DON'T LET ME DOWN

In Stollenwerck’s YA novel, a teenager digging into her great-grandfather’s complicated history may not like what she finds.

In the author’s previous novel, Hello, Goodbye (2022), Texan Hailey Rogers learned surprising details about her great-grandparents; for instance, her great-grandfather, Jack Weber, was a Nazi hunter who left behind a collection of Nazi-stolen paintings he’d recovered. While in Jerusalem to speak about her ancestors at a Holocaust memorial, Hailey gets a cryptic note implying Jack wasn’t alone in scouring for art that the Nazis pilfered. This leads Hailey and her boyfriend Blake to an evasive woman who promises that answers regarding Jack await them in Paris. Hailey and Blake find a helping hand and a traveling companion in Blake’s wealthy grandfather Alan Alexander. Sadly, the clandestine group they meet up with in France initially offers little information and seems more interested in a rare book of Jack’s that Hailey now has. Alexander’s longtime friends aid in investigating Jack’s past, which teems with atrocities that rattle Hailey. The growing cast in Stollenwerck’s sequel adds welcome intrigue (the widowed Alexander has for decades avoided an old flame in Paris, and his friend’s 19-year-old son Julian has a certain charm Hailey can’t ignore). In vivid prose (“The enormous entryway is bathed in sunlight that flashes over a soaring geometric, multi-dimensional brushed gold chandelier”), the author delivers a narrative rich in historical details, from various artworks Hitler desired to particulars on CIA-precursor the OSS. All of this background nearly eclipses the mystery, which unfolds in bits and pieces as Hailey picks up more about Jack’s Nazi-hunting days and unearths the occasional clue. Still, the resplendent, compassionate young hero consistently acknowledges her own flaws and works at bettering an already impressive self.

A measured but fascinating story of love, tenacity, and the astonishing things that the past can harbor.