Fellowship of Fear Audiobook By Aaron Elkins cover art

Fellowship of Fear

Gideon Oliver Mysteries Series, Book 1

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Fellowship of Fear

By: Aaron Elkins
Narrated by: Joel Richards
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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 Crime Thrillers Espionage International Mystery & Crime Mystery Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense Forensic Anthropology
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This is more spy novel than mystery novel
I read Book 4 sometime ago and the series gets better.

Solid Cold War spy novel

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

old but good

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

Great book. mediocre narration

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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.

Good OLD read...

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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.

Meeting a new sort of murder mystery

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Not a great story but probably good enough to introduce the series. I thought the resolution was a little too Holmesian, in that some clues were ridiculously arcane and were withheld to the last minute. And I suspect that Gideon’s convenient range of esoteric knowledge goes beyond that of most 40-something anthropology professors. Holmes after all was a polymath while Gideon is a more specialized anthropologist. Still, there was enough adventure for me to want to try book two if it were also free. Alas it is not, and I won’t risk a credit on it.

So-so story, good narrator, 3-1/2 stars

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I listened to this book with my husband and almost-adult son as we headed toward a vacation. There were times I had to turn it off because it was just so bad -- particularly the sex scenes. I was intrigued because it's a long series and one of the books won an award... but the author clearly must have improved a LOT after this book. Flat characters, flimsy plot. Also, the book expresses attitudes toward feminism and women that just made me wince... when I went back and found it had been written in 1982, I understood. Consider it a 1982 period piece.

Painful

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