Children of Wrath

Starred review from November 28, 2011
Set in 1929, Grossman’s brilliant second historical featuring Berlin policeman Willi Kraus (after 2010’s The Sleepwalkers, which was set in 1932) finds Kraus already feeling the isolation of being a Jew in an overwhelmingly Aryan environment. While Kraus is curious to look into the discovery of a burlap sack containing boiled human bones bound together by thread made from muscles, his superior instead puts him in charge of searching for the source of tainted sausages that have already poisoned hundreds. Kraus, an attractively complex lead, can’t keep away from the other case, even at the cost of his professional reputation and tranquil relations with his wife. The political turmoil caused by the rise of the Nazi Party complicates both cases. Grossman has improved on his characterizations, as shown by the thoughtful way he presents even minor figures. Fans of cerebral murder mysteries will look forward to the next installment. Agent: Jon Sternfeld at the Irene Goodman Agency.

August 20, 2012
In Grossman's latest, Willi Kraus is a Jewish war hero-turned police detective living in Berlin in 1929, facing Aryan intolerance, and pursuing an unbelievably loathsome serial killer -- Die Kinderfresser, or the Child-Eater of Berlin -- with more hindrance than help from his superiors. Narrator Klye Munley, with his deep, growl of a voice, chooses not to merely create simple accents for the book's characters. Instead he produces collection of well-rendered characters and distinctive voices, ranging from the arrogant and aristocratic to the thoughtful and fearful. But there is a bit of a down side to his enthusiastic performance. Some of Munley's enactments of the book's more intense moments -- the discovery of a new child victim or Kraus's fight to the finish with one of the villains -- come across as artificial and melodramatic. A St. Martin's hardcover.