It all begins when pianist Erin Meyer receives a mysterious box from her grandmother’s estate six months after Lillian Lockhart dies. Inside is a set of 11 beautifully fashioned figurines—11 women of different countries and diverse cultures—and a letter explaining that Lillian had gone to France, searching for her younger sister, Erin, who disappeared there during World War II and had purchased the figurines from the aunt of an executed German officer. There is also a warning that the figurines are dangerous and to “expend” them only in the direst circumstances. Also in the box are two newspaper clippings: one of the development of the Salk polio vaccine and the other of the Apollo 11 moon landing but no explanation accompanies them. When she touches the figurines, however, Erin hears music, feels astonishing emotion, and promises herself never to part with them.
Calling in an antiquities expert, Erin meets with Arick Ambrose to have the figurines evaluated. Ambrose is tall, handsome, and enthused about the little statues, and Erin has the nagging feeling she knows him from somewhere though she’s certain they’ve never met. There’s also a sense of tremendous emotion and loss that she associates with him. Then, Arick picks up the Gypsy figurine. He also hears the music. The Gypsy falls from his hand, and…
…Erin is swept away to France, and a world at war, where the set of figurines is complete, and she and a small family of ex patriate Americans are more or less the prisoner of a German officer who forces her to play piano concerts for his guests each night. Confused, trying to understand where she is and why, and how the figurines figure into the story, with memories of her life overlapping those of the woman whose existence she has taken over, Erin witnesses a night bombing of the area by British Mustangs. One is shot down and Erin and her driver rescue the pilot. The wounded man looks like Arick Ambrose but he doesn’t recognize her…not at first.
Now, she and the others are truly in danger as they hide Arick and nurse him back to health, while he and Erin feel and remember the attraction reaching from the future into the past, and the magic of the figurines winds itself around them. Eventually, Erin will relinquish her musical masterpiece to save the man she loves…
… and that same love, spanning decades will hinge on six words: “Remember me when you play Soliloquy…”
MY OPINION: Soliloquy is a haunting story of love in the past and the present and the question is: Which influences the other? It’s also the narrative of a world at war and a country held captive by invaders. This tale brings out facts not usually thought about when considering the War in France, namely, what happened to the Americans living there, who couldn’t or wouldn’t leave when the occupation began because they had jobs, homes, and families?
The characters are well-written and precise, and the tension and danger acutely defined as the downed pilot is hidden by the Americans, and Erin and Arick fall in love (again). One might say there are two endings to this story, one bittersweet and one triumphant; both are guaranteed to tug at your heart.
Soliloquy is available from The Wild Rose Press, www.thewildrosepress.com
This novel was supplied by the author and no remuneration was involved in the writing of this review.
