I came to this book with an expectation that I would enjoy it (which I did, eventually) and that I had already read it (which I hadn't). I now realize that I must have read at least one of Maling's Brock Potter books. The Rheingold Route is a stand-alone.

fter reading the first couple of chapters, I put the book aside. It may have been simply "where my head was at," but I wasn't very interested in a story that seemed to be all about criminals and their ways of double-crossing each other.

But, since I'd committed to reading all the Edgar winners in this category, I went back to it. As the book goes on, the protagonist, John Cochran, a currency smuggler, is shown to be a much more sympathetic character than I'd found him at first. His opponents display their character flaws, which will trip them up in the end.

One thing I especially enjoyed about this book was the way Maling used changing points-of-view to build suspense and move the story along. This is not a new technique and in fact was used by both Forsyth and Follett in their own Edgar winners, which I read recently. In The Rheingold Route we don't get a law enforcement viewpoint, but we do get a couple of chapters told from the POV of an innocent bystander who is caught up in the actions of the villainous O'Rourke. I thought Maling did a particularly nice job with the various feelings this character experienced during the course of his "adventure."

I also appreciated how Maling essentially let the reader figure out what was going on (why the person who had hired Cochran also hired his pursuer) without explaining every detail. Eventually the protagonist has a conjecture about the motive, but the important thing is the chase.

Cochran (not his real name) is a character with a complicated past that has brought him from being a U.S. Treasury agent to a life as a currency smuggler with a false passport. He's a man who has made bad choices for good reasons, and who has known great sorrow as a consequence. At the end of the book, all is not neatly tied up with a fancy ribbon, but Cochran can se possibilities for a better future.

For an international thriller that focuses, not on the fate of nations, but simply on money and the ways it is used, misused, and moved around, I don't think you can do better than The Rheingold Route. ( )

The Rheingold Route refers to a travel path followed by individuals attempting to smuggle British Pounds out of the country to Switzerland. Early in the novel, John Cochrane is hired to take this route in order to get his client's inheritance out of the country. While he works regularly as a "courier," he feels forced into this job. As a lonely American stranded in London (for reasons we learn along the way), he does what he must to get by. The reader quickly realizes that this job is not what it seems, but John is left in the dark and must fend off the ulterior motives of others.

I have to say that The Rheingold Route is my favorite of the three Edgar Winners I've read so far. I enjoyed the characters and the structure of the story. It felt contemporary and could easily have been written in the last few years rather than in 1979. While I wasn't sure how the story would end or who would outsmart who, there was a sense of hope that I liked. I was rooting for John Cochrane even though some of his actions were suspect. He was a complicated but likable character that I hoped would win out in the end. If you're looking for some older mystery fiction to read, I would definitely recommend The Rheingold Route.

http://iubookgirl.blogspot.com/2011/03/review-rheingold-route.html