Strangers In Time

 

Strangers in Time by David Baldacci is a remarkable book in a way I did not expect from this author with whom I’m very familiar. This novel is at least the 20^th of his books that have been reviewed in the blog, and most of the reviews were by me. I’ve always thought Baldacci was a good author with occasionally very good books, but I’ve not put him in my list of 10 best authors in this genre of thrillers and murder mysteries. However, it’s my opinion that this specific novel deserves great recognition for the plot and character development.

 

It's another WWII novel, but this one takes place in London during the horrible Blitzkrieg which occurred from 9/1940 to 5/1941 resulting in the death of tens of thousands of civilians and devastating destruction. Baldacci used three protagonists, a 13-year-old boy named Charlie, a 15-year-old girl Molly, and a widower and bookkeep named Mr. Oliver.

 

Charlie was from great poverty. His father had been killed at Dunkirk, and his mother died shortly after that. He was left with his grandmother who was in poor health. They were dirt poor and were about to be evicted from their miserable apartment because the bakery where the grandmother’s worked had halved her salary because of the economic troubles of the time. Charlie had dropped out of school in order to find work to help support them, a fact that he hid from his caring grandmother.

 

In contrast Molly came from significant wealth and had been shipped out of London at the start of the war, before the Blitzkrieg. After some years away during which her rigorous education continued, Molly had a very protected life. When the funds for her living in the country stopped coming from her father, although her foster family was willing to continue to provide for her, she chose to return to London and be with her parents. She did not know that her mother had been placed in an asylum in Cornwall or that her father had disappeared six months earlier when he was under investigation for killing three British soldiers. Upon returning to her mansion, it was only the housekeeper, who had helped raise her since birth, provided her any help and companionship.

 

Mr. Oliver had inherited the book shop from his wife when his she, Imogene, committed suicide by jumping off a cliff and into the sea. Mr. Oliver and Charlie met as the result of Charlie and two friends robbing his shop, Circumstances of the war brought all of them together, and when Molly’s housekeeper was killed in continued bombing, it turned out they only had each other to depend on. They felt fortunate indeed to have found one another.

 

The horrors of the war and its negative effect on the populace was well described. Baldacci brought the several plots of the death of Mr. Oliver’s wife, the trauma that Molly’s mom had suffered, and the suspicious war activities of Mr. Oliver were all brought to a fitting conclusion. The characters in Baldacci’s book sprang to life in a most believable fashion. The relations that developed among the protagonists was emotional and real. Even though I have already read literally hundreds of WWII novels, and although I now try to avoid books in the WWII genre (been there done that), this one stands out and gets my highest recommendation.