Reviewed by Margot Kinberg (from our archives)
Margot
Kinberg is a mystery novelist and Associate Professor at National
University, Carlsbad, California. She was born in Pennsylvania, where
she graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She taught at the
University of Delaware and Knox College, then moved to California where
she lives with her husband, daughter and dogs. GOING FOR THE GOLD, Emma Lathen
Friday’s
Forgotten Books is such a wonderful opportunity to discover books that I
might otherwise never have heard of that I was pleased and honored when
Patti asked me to contribute.
Going for the Gold was written by
Emma Lathen, the pseudonym of Mary Jane Latsis and Martha Henissart, and
first published in 1981. It’s the 18th in the John Putnam Thatcher
series.
In the novel, the Sloan Guaranty Trust bank is selected
as the official bank of the 1980 Winter Olympic games in Lake Placid,
New York. So John Putnam Thatcher, who’s a vice-president for the Sloan,
is sent to Lake Placid to supervise the bank’s operations during the
games. Shortly after Thatcher
arrives at Lake Placid, Yves Bisson, a French ski jumper, is murdered
by a sniper’s bullet as he is making a jump. At first, everyone believes
that a terrorist has struck. But then, Roger Hathaway,
manager of one of the Sloan’s Lake Placid branches, reports that the
Sloan has lost half a million dollars to a counterfeit scheme. Thatcher
is able to put these two seemingly-unrelated events together when it’s
discovered that a traveler’s check that Bisson passed was counterfeit.
What’s worse is that Bisson’s not the only one who seems to have been
passing counterfeit traveler’s checks, and it’s not long before Thatcher
figures out that Bisson must have been involved somehow in a huge
swindling operation.
At this point, suspicion begins to fall on several of Bisson’s skiing teammates, the French team coach, and some fellow competitors, and their backgrounds and relationships to Bisson and to each other are carefully
scrutinized. While Thatcher is making sense of the counterfeit scheme,
another competitor, Tilly Lowengard, is disqualified from the Olympics
when it’s discovered that she made a ski run while under the influence
of a drug. She maintains her innocence, and before long, it’s clear that
she, too, is a victim of a ruthless killer. Just then, a blizzard
strikes, stranding everyone in Olympic Village – including the murderer.
Thatcher realizes he’ll have to act fast if he’s going to figure out
who’s been stealing money and covering up the theft with murder.
Going
for the Gold gets the reader involved very quickly. Bisson’s murder
shocks everyone and it’s easy to get caught up in the action as the
local police and the security staff at Olympic Village scramble to
protect the other competitors. The tension and suspense stay strong as
Thatcher carefully works
backwards through Bisson’s last few days to try to figure out how he
might have been involved in the counterfeit scandal and who might be
behind it. Adding to this is the reality that many competitors and
visitors to the games face when they realize that their traveler’s
checks are worthless and they’re temporarily stranded in Lake Placid.
There’s also the suspense and interest generated by the
inter-relationships among the competitors, especially as it’s discovered
that several of them are keeping secrets.
There are also several
interesting sub-plots in Going for the Gold. For example, there’s a
secret marriage, another budding romance, theft from the Olympic Village
food stores, and the struggles that everyone faces to deal with the
heavy snowfall. Those sub-plots are well-woven into the central plot, so
they aren’t distracting. They also add an interesting layer to the
characters.
Perhaps
the most gripping thing about the novel, though, is the snowstorm that
strikes during the investigation. The snowstorm traps everyone in
Olympic Village and adds to the sense of imminent danger. It also makes a fitting backdrop for the climactic scene in which the killer tries to strike one last time.
Besides
the suspense, Going for the Gold features interesting characters. Since
these are Olympic competitors, they come from several different
countries, and all of them seem to be there for different reasons. As
Thatcher finds out about their backgrounds, the reader gets to know
these competitors. Thatcher, too, is an interesting and likeable sleuth.
His background is in money and finance, but he’s also skilled at
dealing with people, and provides a calming presence amid the hysteria
that’s caused by the murder, the theft and the blizzard.
Banking has changed dramatically since this book was written, and so has bank security. So in some ways,
the novel is a little dated. There are also some dated references; for
instance, some of the competitors are from the Soviet Union. It doesn’t
suffer too much from that limitation, though. The interesting
characters, solid suspense, and nicely focused plot make this book worth
a read. No wonder that, almost thirty years after I first read it, I
still enjoy it.
