I began reading Eli's Promise Ronald H. Balson on September 16th, but had to put it aside to deal with a blog tour review that needed to be posted on September 20th and other pressing review commitments. When I finally got back to it, September was almost gone. I finished it on September 30. I was intended to be an advance reviewer, but Eli's Promise was released on September 22nd. So I apologize for my lateness. I received my copy from the publisher via Net Galley well in advance.
This is the third book that I've read by Ronald H. Balson. The first two were Karolina's Twins and The Girl From Berlin which are part of the Liam Taggart and Catherine Lockhart legal thriller series. I reviewed them both on Flying High Reviews. It's a blog devoted to strong female protagonists. You can find those Balson books reviewed here and here.
Eli's Promise is a stand alone dealing with the life of Eli Rosen during WWII and the 1960's. There are some wonderful female characters in this book, but the primary focus is on a male protagonist. That's why I decided to post my review on Shomeret: Masked Reviewer where I review any book that interests me.
I have a family that was badly impacted by the Holocaust and I took a course on the Holocaust at Jewish Theological Seminary. This isn't just a historical topic for me. I am reluctant to read any books dealing with the Holocaust, but I agreed to read this one in September when I shouldn't have. There was another book that I was committed to read in September that also contained the liberation of a camp after WWII. The other book was reviewed on Flying High Reviews. Between that novel's Holocaust content and Eli's Promise, I felt emotionally overwhelmed.
When I continued to read Eli's Promise at the end of the month, I experienced nausea. This is a sign that it's well-written. I felt what the characters were going through. I am also under stress in my personal life, and I was saying to myself "I don't need this," but I did commit to read it, so I finished the book. To say that these aren't ideal conditions for me to write a review would be an understatement. I am telling you this, so you understand my context when I say I wish I hadn't read Eli's Promise.
The villain of Eli's Promise is pursued by Eli since he and his family were betrayed by the villain during the Holocaust. Then the narrative is taken up again in the 1960's. At that point Eli was in law enforcement, but this was a very personal case for him.
There are two women that I want to mention in this review. They are Eli's wife, Esther, who wanted to leave Poland in 1939. Unfortunately, Eli wasn't as prescient as she was. The other was Mimi, a U.S. journalist in the 1960's. She agreed to cooperate with law enforcement after her best friend was killed, and risked her own life in the process. If it weren't for Mimi's courage, the case couldn't have been resolved, yet she did get an exclusive story out of it.
I do recommend this book to those who need to be educated about the Holocaust, and readers who want to be immersed in an intense dual period historical thriller.
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