Mannequin

St. Cyr & Kohler #5

by J. Robert Janes

A St-Cyr and Kohler investigation set in Occupied Paris during World War II. St-Cyr of the Sûreté and Kohler of the Gestapo are ordered to investigate a bank robbery, but they would prefer to look for a missing neighbor, Joanne LaBelle. She responded to an advertisement seeking a beautiful girl between the ages of 18 and 22, with long hair and brown eyes, to be a model, a mannequin. Now Joanne has vanished. The robbery of the Crédit Lyonnais and the case of the missing girl begin to dovetail. Was Joanne kidnapped because she witnessed the theft? Or is there something even more sinister involved? Photographs scattered in the attic of an empty house overlooking the Palais Royal gardens show many girls similar to Joanne, naked, tortured, murdered. And do these crimes relate to Hermann Göring's imminent auction of looted art at the Jeu de Paume? Or to a mutilated World War I veteran who once lived in the abandoned house and who was rejected and betrayed by his fiancée, a beautiful brown-eyed model?

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, World War II, Historical Mystery

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

J. Robert Janes is a mystery author best known for writing historical thrillers. Born in Toronto, he holds degrees in mining and geology, and worked as an engineer, university professor, and textbook author before he began writing fiction. In 1992, Janes published Mayhem, the first in the long-running St-Cyr and Kohler series for which he is best known. These police procedurals set in Nazi-occupied France have been praised for the author’s attention to historical detail, as well as their swift-moving plots.

Reviews

[Cerisaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been working my way through the St -Cyr & Kohler series for a while now, and have come to accept their strengths and weaknesses: what you get from your first experience of Janes' books applies to them all, different crime plots and locations but everything else pretty much the same.

In all my reviews I say I keep reading for the relationship between St-Cyr and Kohler, and I'm willing to overlook serious stylistic flaws in order to get my fix. This one is amongst several where the focus is on sexual crimes, prostitution, pornography and greed, described in graphic detail, lingering and salacious, predominantly from the perspective of male characters. Janes' women are Madonnas or Whores, victims or perpetrators, innocent or mendacious. However, Janes really knows how to conjure up the complexities of the Occupation and the way its circumstances play upon human nature, some people simply making the best of things and merely trying to survive, criminals and opportunists taking advantage where they can, exploiting for monetary gain, better food and clothing than rations allow, indulging tastes for art & jewelry, sexual pleasures, etc.

All of this is just a long-winded way of saying how much I love St-Cyr & Kohler and want to keep reading about their crime solving adventures in Occupied France as the war progresses. I've read this one out of order because it goes back several months to the summer of 1942, before the tide of war had turned against Hitler's Germany after the defeat at Stalingrad. Field Marshal Göring makes an appearance in a story involving looted art and the mutilation and murder of 14 young girls of similar age and appearance, lured by the promise of becoming mannequins (models).

As ever, with both detectives veterans of "that other war", there's a lot about the legacy of WWI, in particular in this novel about those poor unfortunates hideously wounded and left to cope with facial disfigurement, physical difficulties, horrified reactions from family and strangers, isolated, bitter, pitiable. It's unsettling though, I suppose, realistic that St-Cyr and Kohler refer to these poor men as "droollers".

As ever with Janes, the narrative is largely dialogue mixed with internal monologue, frequent pov switches and a LOT of detail. It's confusing but I just go with the flow, listening to the idiosyncratic delivery of the audio book's voice actor. Not much this time about the detectives' love lives, thankfully- Kohler has two live in lovers and St-Cyr is in a relationship of sorts with a beautiful chanteuse. Yes, it's all very male fantasy wish- fulfilment!

If you like pulpy fiction that's not remotely PC and are interested in German Occupied France, then the series has a lot to offer. If you can get past the quirky, confuddling writing style and graphic content.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one was just not for me. I found both the subject matter (a missing and exploited 18 year old girl) and the way it was handled really hard to take. I only made it a chapter in before calling it done.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one feels different as Kohler and St. Cyr seem to be hitting their stride as partners and an investigative team - very much prefer reading about it than possibly living it.

[Mimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.7, grim and didn’t love the writing

[Jonelle Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Janes' books all take place in occupied Paris, and feature the mismatched team of a French police inspector and his German minder, who forge an uncomfortable alliance based on their desire to catch criminals no matter which side they're on. Janes not only captures the details of what it was like to live in occupied Paris, he beautifully sketches the moral dilemmas good people on both sides faced while trying to survive in a political snakepit. I highly recommend any of his books, although warn that occasionally he paints scenes that will be uncomfortably seared into your memory forever.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still including disturbing sex-related crimes, but this novel in the St. Cyr and Kohler series, is much more a straight-ahead crimes are committed, go find the criminals story. It does have the usual notes of political overtones, and the heroes dancing on the head of a pin between trouble with their bosses and military officials, and seeing that justice is done for the victims. Set in WWII, with Kohler, the German detective, and St. Cyr , the French detective, they have the strong alliance of partners amid a world of trouble and chaos of crime during war time.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first in a series of books about a pair of policeman working together in Paris during WWII - one French and the other German. I like the two of them and like the way they work together so will read more of this series. However, the bad guys in this are pretty evil and so the situation is a bit tough to handle.

[Richard Boyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

i re -read this book its a super story