Aaron Elkins

• Born: July 24, 1935
• Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York

TYPES OF PLOT: Amateur sleuth; cozy

PRINCIPAL SERIES: Gideon Oliver, 1982-; Chris Norgren, 1987-; Lee Ofsted, 1989-

Contribution

Aaron Elkins published his first book, Fellowship of Fear, a Gideon Oliver mystery, in 1982. His main character, Gideon Oliver, is a witty and sensitive forensic anthropologist who, at the beginning of the series, is recovering from the death of his wife from cancer. As the series progresses, he meets, falls in love, and marries Julie Tendler. Gideon applies his forensic skills to murder victims, following up the clues that he finds in their bones.

The Gideon Oliver novels exemplify a popular subgenre of mystery: the amateur sleuth whose adventures are neither bloodless nor graphically gruesome and who introduces readers to worlds ordinarily closed to them. Elkins and his wife, Charlotte, have traveled all over the world, and the settings of these novels are realistic, informative, and romantic. Information about forensic anthropology is knit seamlessly into the action.

The Chris Norgren series gives readers a look at the antiques business while the protagonist tracks down killers within the art world. Chris is less developed as a character than Gideon, but his adventures and knowledge are intriguing, especially for readers interested in art. The Lee Ofsted series, created by Elkins with his wife, features light but pleasant mysteries connected with golf; this series is closest to the cozy subgenre. Elkins’s nonseries mysteries are tightly structured thrillers with fast-paced action and sympathetic characters.

Elkins’s novels are appealing to the mystery reader for several reasons. His novels are a pleasing mixture of hard-boiled and cozy mystery. The plots are highly satisfying, with unpredictable but persuasive conclusions. In addition, the main characters, particularly Gideon, are psychologically convincing and likable. Gideon is a multilayered character with a believable background that gains depth with each novel. Other forensic anthropologists have joined Gideon on the mystery scene, but Gideon presents a perfect level of forensic detail—not so much science that readers are bored or so little that they are mystified about the importance of clues. The Oliver mysteries contain enough information to enlighten and teach the reader, but the information is presented as an organic part of the narrative. Similarly, the golf and antique novels present an insider’s view but do not overload the reader with information. The lively dialogue and glints of humor add to the attractiveness of Elkins’s work.

Biography

Aaron J. Elkins was born July 24, 1935, in Brooklyn, New York, to Irving Abraham Elkins and Jennie Katz Elkins. He was raised in New York and received his bachelor’s degree from Hunter College in 1956, becoming one of the first men to attend what had been a women’s college. His graduate degrees include a master’s degree from the University of Arizona (1960), a second master’s degree from California State University (1962), and a doctorate in education from the University of California at Berkeley (1976). He married Toby Siev in 1959, and they had two children. The marriage ended in divorce, and he married Charlotte Trangmar in 1972. A writer, she has collaborated with Elkins on the novels in his Lee Ofsted series.

Elkins has had many varied careers, from personnel analyst for Los Angeles County to university professor. He has taught at several universities, including the University of Maryland, Santa Ana College, California State University, and Golden Gate University, and has lectured in various fields, including anthropology, psychology, and business. He said he got the idea for Gideon Oliver, the “skeleton detective” who features in his most extensive series, during a class he was teaching in anthropology.

Elkins’s work has won important awards, including the 1988 Edgar Award for the novel Old Bones (1987); the 1993 Agatha Award for the best short story for “Nice Gorilla,” written with his wife, Charlotte Elkins; and the 1994 Nero Wolfe Award for the novel Old Scores (1993).

Analysis

Aaron Elkins began with Gideon Oliver and kept returning to this highly appealing figure. Gideon’s wit, composure, and fundamental values make him someone the reader is glad to meet again.

Place is a major component of Elkins’s novels, revealing the author’s eye for details of culture and place, developed in his travels around the world. Unlike many series novels, no sense of sameness develops in his books—the locations are so different, and the plots involve such a variety of issues and populations that each adventure seems fresh and new. Most series mysteries have a repeated location—a city, perhaps, or a small town—and this may contribute to the sense of familiarity characteristic of the cozy mystery. Although Elkins’s novels have several continuing characters, the action is spread worldwide.

Although Elkins wrote three series, his novels are all different. Although characters develop within a series, his writing does not exhibit a definite evolution over time. In each novel, Elkins emphasizes plot, character, and setting. The plots are often tours de force; the conclusion is so logical when revealed, yet it cannot be discerned earlier. His mysteries are not the classic type that drops clues to the point where the clever reader concludes almost simultaneously with the detective. The plots communicate a sense of the expansiveness and unpredictability of the world—and yet the concluding events fit and satisfy. If there is a difference between the earliest and the latest Elkins books, it might be that the humor is more prevalent and more pronounced in the later works. Also, the setting is more fully developed in the later novels, which sometimes have more exotic backgrounds.

Elkins’s frequent theme is the complex interaction between good and evil and the impossibility of separating them completely. Characters are often as morally ambiguous as people tend to be in real life. Heinous acts are committed out of misplaced idealism; good may be done by accident. Another theme is that actions always have consequences and that it is possible to trace the chain of cause and effect back to its root cause, which may be something larger than an individual’s desire for revenge or profit. One of the draws of the books is that the story often fits into some larger context.

The romance element tends to be quietly satisfying in Elkins’s novels; in the Gideon Oliver books, his falling in love with Julie and marrying her, and her consequent participation in his adventures are part of the background and do not distract from the main action. Elkins’s novels often demonstrate the maxim that “old sins have long shadows,” but without the total bleakness and sense of fatality that looms over the hard-boiled detective novel.

The Dark Place

The Dark Place (1983) is one of Gideon Oliver's earlier adventures. Gideon is not yet married to Julie Tendler, the chief park ranger. The story occurs in Washington’s Olympic National Park, where hikers have been disappearing. When bones are found, Gideon finds that superhuman strength has been responsible for a young man’s death—and his public pronouncement of this finding brings forth all the Bigfoot hunters. The scientific community threatens to discredit him.

This novel involves lost tribes—and cites the case of Ishi, a lost-tribe survivor whose appearance in the early twentieth century caused much public discovery and allowed some major research. The case of Ishi has been well-researched and adds a historical dimension to the fiction. The conclusion is satisfying and surprising, and the story is also a chapter in the romance of Gideon and Julie, who are looking forward to their future together at its end.

One of Elkins’s main themes is the ambiguity of good and evil. This trait alone separates his works from the cozies, which usually provide a scapegoat villain whose removal will purge society and leave it healthy. Good and evil are inextricably bound in the Elkins novels, including this one, as they are in reality—the conclusion can be only partially a rebirth.

Old Bones

Old Bones, the winner of the 1988 Edgar Award for the best mystery novel, links present and past in a multilayered tale of family deceit and violence. Set in France, it begins with the drowning of Resistance hero Guillaume de Rocher, who had called his family together at his home to discuss an important but unidentified issue. Shortly thereafter, some bones are discovered in the basement of the de Rocher residence, and Gideon Oliver is called in to examine them. He finds the bones are from the World War II era, and it is believed that they were from a young man who also had a connection with the Resistance. More and more information turns up, leading to an old story of treachery and Nazi collaboration, which is linked to a murder in the present.

This novel has a complicated plot with many turns and red herrings; the outcome is satisfying if not totally surprising. The war in France, with its maze of loyalties and fears, betrayals and vengeance, is clearly one of Elkins’s strong interests, as it is handled differently but equally effectively in Turncoat (2002).

Turncoat

Turncoat, one of Elkins’s nonseries mystery novels, is a richly textured thriller with a background in World War II, like Old Bones. The story begins on the day President John F. Kennedy was killed, November 22, 1963, when the father of Lily, Pete Simon’s French wife, turns up and is turned away rudely by his daughter. Shortly afterward, Lily’s father is killed, and Lily disappears. To understand what happened, Pete pursues several leads about his wife's and her father's past. He finds himself in Europe investigating the Nazi horrors and the confusing aftermath of the war in France when Resistance fighters try to ferret out Nazi collaborators and punish them. Some collaborators fled to Spain, where Pete must go in search of the truth of this complex matter. The involvement of his wife’s family in the war must be clarified before the tension can begin to be resolved and the villains and victims can be determined.

Turncoat intersperses tension with humor in an entertaining fashion; however, it also educates the reader about the aftermath of the war. Few modern readers know about the confusion that followed the war and the pursuit of collaborators that lasted until the amnesty in the 1950s pardoned all but the most involved and ruthless collaborators. Moreover, the accounts of what it meant to be a collaborator or a member of the Resistance help sweep away stereotypes and oversimplifications.

Good Blood

In Good Blood (2004), Gideon Oliver and his wife, Julie, visit an island in Lake Maggiore, Italy, owned by the family of their good friend Phil. The action in this novel occurs partly in the town of Stresa and partly on the family island, where things have remained the same for a long time. When the padrone’s son Achille is kidnapped, and some old bones are found by a construction team, Gideon must uncover the sins of the past that have led to the current situation. This novel's setting is powerfully depicted, and the Italian family structure is precisely sketched. The vivid snapshots of Stresa and the Lake Maggiori islands are interspersed with hard-hitting and tense action. Elkins’s typical mixture of humor and drama permeate the story as Gideon follows his investigations to their conclusion. Once again, good and evil are intertwined, so there is no scapegoat but rather a realistic conclusion.

Additional works

Gideon Oliver's story is told in eighteen novels, ending with Skull Duggery (2009), Dying on the Vine (2012), and Switcheroo (2016). Aaron wrote two series with his wife, Charlotte Elkins. The Lee Ofsted series consists of five novels, including A Wicked Slice (1989), Where Have All the Birdies Gone? (2004), and On the Fringe (2005). The Alix London series consists of four novels, including A Dangerous Talent (2012), The Art Whisperer (2014), and The Trouble with Mirrors (2016).

Principal Series Characters:

• Gideon Oliver, a forensic anthropologist, uses his talents to solve murders. The first novels in the series show his struggle with grief over his first wife’s death and his meeting with Julie Tendler, who becomes his second wife and companion for the later adventures.
• Chris Norgren, a young antiques expert and curator of Renaissance art at the Seattle Art Museum, applies his knowledge to crimes within the antiques world.
• Lee Ofsted, a professional golfer, stumbles over mysteries while working on improving her game and participating in competitions. Her adventures and investigations provide an insider’s view of the golf world.

Bibliography

"Aaron Elkins." Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/author/show/157986.Aaron‗Elkins. Accessed 20 July 2024.

Brunsdale, Mitzi M. Gumshoes: A Dictionary of Fictional Detectives. Greenwood Press, 2006.

Elkins, Aaron. “Douglas Owsley.” Smithsonian, vol. 36, no. 8, Nov. 2005, pp. 105-06.

Elkins, Aaron. “Have Contract, Will Travel.” The Armchair Detective, vol. 27, no. 2, 1995, pp. 200-05.

Genge, Ngaire. The Forensic Casebook: The Science of Crime Scene Investigation. Ballantine Books, 2002.

Pederson, Jay P., editor. St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers. St. James Press, 1996.

Schulze, Sydney. “Gideon Oliver: Skeleton Detective of America.” Clues, vol. 13, no. 1, 1992, pp. 81-89.

"The Gideon Oliver Series." Aaron Elkins, www.aaronelkins.com/the-gideon-oliver-series.html. Accessed 20 July 2024.