Garden of Beasts [Paperback]

Jeffery Deaver (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton; Airside Ed edition (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034073454X
• ISBN-13: 978-0340734544
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,530,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeffery Deaver was born outside of Chicago in 1950. His father was an advertising copywriter and his mother was a homemaker. He has one younger sister who writes novels for teenagers ' Julie Reece Deaver.

Deaver wrote his first book ' which consisted of two entire chapters ' when he was eleven, and he's been writing ever since. An award-winning poet and journalist, he has also written and performed his own songs around the country. After receiving a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri, Deaver worked as a magazine writer, then, to gain the background needed to become a legal correspondent for The New York Times or Wall Street Journal, he enrolled at Fordham Law School. After graduation he decided to practice law for a time and worked for several years as an attorney for a large Wall Street firm. It was during his long commute to and from the office that he began writing the type of fiction he enjoyed reading: suspense novels. In 1990 he started to write full time.

The author of twenty-two novels, Deaver has been nominated for six Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, an Anthony award, a Gumshoe Award, and is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year. In 2001, he won the W.H. Smith Thumping Good Read Award for his Lincoln Rhyme novel The Empty Chair. In 2004, he was awarded the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain's Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Garden Of Beasts and the Short Story Dagger for "The Weekender." Translated into 35 languages, his novels have appeared on a number of bestseller lists around the world, including the New York Times, the London Times and the Los Angeles Times. The Bone Collector was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington as Lincoln Rhyme. A Maiden's Grave was made into an HBO film retitled Dead Silence, starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin.

Jeff has also released two collections of his short stories, called Twisted and More Twisted.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Garden of the Human Heart, August 13, 2004

By 

Richard Wells (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936 (Hardcover)

There are many reasons to recommend Jeffrey Deaver's, "Garden of Beasts," the first among them being it is a good story, well told.

Mr. Deaver has taken a few fictionalized days in the history of the real, mixed compelling characters and events, forced us to confront both the malign and altruistic workings of the human heart, and the corruption of an entire nation - quite a weighty accomplishment.

"Garden of Beasts," is a cat-and-mouse page turner pitting a German-American "button man" with a heart of gold, and searching for redemption, against an intrepid German detective - also with a heart of gold - in the milieu of pre-War Nazi Berlin. Also featured are American politicians and industrialists, the hierarchy of the Nazi Party, innocents struggling to keep body and soul together, and the petty criminals that make their living in a society turned topsy-turvy. One of these criminals - oddly enough also with a heart of gold - helps add an element of "buddy story" to the whole. Mr. Deaver has done his research, paints a detailed picture of the city, and forces us to confront the manipulative rot of Nazism that uses fear and bigotry to corrupt an entire country. He does a remarkable job of showing us the beast in humanity, and humanity in the beast - to the extent that I wondered if some might find the monsters a little too likable. Not to fear, though, Mr. Deaver - at least in this book - is nothing if not a moralist of high order.

Recommended as a page-turner, and as an insightful study of good, evil, and the land that lies between.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's 1936 - In Berlin, Germany - and You Are There!!!!!, August 5, 2004

By 

John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936 (Hardcover)

I had come to expect a certain type of novel from this author (one that gives you trouble sleeping) and was delighted to find that he is much more than a one trick pony. In Garden of Beasts, Deaver takes us back to 1936 and I mean he takes us back. Edward R. Murrow used to have a television show, as I recall, entitled "You are There." in which the viewer was taken back to an historic event. Well, after reading this book, you will have a pretty clear picture of Germany in the days of the Hitler ascendancy. It is not a pretty picture.

Paul Schumann, a NY mob hitman is given the choice of going to prison or traveling to Germany to asassinate one of Hitlers most important ministers. If he does so and makes his way out, he is promised money and a new life by our government. Shumann opts for a future which does not involve prison.

Traveling as a reporter to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Schumann is not even off the boat before things start happening which complicate his life and his task. And it just keeps getting more complicated. Let Deaver take you by the hand as you traverse the Garden of Beasts. You will hate to put the book down, look forward to returning to the story and will appreciate the well thought out ending.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deaver's words ricochet like wild bullets from page to, July 31, 2004

By 

Joymarie "Lover of the Written Word" (United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936 (Hardcover)

page in this pre-war 'Hitler's Germany' novel. Read the professional reviews to get the story; this review is about the man and his book. I should imagine that a book and its author are like father and child. Jeffrey, you can be very proud of this particular one. You tickled the imagination from the first word with a complex hero-villain and almost immediately presented the reader with a dilemma. Are we for or against this anti-hero who kills; but only evil people? Is killing not evil no matter whom he kills?

Paul Schumann...a button man...a taker of life. Careful, clever, precise...turns to ice on his assignments so he doesn't feel...the only feeling is that in killing his prey, doing his job, finishing his assignment...all business and a 'righteous' deed.

Perfect prose, jarring jousting, slippery schemes, cunning coup d'tats, deceitful and daring deeds, military mysteries, scientific slayings and evil most egregious...this and more as this 'child' of Deaver's grows: we walk the streets in bright sunlight and the darkness of night, see sights of beauty and despair, the sweet smell of flowers and the sordid stink of Berlin.

We admire Kohl, the staunch German policeman following Paul and several times hold our breath as they almost come face to face. He is the relentless and most clever and analytical; pursuer of Paul as the murder suspect; and Paul in turn is pursuing the man he is committed to kill.

How can we not love Otto; the man of innumerable contacts, the man who has a plan for everything and a way to achieve it. And Kathe who indroduces Paul to the GARDEN OF BEASTS in a shocking but memorable way.

Of course we meet Himmler, Goring, Goebbels and he whom they call The Leader; the former paper hanger himself: Adolph Hitler.

And as Deaver's child is growing we come to his maturity in a truly brilliant, unexpected, and very fulfilling closure. Only Jeffrey Deaver with his genius for weaving together characters and plot could slowly, carefully and cleary bring such a magnificent story to a totaly surpising yet satisfying ending.

If it is somewhat true that an author and his book are like father and child; then I sincerely hope that Jeffrey Deaver will continue to be a prolific parent and supply us with many more hours of enjoyment. If you have not read TWISTED make that the next Deaver thriller you pick up.

Read and enjoy! And thank you Jeffrey for another great one!