Six stars
Simon Toyne is back with the next instalment of the Solomon Creed series, picking up where the last story ended, a major cliffhanger leaving readers guessing. With Arizona in his rearview mirror, Solomon Creed has made his way to France, wondering more about himself and trying to determine if the tailor who crafted the suit he wears might know something about his past. Just as he arrives at ‘Atelier Engel’, Josef Engel has been murdered. Creed’s presence in the region tied with him being a strangler, makes him a prime suspect. Creed befriends a young boy, Leo, and his mother, Marie-Claude, relatives of Engel, and they try to piece together the man’s past for themselves. It would appear that the Engel had a past in a Nazi concentration camp, but soon became a hero during the liberation movement. However, friends of his from the movement have also been found murdered, leaving many to wonder if the killer is targeting a certain group. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist has arrived in France, following Creed and trying to return him to his maximum security facility in Mexico. The reader learns much about Creed’s background, including his true identity and why his memory is so fragmented. As the chase across France continues. Creed learns more about events seven decades in the past and how they continue to shape current events. There is something about Creed and this suit that traces back to 1944, though that is impossible, right? Still, the additional fragments he discovers about himself does not serve to complete Creed’s self-discovery, which has some startling revelations by the closing pages of this follow-up novel. Toyne offers this drawn-out second novel in the series, sure to fill some gaps for the reader. While there will be a number who enjoy the path of discovery Solomon Creed undertakes, others will be just as lost and wonder if the invested reading time could have been better spent elsewhere.
After being enthralled by Toyne’s previous series, I approached the first Solomon Creed novel with much excitement. However, things became too slow to develop and I could only hope that new series jitters kept Toyne from being on his game. However, I surmise I am just not in sync with the series, as I cannot grasp onto the story, the characters, or the overall presentation of the plot. The characters do present a number of interesting personalities, specifically Solomon Creed, whose life remains as solid as a puff of smoke. Slowly trying to grasp for pieces of himself, the reader sees slow realisations about the man. It is through the revelations of his psychiatrist that the reader garners the most information, which floods out in one giant narrative in the middle of the novel. Working on some of the other characters, Toyne reveals much, particularly about the Nazi treatment of prisoners and the Movement to quash them in the latter portion of the Second World War. While there are interesting characters who grace the pages of this novel, I felt little attachment to them, which fuelled my sense of disinterest with portion of the book. The story itself lacked much motivation for me, as I found myself stuck in the middle of the developing narrative, feeling a sense of swimming in treacle (the second such book in two days), and I pleaded to get to the end. The chase to keep Creed one step ahead of the authorities and the killer’s eventually discovery did little for me. Some will enjoy this approach, as well as the ever-revealed Jewish aspects of the story that date back to the 1940s. Toyne’s ability to write should not be lost on the reader, nor is his ability to spin an interesting tale, but I just cannot find myself enthralled with this novel.
Thank you, Mr. Toyne, for this second attempt at Solomon Creed. While your ‘boy’ can see, I seem to be blind to much of the novel’s development. Perhaps I’ll stay away and let your other fans revel in the series.
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/248185-a-book-for-all-seasons
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