5.0 out of 5 stars
Redefines the Meaning of Collaboration!, Jan 25 2012
This review is from: Collaborators (Paperback)
This story is not your typical complex murder investigation made famous by the dynamic detective duo of Dalziel and Pascoe. Instead, Hill has composed a novel that operates outside his normal cultural boundaries of English bourgeois society. The subject is about life in France during WW II and the many complications and conflicts arising from which side people chose to identify with: the Nazis, Free-France, Vichy, or the Marquis. This novel has plenty of unique relationships that are made and unmade as the fortunes of war change. Janine, the main character, is someone whose fierce loyalty to country and family makes her very vulnerable to emotional coercion by the other side. But she is not the only one who is prone to switch sides if the opportunity arises. Charged after the war with collaborating with the enemy, Janine is portrayed as a traitor who is directly complicit in her husband's death at the hands of the Gestapo. Only for the last-minute, revealing testimony of one of her friends and protectors inside the Abwehr, Janine would certainly have been convicted and executed. It seems like many of her compatriots have their moments of weakness too when it comes to betrayal and dissimulation. All her accusers are basically hypocrites that act as effective foils that define how truly decent she is given the circumstances. Everyone has their price for staying alive, and Janine's is keeping her children alive under very perilous circumstances. 'The Collaborators' is a five year, action-packed drama filled with plenty of uncertain adventure, tantalizing suspense, heart-breaking tragedy, and moments of awful truth. Hill does a reasonable job in connecting his readers with the challenges of living in big-city as well as small-town France.
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