Berlin [Paperback]

Pierre Frei (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2005

Berlin, 1945, American Sector. Ben, 15, aspiring black marketeer, finds the body of a young, blonde, German woman on the line at Uncle Tom's Cabin subway station. She has been sexually abused and strangled with a chain. Inspector Dietrich is quickly brought in, along with his American counterpart in the Military Police, John Ashburner. But as the two detectives set about solving this brutal murder it becomes clear that the case is not isolated, when the bodies of young women are discovered in the French and Russian Sectors of the city. Whilst detectives struggle to understand what links these terrible murders - apart from a shadowy motorcyclist who always seems to be near-at-hand at the time the murders are committed - Berlin itself battles to recover itself from the ashes of the newly lost War that tore the City apart. Witty, daring and subtle, this gripping whodunit will leave the reader gasping.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Late 1945, as the blasted city is being carved up by its conquerors, a killer on a motorbike is carving up blue-eyed blonds in the American sector. As the victims fall, their lives unfold before our eyes in leisurely narratives: aspiring film ingenue Karin navigates the treacherous waters of Nazi showbiz; mother Helga attempts to save her retarded son from ruthless eugenics. There is a palling sameness to the manner in which each woman happens upon her doom loitering on the doorstep of her salvation, but the novel's emphasis is less on building tension than on a panoramic portrait of a nation seduced and raped by Hitler and his Reich. Most vivid is the depiction of postwar Berlin, especially as seen through the eyes of a German cop's teenage son, Ben, who negotiates the ravaged city in quest of a new suit of clothes with all the entrepreneurial flair of Tom Sawyer. Not a typical thriller, this may not appeal to all fans of Alan Furst and J. Robert Janes, but it will please those with an interest in the era. David Wright
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Pierre Frei was born in 1930. Berlin is his first novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Books (September 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843543230
• ISBN-13: 978-1843543237
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,344,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)