Synopsis: 'The story begins just before the occupation of the Channel Island of Jersey by the Nazis in 1940. Mass evacuation of the islands were occurring, but only a limited number of the inhabitants could be evacuated. Which leads us to Howard Carlisle, a wealthy citizen of the Island of Jersey, who out of pride, chose to stay behind instead of evacuating to England. However, he didn’t take into consideration his family members especially his young two year old son, Roddy, who was not of good health. Unfortunately Carlisle realized too late that the boy would most likely not survive the hardships of the occupation. Desperate to get Roddy on the ship to England, he made a deal with his brother-in-law, William ‘Willie’ Skinner, to swap his son Roddy with Skinner’s two year old son, George. To keep the swap under wraps, Roddy would take on the identity of George and George the identity of Roddy until the war ended and they could hopefully make the switch back.

Both Roddy and George survived and even worked closely with each other over the years until the early 1960s when both men turned up suspiciously dead. How both men died was unclear and a cold case was shelved away. Now we come to present day with Gideon Oliver receiving a request from Roddy’s son, Rafe, to inspect the supposed bones of his father to see if Oliver could get any insights into a crime that happened over fifty years ago. Of course, when Gideon comes on the scene, a whole can of worms is opened.'
Review: This was a very good Gideon mystery. I thought I knew 'who done it', but I was mistaken. The forensic information added to rather than slowed down the story, and the description of the Channel Islands makes me want to go there. ( )

Gideon Oliver has been one of my favorite characters for years and I always eagerly anticipate a new story. Switcheroo began with a rteally interesting look into what happened to the Channel Islands during World War II, focusing on a wealthy family who engineered the first "switcheroo" in order to save their sickly child from certain death under German rule. We soon learn that the two boys who were switched were also part of an unsolved murder from the 1960s. When Gideon meets the grandson of one of the switched boys, he agrees to visit the Channel Islands and examine bones that were recovered from a tar pit, supposedly belonging to one of the boys. Of course, Gideon discovers all sorts of family secrets and subterfuge, leading to what, unfortunately, was a conclusion I spotted chapters before the end. And that's my quibble. In a story where clever plotting abounds, the end was just...unremarkable. But, still, it's Gideon Oliver and Aaron Elkins, which always means an entertaining couple of hours. Just not the best in the series.... ( )

*I received this book from NetGalley in return for a fair review.*

My 22nd solo author book by Aaron Elkins (not counting the six I read that he wrote with his wife). And 18th Gideon Oliver book.

Characters
I'll start off by noting something that troubled me at the beginning. Well, the beginning of the Gideon section. This is a series that began some time around 1982. There is a seemingly big point made about how Gideon Oliver is 42 in this book. Reinforced when it is mentioned that his FBI buddy is only one year older. I have some vague idea that both were in that first book, but I could be mistaken.

Fellowship of Fear being that first book. That appeared 34 years ago. Which means that Gideon Oliver was 8 years old in this first book. 8. It is true that there are series wherein the character might age during the run of the series, but at an altered rate. A rate wherein the character, over a 30 year period, might age about . . . oh, 5, 10 years. I understand that fact. It is just . . . I kind of wanted to enter this specific book with an older man, distinguished, respected, experienced. By making him 42 instead of, say, 52 (which still wouldn't work with a series that has been out for 34 years, but still . . .), it kind of undercuts everything that came before.

I do not mean to harp on this specific issue. It just . . . bugged me. Somewhere along the way, though, I allowed myself to take the current series number, 18, divide it by half, and pretend that the series books are about 6 months apart chronologically. Meaning that only 9 years passed from first book to 18th book. Meaning, that 42 might actually work. With that out of the way, I moved past this age issue and continued. (One last point, and probably the real reason I went so long on this issue - I've been reading this series for 26 or so years. To find a guy who was a huge number of years older than me when I started the series, and who, suddenly, I find him to be roughly my own age . . . to find myself in this situation, was kind of horrifying, truthfully).

Right. Other than age, everyone who is a regular, Julie the wife, John the FBI friend, Gideon Oliver the skeleton detective, all operated within the parameters previously set for these series regulars. Nice and comfortbale, in its way. No one grew over the course of the book, no one expanded. Just . . . there. Like a comfortable rock.

The others were detailed enough for their roles. I kind of wonder what it might have been like if Elkins had written more stand alone novels, because some of these 'other' characters he created actually showed some rather neat deeper than expected characterization. Well, at least the ones who were in the beginning of the book.

Mystery/plot
To start with - the book opens in 1940 with some characters wandering around the English Channel Island of Jersey. Stressing, mightily, over the fact that 'Winnie' has given up the islands to the Germans. Winnie being Churchill. The troops have been removed. The islands are left for the Germans to swoop in and take if they want. And they do want.

Apparently the idea of removing civilians hadn't really been a consideration. Until it was. But in a really hurried way. Annoucement came, people had to decide basically immediately if they would leave the island. And one specific family found themselves in a tricky situation. One of the richest people on the island, a Howard Carlisle, if I recall correctly, felt it was his duty to stay his post. Until . . . he remembered his very sickly son. But he remembered too late. After efforts to get his family off the island after registration had closed, Carlisle turned to his brother-in-law. And made a deal. They'd swap kids. Skinner's kid was quite heathy, while his own was sickly. His own wouldn't last an occupation, while George, the Skinner kid, would. So swap.

Book then jumps five years later to 1945 when the Skinner family returned to Jersey island. Then time passed through several news articles, news articles mentioning some issues involving the Roddy Carlisle (that young sickly son) and George Skinner (and a third guy). Then mention of George's death. Then mention of Roddy's body being found. This being roughly 1964 or so.

Book then leaps forward to 2015 to Gideon Oliver and his wife Julie (and friend John) in Spain. As somewhat usual with these types of books, specifically meaning Oliver books, Gideon is at a conference. He is a student, though, and therefore very bored.

An old friend bumps into Gideon, they get to talking, and Rafe Carlisle invites Gideon to come to Jersey to look at some old bones. There is this murder mystery to be solved, a really old one. Gideon jumps at the chance.

And so, Gideon looks at some bones. Julie wanders the island playing tourist. John does . . . um . . . whatever it is John does (seemingly eat everything around him, since he is away from his wife).

The mystery is actually quite interesting. Difficult to mention completley without going into spoiler territory, but there are some things I can mention. In the 1960s, the Carlisle paving company was doing quite well. Then, suddenly, it was found out that some of this success was made through corruption. Plus, there's this embezzelment plot. Charges are going to be brought against two men. When, poof, one of the two men is dead. George Skinner. Suspicion turns to Roddy Carlisle and another man, a really smart fella with maths. Then, five years later, bones are found in the Carlisle tar pits. The police, at the time, decide that it's the two missing men.

This is the mystery Gideon is asked to look into. He goes into it after first noting that there might not be anything he can find out. He is just applying modern forensic science to some bones. Science that didn't exist in the '60s. As kind of expected, he finds more than he personally thought he would, and suddenly causes a chain of events to unfold and shock and aw all.

Overall
I'm rather glad I saw this book on NetGalley. While it is true that I have read every Gideon Oliver book Elkins has put out, and most of his other books as well, it is also true that I haven't exactly enjoyed many of the later Oliver books. And the most recent book I had read by Elkins, A Dangerous Talent, I only gave two stars to. Sure, that's not an Oliver book, but the last bunch of those I gave no more than 3 stars to.

So, again, I'm glad I saw this book on NetGalley. Because I probably would have figured I was done with Elkins. But I did see it on there. And so I took a chance on the book and am quite happy that I did. Because this is actually a rather good book. A four star (out of 5) book.

January 22 2016 ( )

Whether you like this book or not depends entirely on what style of mystery you like. If you like light fiction set in unusual locations, you might enjoy this book very much. If you prefer dense writing and a serious mystery then pass it over. For me this book is a travelogue with a story (not a mystery) inside.

The book opens in Málaga, Spain. I don't know why the book opens in Málaga, Spain, the segue to French, English (and briefly German) Isle of Jersey is very clunky. The working holiday travelogue continues around Jersey and provides lots of info on what to do if you happen to go there, including how to see marmosets, which is always an excellent thing to do.

We learn that the main square of Saint Helier town is not a square but a triangle "perhaps five hundred feet long and not much more than a hundred feet wide at its base, with shade trees and benches attractively spaced at regular intervals ." This level of excessive detail might allow you to go for a visit without buying a guide book. Charming but...

This book can be enjoyed like any light fiction. But as a mystery there is one detail that I count as a glaring error.

As you can imagine in a story about switched people, genetics plays a role in solving the mystery. One of the most important characters – Rafe Carlisle, the son of the man murdered 50 years ago – is fascinated by genetics and makes a serious hobby of it. Yet Mr. Carlisle does not recognize one of those fairly-well-known genetic quirks like tongue rolling. This quirk would certainly be known by anyone who studied genetics even at the amateur level and the whole progress of events would have been different if Mr. Carlisle had known what he would have known. Mr. Elkins should have chosen another hobby for this guy.

I received a review copy of "Switcheroo" by Aaron Elkins (Thomas and Mercer) through NetGalley.com. ( )

Good. Nothing exciting, but an excellent example of a Skeleton Detective story. Nice twist(s) on who did the crimes - though the one that got away turns out pretty slimy, if not an actual killer. Lots of Julie and John Lau, and Mike Clapper (I didn't remember him - I need to figure out which book he showed up in before, assuming that was a book). Very little actual forensics - one episode with some very fragmentary bones, and then everything else gets short-circuited. The initial chapters are a bit of a giveaway - why else mention all that? - but the twist there is revealed nicely late. And an interesting setting, on the Isle of Jersey. One slightly odd thing - there are very few descriptions of the main characters. Not something I miss - I can do without seeing "pleasantly battered face" yet again - but it struck me as odd that John gets a sketchy description, Gideon is _only_ described as being "one inch shorter" (than John) and not as massive, and I don't think Julie gets _any_ description. Rafe, Mike, Vickery, Abbot, etc. - the characters new to this book - get normal descriptions, but the continuing characters don't. Not a problem for me, they're all familiar to me, but someone starting the series with this book might feel a little lost, possibly without even knowing why. That aside - yeah, I'm glad I read it. It feels better - more a proper part of this series - to me than most of the recent Skeleton Detective books - I can't remember any of them well enough to say why, which says something about them. Looking forward to any others Elkins wants to write, too. I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. ( )