The Alphabet House

November 24, 2014
First published in Denmark in 1997, Adler-Olsen’s debut is a very different sort of thriller from his Department Q series (The Marco Effect, etc.): it recounts the harrowing odyssey of two British airmen shot down behind enemy lines during WWII and subsequently held captive, under assumed German identities, in a hellish mental hospital for SS officers. Only one of the two can actually speak German, and their struggle to survive electroshock therapy, experimental drugs, and brutal treatment from staff and fellow inmates makes the first half of the book punishing reading. A long-deferred day of reckoning arrives for several characters some 30 years later during the ill-fated 1972 Munich Olympics. Although the daring (if far-fetched) plot, sustained suspense, and caustic view of society all hint at the author’s later work, this meticulously researched historical journey won’t be to every taste.

This is not a war story, narrator Graeme Malcolm explains in the preface to this terrific audiobook; it's a story of broken relationships. Actually, it's both: Two British airmen during WWII must pretend to be mentally ill SS officers in order to avoid capture, and then, 30 years later, the men must reevaluate their friendship. Malcolm is in that rarified group of British storytellers who seem to disappear--as if nothing stood between the listener and the story. His characterizations are subtle, and even the villains have a sinister charm. Adler-Olsen's superb audiobook (and the wonderful research that it's built upon) will keep listeners' headphones on all the way through the epic climax. R.W.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine