The Traitor's Emblem

Llevo escuchando a Juan Gomez-Jurado en podcasts bastantes anios, pero nunca habia leido nada de el antes.
La formula del thriller la tiene, pero el libro es mas bien... malillo, la verdad. Los personajes son tremendamente planos, muy poco creibles. Se asemeja al peor Follett, y de este ya estoy un poco cansado. Le dare una oportunidad a Reina Roja en algun momento, pero dudo que se convierta en un autor habitual para mi.

THE TRAITOR’S EMBLEM begins in the Straits of Gibraltar in March, 1940. In the midst of a terrible storm, the crew of the Spanish naval vessel, Esperanza, rescues four German sailors from a life boat. The rescue could have cost Captain Manuel Gonzalez Pereira his life but he couldn’t leave the Germans to die. Agreeing to alter his course, Captain Gonzalez takes the Germans to a point near the coast of Portugal. As a token of his gratitude, the German officer, a man with one eye, leading the group gives Gonzalez a gift, a medal made of solid gold. The German puts his finger on his chest and says “verrat” – treachery . Then he puts his finger on Gonzalez’s chest and says “rettung” – salvation. Then he and his three show more compatriots disappear.

Gonzalez retires from the sea and when he can spare time from his bookstore, he researches the medal he was given in 1940. “It was a double-headed eagle set on an iron cross. The eagle was holding a sword, and there was a number 32 above its head and an enormous diamond encrusted in its chest.” Gonzalez learns that it is a German Masonic emblem but the Germans did not use “noble” metals such as gold, silver, or platinum so its origins are mysterious.

When Gonzalez died, his son, Juan-Carlos, inherited the shop and the mysterious medal. In 2002, an old man came to the shop to give a talk about his book on Freemasonry. No one came and to make his guest more comfortable, Juan-Carlos showed the man the picture of the medal. The old man began to haunt the shop and Juan-Carlos. He offered to buy it, he begged and pleaded. Juan-Carlos agreed but only after the old man told him the story of the strange Traitor’s Emblem.

From 2002, the story goes back to 1919 and the terrible years between the end of World War I and the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. Set primarily in Munich, it is the story of Paul Reiner, his hunt for the true story behind the death of his father, his relationship with his cousin, Jurgen, and his interest and membership in the Masonic Society.

The story deserves to be read and enjoyed on its own merits; to tell more is to tell too much. What can be said without intruding on the story is that the author creates an atmosphere in the book that engulfs the reader as it does the characters in the story. Paul Reiner is a sympathetic character. His cousin, Jurgen, becomes a willing participant in the nascent SA, a bully who wants to damage and corrupt. Jurgen’s internal corruption is such that he is part of the inner circle of Reinhard Heydrich and Adolph Eichmann. When asked to infiltrate Masonic Lodges to uncover yet another Jewish conspiracy, Jurgen is more than willing. He knows Paul is a member of the Masons. Paul isn’t Jewish but Jurgen is not unwilling to use whatever he can to get rid of the cousin he hates.

Until researching some of the information in the book, I did not know that the Masons had been another victim of Nazi paranoia. As a secret society, it could not continue to exist in Germany. Members who had achieved high degrees in the society were suspected of being Jews or hiding Jews. The author provides a great deal of information about Masonic rituals and the handshakes. I do not know if this is material from the Masons or the fruit of the author’s imagination. I prefer not to know; either way is intriguing.

In the Author’s Notes, Gomez-Jurado provides this information – “The Masons were the object of persecution during the Nazi dictatorship in Germany: more than eighty thousand of them died in the concentration camps. An ancient Masonic legend claims that the fall of all the lodges was the fault of one single Mason who sold all the others out to the Nazis.”

Children reported their parents for listening to the BBC. Neighbors turned neighbors into the Gestapo for infractions that would have been impossible to prove but led to the deaths of the accused anyway. If the Masons were destroyed by one person, it would not have been unusual in that time and in that place.

I reviewed Gomez-Jurado’s THE MOSES EXPEDITION. That book and THE TRAITOR’S EMBLEM do not seem to have been written by the same person. Two absolutely different stories written in two absolutely different voices is an accomplishment that can only be achieved by a very talented author. show less

Gomez-Jurado brings us a ripping good yarn that thrusts in the streets of Munich as Hitler and the Nazis come to power. Lines are drawn and crossed, not just by tradesmen and racial divisions, but in families and lies their feuds uncover.

We are introduced to a less familiar field than many have discovered previously. As well documented as the crimes of terror imposed on Jews, homosexuals and the mentally impaired, less was known, or at least to me anyway, about the Nazi’s pursuits of the Free Masons.

The emblem that is in the title of this spell-binding thriller is a Masonic one, and it is the one connection that fifteen-year-old Paul Reiner has with the father he never knew. Was he the traitor he had been led to believe sold out the show more Masons to Hitler?

The night Paul’s war-wounded, veteran cousin commits suicide, the secret of what really happened to Paul’s father is revealed and Paul and his mother find themselves cast out from the nobility that have known to become street urchins on the run from the wrath of the family that never quite accepted them in the first place.

As war in Europe threatens again, Paul grows in to a young man in the school of hard-knocks. He strikes back at his reluctant family to avenge both his parents' death, impersonates an SS officer in a bold move to release his true love, Alys, from the clutches of Dachau and as he reunites with the family he never knew he had, he faces the inevitable conclusion that he has spent his whole adult life searching for his father’s real murderer and the reason he was killed, a map detailing the treasure that awaits them in the Dark Continent.

With Nazis at their heels they must get out of pre-war Germany and to a neutral country such as Portugal. Perhaps they can survive but as the war reaches South Africa and touches them they will need more than good luck to survive, they’ll need diamonds. show less

Gomez-Jurado brings us a ripping good yarn that thrusts in the streets of Munich as Hitler and the Nazis come to power. Lines are drawn and crossed, not just by tradesmen and racial divisions, but in families and lies their feuds uncover.

We are introduced to a less familiar field than many have discovered previously. As well documented as the crimes of terror imposed on Jews, homosexuals and the mentally impaired, less was known, or at least to me anyway, about the Nazi’s pursuits of the Free Masons.

The emblem that is in the title of this spell-binding thriller is a Masonic one, and it is the one connection that fifteen-year-old Paul Reiner has with the father he never knew. Was he the traitor he had been led to believe sold out the show more Masons to Hitler?

The night Paul’s war-wounded, veteran cousin commits suicide, the secret of what really happened to Paul’s father is revealed and Paul and his mother find themselves cast out from the nobility that have known to become street urchins on the run from the wrath of the family that never quite accepted them in the first place.

As war in Europe threatens again, Paul grows in to a young man in the school of hard-knocks. He strikes back at his reluctant family to avenge both his parents' death, impersonates an SS officer in a bold move to release his true love, Alys, from the clutches of Dachau and as he reunites with the family he never knew he had, he faces the inevitable conclusion that he has spent his whole adult life searching for his father’s real murderer and the reason he was killed, a map detailing the treasure that awaits them in the Dark Continent.

With Nazis at their heels they must get out of pre-war Germany and to a neutral country such as Portugal. Perhaps they can survive but as the war reaches South Africa and touches them they will need more than good luck to survive, they’ll need diamonds. show less

I was happily surprised with "El Emblema del Traidor". Mot of the books in Spanish I had read lately were hopelessly overwritten and with not so credible stories. This is definitely not the case with "El Emblema del Traidor". The only thing I could have dispensed with were the obvious romance cliches that litter the relationship between the two protagonists. On the positive side, it was nice to see that the female protagonist was basically credible, and her feminist achievements were not miraculous, but dictated by life circumstances and personal choices.

The Traitor's Emblem recounts the tale of Paul Reiner, a man searching for his father's murderer in Germany between the two world wars, an adventure that eventually reveals buried family secrets, leads to a betrayal by a brother, and the discovery of buried treasure. In the course of the novel, Paul finds himself making similar mistakes as his father made, although his fate is ultimately different. The historical setting of Nazi Germany also heightens the drama by including several Jewish characters who struggle to adapt their lives to the new regime.

Spanish journalist turned author Juan Gomez-Jurado is going places, winner of the impressive sounding 'Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja' (even more impressive when you learn the prize was a half million US$), the rights to his first book (God's Spy) have been sold in 42 countries, his first two books claim 3 million readers and his third and latest 'The Traitors Emblem' is being translated into 40 languages.
'Traitors Emblem' is set in post world war one Germany against the background of poverty and misery when a bucketfull of D-Marks would not buy you a bread roll and continuing through the later rise of Hitler's Brownshirt and Blackshirt bully boys as fascism started to take hold of every facet of everyday German life. Mr show more Gomez-Jurado does pick up on the prevailing atsmosphere of fear for both Jews and non Jews. He has also done some pretty detailed research on German Masonry as Freemasonry and it's persecution is also one of the central themes.
Other reviewers have given an idea of the story, suffice to say the plot is fairly credible, some twists you see coming and some you don't. The story is dark in places, sons paying for the sins of their fathers and sinning themselves, some quite graphic violence but it is a page turner that keeps you immersed, the characters are well developed, the style is good but I do wonder if it has lost a fraction in translation. Solid four star reading and I will look out for his other titles. show less