BERLIN. MAY 1940. AS HITLER PREPARES TO INVADE WESTERN EUROPE, THERE IS BLOODSHED CLOSER TO HOME
CI Horst Schenke is an investigator with the Kripo unit. Powerless against the consequences of the war, he fights to keep criminals off his patch. But with doubts growing about his loyalty to the Nazi regime, he is walking a tightrope. If his relationship with a Jewish woman is exposed, a dreadful fate awaits.
Berlin’s gangsters run their crime rings with impunity. Decadent senior Nazis protect them. Schenke is different. He won’t turn a blind eye when innocents are caught in the crossfire between warring gangs. But dangerous enemies know everything about him. They will do whatever it takes to bend him to their will . . .
From the seedy wartime nightlife scene to aristocratic homes frequented by the Führer, as the distant war spirals ever closer, A Death in Berlin conveys the horror and banality of evil – and the terrible danger for those who dare stand against it.
The stunning new Berlin wartime thriller from the author of Blackout and Dead of Night.
It's my pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for A Death in Berlin by Simon Scarrow today. My apologies for being a little late sharing my review; I currently have a close relative undergoing palliative care and so I'm not quite on top of everything. Many thanks to Ransom PR for inviting me and Headline for sending me a copy of the novel.
A Death in Berlin is the third book in Simon Scarrow's Criminal Inspector Schenke series. I haven't yet read Blackout and Dead of Night but had no problems engaging with this stand-alone mystery or with the clearly overarching aspects of the plot. Simon Scarrow acquaints new readers with the key elements of the storyline without sacrificing any of the pace or tension of this terrifically suspenseful historic thriller.
Inspector Horst Schenke heads Pankow's Kripo Section but despite his prior successes and earlier career as a driver for the Silver Arrows motor racing team, he is starkly aware of the precariousness of his position. His new boss, Oberführer Radinsky is demanding a swift resolution to the long-standing investigation into ration coupon forgery but of even greater concern to Schenke is that his loyalty to the Nazi party is being questioned. Schenke is a superbly complex character; deeply principled, he is prepared to work within the increasingly paranoid justice system but it's not just his reluctance to don the SS uniform which puts him at risk. If his secret relationship with a Jewish woman, Ruth is exposed, he knows he would be sent to one of Himmler's camps as a blood traitor, while the punishment for Ruth would be even worse. By 1940, Nazi anti-Jewish policies are intensifying but of course, with the benefit of our terrible hindsight, readers are conscious of the full horrors yet to come. It adds a nail-biting sense of foreboding to a novel which seethes with suspense throughout.
The book opens in the Ace of Hearts nightclub; one of the last remaining links to the outrageous decadence of the Weimar Republic, its owner, Max Remer is a gangster who has judiciously befriended influential party members for many years. However, his high-powered connections ultimately prove to be worthless and as a result, it looks as though Berlin may face a bloody showdown between rival gangs. Schenke and his colleagues; the veteran Sergeant Hauser and the awkwardly intelligent former Gestapo officer, Liebwitz, suspect the growing murder count is linked to their ration coupon case. Corruption is rife at every level of public office though and it seems as if the villains are always one step ahead of them.
Although the storyline is focussed on the Kripo investigation, the stifling fear which pervades the plot throughout is driven by the hypocrisy of the violent, degenerate criminality of the Nazi party – as Schenke observes to himself, 'When it came down to it, such men were no worse than the gangsters running the Nazi Party. Remer, Wohler, Guttmann; Himmler, Heydrich, Goebbels... There was very little difference between any of them. And the Führer, Adolf Hitler, was the greatest criminal of them all.' The moral complexities that Schenke must confront in order just to carry out his role weighs heavily on him, particularly when he is forced to rub shoulders with members in the top echelons of the regime. However, it's his forbidden relationship with Ruth which results in his most dangerous dilemma and Simon Scarrow's astute exploration of the worst excesses of avarice and ambition are a timely reminder of how fragile our democracies and indeed humanity can be.
The ominous atmosphere engendered throughout A Death in Berlin ensures it is a breathless read from start to finish but the intense drama of the high-stakes, high-octane conclusion is particularly thrilling. By the end of the book, the long months of the phoney war are finally over following Germany's invasion of Holland, Belgium and France; going forwards it will be fascinating to see whether the sparks of friction between Schenke and his more patriotic colleagues ignite. Exciting, immersive and thoughtful; this is historical fiction at its finest. Very highly recommended.
A Death in Berlin is published by Headline. It can be purchased from bookshop.org, Hive, Waterstones, Kobo, Amazon or from your favourite independent bookshop.
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Simon is currently on tour, see below if you'd like to see him in person to hear more about A Death in Berlin.
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