b a c k l i s t

On Pain of Death
A Sumach Mystery
by Jan Rehner

Bronze, IPPY Book Awards 2008 (Mystery/Suspense/Thriller)

Trapped in Paris during the German Occupation, Canadian Sorbonne student Juliette Benoit finds her life in tatters. She has had to abandon her Canadian identity for fear of arrest, her lover has disappeared without a trace, and a good Jewish friend has been taken away to Drancy, a German transit camp, leaving her little sister behind in Juliette's care. One step ahead of the Gestapo, Juliette obtains a new identity and joins an escape network of the French Resistance to bring the young girl out of France to safety. Meanwhile, in the village of St-Léger, Gabrielle Aubin's husband is wrongfully executed for the murder of a German soldier. Hoping to track down the true killer, Gabrielle joins the Resistance.

The two women's lives become inalterably intertwined when they discover each other while hiding out in a nunnery in Beaune. When they flee to the hills to work with a Resistance group in the Morvan forest, they find they share a common link to the past, a secret that eventually leads to a shocking revelation.

With consummate skill, Rehner keeps the reader wholly engaged as she interweaves the stories of the two through harrowing plot twists. Born of Rehner's intimate knowledge of the period and setting, On Pain of Death is redolent with rich historical detail. She vividly brings to life the harsh realities of life in France under the German Occupation, as well as the courageous achievements of those who fought in the lines of the Resistance.

Author's Note

Though the village of St-Léger-Vauban exists in the Morvan, the St-Léger of the novel is fictional. I have also taken liberties with two important historical dates. Pétain's notorious Milice were not established until 1943, though paramilitary groups resembling them did exist as early as 1940. Most significantly, the massacre in Dun-les-Places occurred on June 26, 1944, one year after the date established in the novel.

In 1949, the United Nations War Crimes Commission passed sentence on twenty-four men who took part in combined operations against members of the French Resistance movement, including the massacre in Dun-les-Places, and the burning and pillaging of the village. Twenty-two of the accused were found guilty, and two were acquitted for lack of evidence that they had personally perpetrated crimes. Twenty of the guilty were sentenced to death, two others to hard labour.

In 2005, I visited the memorial in Dun-les-Places, erected in front of the church where the victims were killed. Like Juliette, I could not make nature and history coincide there. It is a profoundly peaceful and beautiful place.

Hedgehog did exist. Her name was Marie Madeleine Fourcade. Her Alliance network, known as Noah's Ark by the Germans, had three thousand members over the course of the war, including some 500 women. Twice, she was arrested and escaped. The French government awarded Fourcade the Legion of Honour, the Resistance Medal with rosette and the Croix de Guerre.

About the Author   Jan Rehner teaches academic and professional writing at York University. She has travelled to France many times, and visited many local French Resistance museums. Her previous publications include poetry and academic works as well as her first mystery, Just Murder, which won the 2004 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel.

On Pain of Death

On Pain of Death

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Categories
  · Mystery Fiction
  · Historical Fiction

Points of Interest
  · French Resistance, German
    occupation of France
  · Detailed historical setting
  · Complex female protagonist

300 pages
6" x 9"
$18.95 paper
ISBN: 978-1-894549-66-0

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