A murder mystery and quasi-historical novel in one, Grossman gives us Berlin on the verge of the Nazi takeover in 1932. A surgically altered corpse, missing sleepwalkers, a famous hypnotist and a Nazi doctor all enter the picture during the murder investigation undertaken by decorated German WWI veteran and celebrated homicide detective Willi Kraus. A widower with two sons, Kraus is also a Jew who is at first as blind to the ramifications of his investigation as he is to the rising tide of fascism.
Despite interference from higher-ups within the police ranks, Kraus painstakingly pieces together the who, where, and why behind the mutilated dead woman fished out of the Havel River, even as the political horror his country is facing is incontrovertible. With his children finally safely removed to Paris, he throws himself into exposing the conspiracy he has uncovered, convinced that his evidence can stop Hitler’s takeover in its tracks.
Grossman paints a convincing picture of the desperate–and decadent–state of affairs in Berlin at this crucial moment, but gives us a hero too naïve, indeed too foolish, to be true. Kraus’ inability to see the political handwriting on the wall, his faith in those he shouldn’t, his indulgence in a doomed affair with a prostitute whose behavior is too strange to be trustworthy are all weak elements in the story which undermine its impact. Nonetheless, there are many moments in this novel which are bone-chilling and effective, and make the effort to plow through this overwrought plot nearly worth it.
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