Garden of Beasts

Jeffery Deaver provides a visceral experience of the tension in Berlin when German citizens lavishly hosted the 1936 Humanitarian Olympic Games while, simultaneously, Hitler secretly prepared for war and the extermination of Jews. Jefferson Mays presents a wide range of characters with distinction and aplomb. There's Paul, a hit-man for the New York Luciano Mob; Willi Kohl, a senior investigator in the Kripo, the Berlin criminal police; Reinhard Ernst, Hitler's rearmament czar; Leisel, a barmaid with a secret; Kathe, who helps Paul discover the hero inside his hardened soul; and the Fischer brothers, caught up in the abominable Waltham Study. With Mays's reading, this story becomes a caustic tale of the dangers of ambivalence and appeasement in the face of evil. K.A.T. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Starred review from May 3, 2004
Deaver fans expect the unexpected from this prodigiously talented thriller writer, and the creator of the Lincoln Rhyme series and other memorable yarns (The Blue Nowhere
, etc.) doesn't disappoint with his 19th novel, this time offering a deliciously twisty tale set in Nazi Berlin. The book's hero is a mob "button man," or hit man, Paul Schumann, who's nabbed in the act in New York City but given an alternative to the electric chair: to go to Berlin undercover as a journalist writing about the upcoming Olympics, in order to assassinate Col. Reinhard Ernst, the chief architect of Hitler's militarization, seen as a threat to American interests. A German spy onboard Paul's transatlantic liner grows suspicious and sends a warning to Germany before Paul discovers and kills him. Then in Berlin, Paul, en route to meet his contact, kills a second suspicious man who may be a storm trooper, setting Insp. Willi Kohl of the Berlin police, or Kripo, on his trail. Deaver weaves the three manhunts—Paul after his target, Kohl after Paul and the Nazi hierarchy after Paul—with a deft hand, bringing to frightening life the Berlin of 1936, a city on the brink of madness. Top Nazis, including Hitler, Himmler and Göring, make colorful cameos, but it's the smart, shaded-gray characterizations of the principals that anchor the exciting plot. An affecting love affair between Paul and his German landlady goes in surprising directions, as do the main plot lines, which move outside Berlin as heroes become villains and vice versa. This is prime Deaver, which means prime entertainment. Agent, Deborah Schneider. (July)

Forecast:
S&S is betting big on this title, with a 250,000 first printing. A 14-city author tour and Deaver's increasingly hot rep should ensure a solid sell-through.

Set in Berlin 1936 at the start of the Olympics, Deaver's story tells of deceit, murder, and the early years of Nazi Germany. Paul Schumann, a New York City hit man who speaks flawless German, is recruited by the U.S. government to kill Reinhardt Ernst, who is in charge of Hitler's rearmament. But nothing goes right from the moment Schumann sets foot in Germany. Jefferson Mays reads this fast-paced book with slow tones that reflect the story's high level of detail. While Mays doesn't create accents, he follows all the twists as Schumann hunts Ernst while being hunted by the Berlin police. There's never a dull moment when murder and intrigue are afoot. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine