Fellowship of Fear

Gideon Oliver Mysteries Series, Book 1

By: Aaron Elkins

Narrated by: Joel Richards

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.

©1982 Aaron Elkins (P)2019 Tantor

Great book. mediocre narration

Loved the story and characters but the narration was almost lifeless. I hope the next in the series is better.

Good OLD read...

Since the book was written in 1982 it has some unacceptable derogatory racial comments from an NSA manager. Could have been edited out since audiobook was recorded in 2019. Slow moving compared to present day stories...but then it was the 80's wasn't it? Good story and willing to listen to book 2 in the series.

Meeting a new sort of murder mystery

We get to meet Anthropology professor Gideon Oliver.
He seems to get into and out of a lot of trouble.
It is a different sort of mystery.
I like that he has different sort of resources to use to get out of trouble.
I find him intriguing.
I am hooked,
I cannot wait to see what happens in the next book.

old but good

This book is a little dated. Then again, that's part of the pleasure of reading it.

Solid Cold War spy novel

This is more spy novel than mystery novel
I read Book 4 sometime ago and the series gets better.