Fellowship of Fear (Gideon Oliver Mystery, #1)

by Aaron Elkins

First in the Edgar Award-winning series "that never disappoints," featuring the forensic anthropologist known as the Skeleton Detective (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

When anthropology professor Gideon Oliver is offered a teaching fellowship at US military bases in Germany, Sicily, Spain, and Holland, he wastes no time accepting. Stimulating courses to teach, a decent stipend, all expenses paid, plenty of interesting European travel . . . What's not to like?

It does not take him long to find out. On his first night, he is forced to fend off two desperate, black-clad men who have invaded his Heidelberg hotel room with intent to kill. And then there are a few trivial details that the recruiting agency forgot to mention-such as the fact that the two previous holders of the fellowship both met with mysterious ends.

From there, it is all downhill. Gideon finds himself the target in an unfamiliar game for which no one has bothered to give him the rules. What he does have is his own considerable intellect and his remarkable forensic skills. He will need them, for he is playing for some fairly high stakes: the security of Western Europe.

Fellowship of Fear is the 1st book in the Gideon Oliver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

• ISBN10: 0446404020
• ISBN13: 9780446404020
• Publish Date: 1 May 1994 (first published 1 January 1982)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 21 June 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Mysterious Press
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Language: English

Reviews

[Mystereity Reviews]

DNF'ed this at 52%. I’m just not interested enough to finish it.

This one read more like a Da Vinci Code sort of espionage thriller, rather than a mystery. And while it wasn't a bad book, it's just not the sort of thing I enjoy reading. The book kicks off with Gideon "The Skeleton Detective" Oliver heading to Heidelberg, Germany to teach seminars at US/NATO bases in Europe. The first chapter was a nice "introduction" so to speak where Gideon meets his co-workers and learns that 2 previous people who held his Fellowship died or mysteriously disappeared. After that, the rest of the book (that I read) turned into a random spy thriller and Gideon gets attacked every couple of pages. There's no information or asides to tell you why this is happening and in the end, I didn't really care.

I did like "meeting" John Lau, as he was in the later book I read, Old Bones, and I like the guy, childish giggles notwithstanding and I enjoy the dynamic between Gideon and John Lau. "You don't have to call me Doc, my name is Gideon" "Ok, Gid!" "Ugh, why not just stick with Doc". Made me laugh, it seemed like such an organic exchange between 2 acquaintances.

I've read later books in the series and enjoyed them, and I've already started the second book in the series that's more of a mystery, so I'm just going to ignore that this book ever happened. So, if you like Da Vinci Code type thrillers, spy thrillers or action movies, you might get more out of this than I did.