THE BOY WHO SAW

AUTHOR: SIMON TOYNE.

BLURB:  A MURDER
An elderly tailor is found tortured and murdered in the ancient town of Cordes. Written in blood beside the body are the words: FINISHING WHAT WAS BEGUN.

A SECRET
But the dead man has left a cryptic message for his granddaughter and her son, Leo, one that puts them in immediate danger.

A RACE
They are forced to go on the run, accompanied by the enigmatic Solomon Creed. What began as small-town murder becomes a race to uncover a devastating secret dating from World War II. The few men who know the truth are being killed by a powerful organization, and only one man stands in its way.

Only Solomon Creed can stop the murders.
Only he can save the boy.

I Hate Spoilers and when I read a review with quotes from the novel or hints at elements of the story that I couldn’t glean from the book cover or blurb, it drives me nuts. That’s why I try hard not to add anything to my reviews that will inadvertently give the game away, as they say.

This is the second in a series of novels about the enigmatic figure that is Solomon Creed and, in my opinion, this outing is far superior to the previous novel. Good conscience insists that I confess that any novel set in France has already gained some points from me because of my love for the country, but putting that aside this story is much more relatable for me and less like a pitch for a Netflix/HBO TV series. Something the first novel in this series seemed to descend into at times.

Most writers and indeed most readers will agree that all stories, whatever the genre, are about the characters and in the end are about human (or in some cases humanlike) nature. It’s more often the interaction between characters that keeps me turning the page, as much as a need to see what happens next. The Boy Who Saw fulfils that need quite well in how it draws the picture of the real world worries and concerns that haunt the main players and how these facets of human experience impact on their thoughts and actions as they hurtle towards the novel’s conclusion.

I read fiction to escape and be entertained, but increasingly I expect to also be educated and made to give some thought to things that otherwise might escape me. The historical element of this novel made me realise how little I know about the complexity of the legacy of post-invasion countries (despite being intimately aware of what centuries of colonial rule can have on the psyche of a nation) and of how far into the future that legacy can stretch when it comes to forming the conscious or unconscious opinions of the people. Set in a very modern Europe where thoughts of inclusiveness and diversity were steering towards tolerance and inclusion in the aftermath of two world wars, this novel doesn’t shy away from the shift in viewpoint back towards the kind of xenophobic intolerance that we’ve seen so many times in the past.

But most of all this is a darn good thriller.