. Next we have “the soldier” who comes onto the Strauss property from the East side.
“The Vulkan”, in a small bar, calls the New York Daily to report the news of the impending actions that are to be taken against the powerful Jews living in the America’s. He calls the action, Dachau Zwei.
The party at the Strauss house watches, stricken as they view a man walking down the aisle at the Academy Awards, pull out a gun and shoot dead Nicholas Strauss (David’s brother) and his wife Beri as they accept an award. The whole family is shocked, but not given enough time to digest what had happened as invaders overtake their own home at precisely the next second. David himself rushes downstairs, but is knocked out. Heather tries to protect Elena Strauss, but fails down under gunfire. Elena goes down last. David awakes to find his brother, sister-in-law, wife, and grandmother, all dead. And a 5-ft. Swastika burned into the garden ground.
New York City
Alix Rothschild, formerly Alix Rothman, is now a famous model and actress bringing about a new perfume. But she finds that she recently has other things on her mind. One being the terrible events that occurred when she was three years old, which happened to be the deaths of both of her parents, in a concentration camp. It was when the little toddler was picked up by an aunt, from the monastery after the camps were liberated, that she changed from a Rothman to a Rothschild. But she leaves the model shoot, just like that after deciding that she cannot do it anymore.
Meanwhile, the remaining members of the Strauss family gather at their family-owned Cherry Woods Mountain House, under FBI protection. It is then that David decides that he cannot leave everything go for someone else to figure out...he must take action. He does his own little research of his own, and becomes very determined to discover who killed his loved one’s. David and FBI Agent Harry Callaghan are able to track down Elena’s friend Rabinowitz and set up a meeting in an out of the way place. But that doesn’t turn out so well either when Rabinowitz is gunned down in the outside parking lot.
Alix arrives at the Cherrywoods home and spends her days there with David. Distant relatives and old time lovers reunited, could they perhaps rekindle something in the mist of the tragedy. When David decides that he needs to head to London to find Ben-Iban, the last of his grandmother’s trio, Alix goes with him. But they both soon find themselves’ heading to Germany instead when Ben-Iban doesn’t meet them as planned.
Through a series of events, we learn that more than one person in this story is a fake. We are also given the reason why Elena Strauss, part of the “trio” was murdered and what the real “Dachau Two” plan is. This in turn, leads the team of FBI and David Strauss to Russia.
But what is going on there?
MY THOUGHTS
I can say that this Patterson novel is definitely more thought provoking and intense than anything else I have read of his. Patterson makes you feel as though you are there, feeling the pain and anguish of those trapped within the walls of the concentration camps. If you are a fan of the Alex Cross novels, then this one would probably not be for you. But if you enjoy Patterson’s writing in general, then I would check this one out. You have been warned that See How They Run is definitely nothing like the Cross novels.
See How They Run has a deep plot that might be a little hard for some to get into after reading all of the Cross novels. A novel about the Holocaust is not something that I could even attempt to write, even if some of the facts have been skewed, but Patterson does just that with style added in. This novel is not to be taken seriously, in any way, about portraying the events of the Holocaust. The events in this story are straight from Patterson’s brain and he makes that known several times.
With See How They Run, we are still treated to Patterson’s usual style even thought the plot and characters differ from his other work. Patterson’s short chapters can become annoying at times because you are always flipping the page. And his detailed descriptions always make you feel like you are part of the story. Also, the story here is so long and detailed...but you never really loose interest. I cannot say that I was really into the book as it was a different kind of storyline, but I did keep up with it enough to read it through in a few sittings. It was not a boring story in any sense, just long and slow at times. And I have to give credit for the research that was done for this book!
Another thing that I found intriguing was the fact that Patterson gave all of the characters involve in “Dachau Two” a code name instead of their regular names. The Lawyer, The Engineer, The Nurse, The Banker, The Soldier, The Teacher, The Housewife...they all had some other name instead of their given name. But they all believed themselves’ and their plan untouchable, so why did they have to come up with code names to disguise themselves’? It sure made it difficult for the reader to remember who they really were aside from the code name.
And I just truly felt for the David character. I just simply cannot imagine loosing four of my closest family members, let alone in such a tragic way. But I did not enjoy the fact that he began sleeping with his relative. Granted they are supposedly distant relatives but that is still sickening to think about.
I didn’t particularly like the Alix character; I don’t think that we really got to “know” her like we did with David. She seemed to be snotty and self-centered. As I would imagine, she still had some serious issues with loosing her parents at Dachau. It’s too bad that she put herself in the position where she would never be able to get some help, but instead disguised everything until one day, when she cannot handle it.
Overall, See How They Run was enjoyable, if not saddening. It is definitely not along the Alex Cross novel lines but I believe that Patterson has a good and heart-wrenching story here. It’s also has an ending that I didn’t figure out (and that is rare with Patterson stories). But you can twist here and then turn there with this story, and that is why I recommend reading it as a work of fiction, without reading anything else into it.
~ Happy Reading!
Kim
ISBN: 1-56865-423-5
Published: April 1997
Format Read: Hardcover
Price: $7.99 (Retail)
Pages: 320
Outside New York City, the palatial home of Dr. David Strauss s parents is attacked by gunmen during a glittering party. As he watches helplessly, his...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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