Deadfall in Berlin [Mass Market Paperback]

R.D. Zimmerman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 1992

Through hypnosis, a Chicago actor travels thirty years back in time to war-torn Berlin, where, in an act of incredible betrayal, his mother was gunned down by a killer whose identity is only just beginning to emerge. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A horrifying truth about the life of a young boy during the fall of Berlin is revealed in this strong but not entirely satisfying novel by the author of Mindscream . In 1975, plagued by horrible dreams, pursued by a killer, Chicago actor Will Walker (born Willi Berndt) consults a hypnotherapist to help him remember who murdered his mother, Eva, a cabaret singer. "Regressed" to the final days of Nazi Germany, he sees beautiful Eva, running a bar and ostensibly whoring to support herself and two sons. Eva's reactions to a downed U.S. pilot who calls himself Uncle Joe and alludes unpleasantly to the past make Willi wonder if he might be Joe's son. Joe warns that an Allied raid will soon finish off the city and Willi begs his mother to flee. The reasons for her refusal are unveiled at the end of Walker's successive trances when a former Nazi, hoping to keep the past a secret, appears for the resolution. Focusing mainly on Willi's experiences, Zimmerman scants the character's later life as Walker, limiting the novel's dimensions and diminishing the effect of the final revelations. The result is a story that, albeit powerful, is more vignette than novel.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Dell (October 3, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440212170
• ISBN-13: 978-0440212171
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,103,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Opens with a bang and doesn't let up!, July 10, 2000

By 

Richard Harrold (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deadfall in Berlin (Mass Market Paperback)

When I studied writing techniques for mysteries, one of the first lessons I learned was that if you don't have your dead body show up in the first chapter, you had better have it in the second chapter. Deadfall In Berlin immediately takes the reader to the book's central murder and then catapults the reader into a psychological mystery that is both extraordinary and rivetting.

Will is an actor living in Chicago in 1975 who has been going through hynoptherapy when at home and alone during an autohypnosis session, he regresses back to when he was 10 years old, living in war-torn Berlin during the Allied bombing. He witnesses his mother's murder, but the details are sketchy. When he tells his therapist of the experience, he finds that he is being stalked by a mystery person apparently bent on killing him. Is that person the same as who killed Will's mother? To find out, his therapist sends him into a deep trance back to Berlin to relive those last few days when one of the most glorious cities in Europe was reduced to rubble.

The descriptions of Berlin during the Allied bombing are incredible. Zimmerman did his historical homework well. The tale he weaves moves quickly, but smoothly. There were no lapses in plausibility: the descriptions and character actions are entirely believable. This the first book by Zimmerman I have read, and you can be sure that I will read more.