This novel by Joseph Kanon, author of the award-winning novel Los
Alamos, interweaves a compelling murder mystery with a moving love
story and a momentous historical event. The scene is war-ravaged
Berlin in 1945, and the action begins with a group of
correspondents on a military flight. They are returning to the
shell of the city to cover a conference at Potsdam between Truman,
Churchill and Stalin. The fate of Berlin and its shattered
population rests with these three leaders. Jake Geismar is one of
the journalists, an American who's officially on the lookout for
one last story; his priority, however, is to find his German lover,
Lena Brandt, whom he last saw when he was ordered out of Berlin
four years ago. When Jake left, Lena was still married to Emil, a
brilliant scientist who was helping the Nazis. While attending the
conference, Jake sees Russian soldiers pull the body of an American
soldier from the lake. He recognizes the man from the flight into
Berlin, but nobody seems to know anything about him or why he has
come to the city. The American military government is so evasive
about the case that Jake scents the story of a lifetime and starts
investigating. He uncovers a web of lies, threats and corruption,
as well as a mass of paperwork. The two strands of his search
become intricately entwined when his discoveries link the dead man
with Emil Brandt, who is thought to be in Berlin and who is wanted
by both the Russians and the Allies for his missile-making
expertise. In a climate of intrigue and corruption, Jake tries to
sift out the truth. He enlists the help of a former German
policeman, one of the good Germans of the title who are going to
help the American military government rebuild postwar Germany. As
Jake inches towards the solution, he risks his life and that of his
lover, and finds that loyalties have shifted so much since the war
that he can trust no-one. This historical thriller brilliantly
conjures up the guilty and secretive post-Holocaust atmosphere of
Berlin at the end of World War ll, and the final denouement is taut
and gripping. (Kirkus UK)
Jake Geismar cut his teeth as a foreign correspondent in pre-war Berlin. When he returns in 1945 to cover the Potsdam conference he finds the city unrecognisable - streets have vanished beneath the rubble, familiar landmarks truncated by high explosive. But amongst the ruins Berliners survive, including some he knew and, miraculously, his lost love, Lena. But in the way she would not leave with him before the war, Lena won't join him now without finding her husband and Emil has disappeared from the safe care of the Americans who, turning a blind eye to his links with Hitler, want his expertise as a rocket designer for themselves. Trawling through the shambles of the city, through the illegal night clubs and the thriving black market, Jake discovers that the twilight war of intrigue between west and east has already begun and that he could quite easily be one of its first casualties.
This is a novel of war, an action thriller, a tale of raw emotion and survival. Above all it is a tour de force of the triumph of humanity over man's depravity.
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