Publisher Description
In a world of growing nationalism, a quiet few are determined to resist. This gripping historical mystery explores the darkest days of the early 20th century.
Munich, 1920. Detective Willi Geismeier has a problem: how do you uphold the law when the law goes bad? The First World War has been lost and Germany is in turmoil. The new government in Berlin is weak. The police and courts are corrupt. Fascists and Communists are fighting in the streets. People want a savior, someone who can make Germany great again. To many, Adolf Hitler seems perfect for the job.
When the offices of a Munich newspaper are bombed, Willi Geismeier investigates, but as it gets political, he is taken off the case. Willi continues to ask questions, but when his pursuit of the truth itself becomes a crime, his career – and his life – are in grave danger.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set mainly in 1920 Munich, this promising series launch from Steiner (the Louis Morgon thrillers) introduces honest cop Willi Geismeier. As Adolf Hitler denounces the destructive forces of "the foreigners and the Jews," sympathetic newspaper publisher Baron Detlev von Plottwietz determines to support that agenda in his publication, Das Neue Deutsche Bild. Shortly after von Plottwietz reprimands his editor, Erwin Czieslow, for printing stories criticizing Hitler, the offices of the newspaper are bombed, killing Czieslow and a young messenger and wounding others. The inquiry is assigned to Geismeier, who finds von Plottwietz's indifference to the casualties suspicious and disagrees with his "obvious" conclusion that Jews and Bolsheviks were behind the bombing. When the policeman's efforts to seek the truth point in a very different direction, his commitment to following that lead places his own job in jeopardy. Though the plotting and characterizations are less sophisticated than in Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels, Steiner nicely dramatizes the politics of early Weimar Germany. Readers will welcome Geismeier's further adventures.
