This is a tough, violent thriller which illustrates the chaos in Germany in 1943. Suffering setbacks in the war and severe shortages, Berlin is in the middle of a rushed ‘cleansing’ of the Jews with thousands being removed each night. The desperation of the persecuted and what they will do to survive is coupled with corruption and greed within the Gestapo, police and SS. Forged bank notes are found stuffed into the mouths of brutally flayed and mutilated bodies. This is definitely not for the squeamish, with graphic detail of violence and sex. It is a wordy, long, depressing read, a thriller for the hardened addict; demanding and clever.
'One of Britain's most visionary writers' DAVID PEACE ‘An appalling, beautifully-lit abyss’ ALAN MOORE A dark, chilling and mesmerising thriller set in wartime Berlin, for fans of Joseph Kanon and Robert Harris. Berlin 1943. August Schlegel lives in a world full of questions with no easy answers. Why is he being called out on a homicide case when he works in financial crimes? Why did the old Jewish solider with an Iron Cross shoot the block warden in the eye then put a bullet through his own head? Why does Schlegel persist with the case when no one cares because the Jews are all being shipped out anyway? And why should Morgen, wearing the dreaded black uniform of the SS, turn up and say he has been assigned to work with him? Corpses, dressed with fake money, bodies flayed beyond recognition: are these routine murders committed out of rage or is someone trying to tell them something? Praise for Chris Petit's previous novels: 'Hugely impressive and highly readable; in the tradition of Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs' Financial Times 'Ferocious invention marks this novel out as special' The Edge 'Ambitious and intelligent' Times 'Puts Petit in the first rank' Metro 'A zigzagging narrative as byzantine and blackly pessemistic as late James Ellroy' Independent on Sunday 'An example of the genre near its best. Gorky Park with something to spare; well worth anyone's weekend' Guardianfor The Psalm Killer
