The Arms Maker of Berlin
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
An unflinching thriller that takes us deep into the White Rose resistance movement during World War II. • “Compelling…nonstop action.” —The Baltimore Sun
When Nat Turnbull’s mentor, Gordon Wolfe, is arrested for possession of a missing WWII secret service archive and then turns up dead in jail, Nat’s quiet academic life is suddenly thrown into tumult. The archive is a time bomb of sensitive material, but key documents are still missing, and the FBI dispatches Nat to track them down. Following a trail of cryptic clues, Nat's journeys to Germany, where he soon crosses paths with Berta, a gorgeous and mysterious student and Kurt Bauer, an arms billionaire with a dark past. As their tales intersect, long-buried exploits of deceit emerge, and each step becomes more dangerous than the last.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Four missing documents from WWII provide the fuel for Fesperman's fine stand-alone thriller. The FBI hires Nat Turnbull, a Nazi expert at a second-tier New England university, to find the documents, but Nat soon discovers that the agency has reasons other than historical integrity for wanting them found: to keep a lid on certain war-era sins committed by a German industrialist whose enormous company has been a major weapons supplier to the West. As Turnbull shuttles between Europe and the U.S., he manages to stay a step ahead of a mysterious killer who's knocking off anyone who may know something about the missing files. Fesperman (The Prisoner of Guant namo) convincingly evokes the fraying Reich in 1944, a time of shifting allegiances when many Germans focused on positioning themselves for a Hitler-less future, though the who and why of all the recent killings remain somewhat murky. Still, readers who like a bit of history with their thrills will be thoroughly satisfied.
Customer Reviews
The Arms Maker of Berlin
Beautifully structured and wildly compelling, Fesperman accurately and in some ways poignantly puts forth the story of the lives twisted and torn apart by Nazi Germany. Concurrently, the present-day historian's "treasure search" is vivid and clever.
Woe that his historian protagonist hasn't the same cleverness. At times, in fact, the reader wants to shout at his idiocy (Hmm, don't leave your laptop with all its precious notes in your hotel room all day, ja?) via iPad screen. However, round p 300 Clot Prof clues in and he actually becomes quite bright.
All in all, an extremely worthwhile read.