Synopsis

Forty years’ accumulation of art, antiques, and family photographs are more than just objects for Stanley Peke—they are proof of a life fully lived. A life he could have easily lost long ago.

When a con man steals his houseful of possessions in a sophisticated moving-day scam, Peke wanders helplessly through his empty New England home, inevitably reminded of another helpless time: decades in Peke’s past, a cold and threadbare Stanislaw Shmuel Pecoskowitz eked out a desperate existence in the war-torn Polish countryside, subsisting on scraps and dodging Nazi soldiers. Now, the seventy-two-year-old Peke—who survived, came to America, and succeeded—must summon his original grit and determination to track down the thieves, retrieve his things, and restore the life he made for himself.

Peke and his wife, Rose, trace the path of the thieves’ truck across America, to the wilds of Montana, and to an ultimate, chilling confrontation with not only the thieves but also with Peke’s brutal, unresolved past.

Review

The concept/plot for this book is great – a con man steals people’s possessions that are moving. However this time he messed with the wrong person, a 72 year old survivor from Germany.

The book is pretty well written, but there are times where it just seems to ramble on and there isn’t a clear picture of why the author chose that moment to flash back.

There are some surprises with Peke’s kids, one that I never suspected near the end, that’s for sure!

I would give this 3 1/2 paws.  I think there are some minor editing/rewriting that would improve the book but it is still enjoyable.

About the author

Jonathan Stone, author of the Julian Palmer novels, is a graduate of Yale University, where he was a Scholar of the House in Fiction Writing and twice won the English Department’s John Hubbard Curtis Prize for Best Imaginative Writing. He works in advertising and lives in Connecticut with his wife and two children.

Website * Goodreads