Customer Reviews

Rosa: A Novel

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Rosa was my first experience with Jonathan Rabb's work, although it is his third book. His gift for detail is unerring, which makes this complex mystery all the more appealing. Simply stated, I could not easily lay this book aside until the last page.

The place is post World War One Berlin. Rabb brings this metropolis to life with deft touches, shedding light in each dark corner, every nuance that gave Berlin its flavor at the time. Rabb doesn't simply tell the wonderful and gritty details. He takes his readers there so we can live it, experience the snow and mist, explore the scents and sounds. His skill with descriptive prose adds resonating depths his readers might not have experienced otherwise.

Detective Inspector of the Kriminal Polizei -- the Kripo -- Nikolei Hoffner, is in pursuit of a serial killer whose madness borders on genius. Hoffner and his assistant, Hans Fichte, methodically follow every small clue, groping in the dark, until they find Rosa's body. Rosa Luxemburg is a socialist revolutionary and enemy of the Reichstadt. Hoffner knows immediately that, as a victim, she is out of place. That initial thought draws Hoffner and Fichte into a provocative conspiracy involving the Political Police, the black market, secret Aryan societies, and scientific developments overseen by a young Albert Einstein.

Nikolei Hoffner is a magnificent character, a troubled and brilliant man who seeks the truth with dogged determination. We walk in Hoffner's shoes as he dissects cryptic clues and searches Berlin's underbelly for his killer. The truths he uncovers and losses he experiences are horrible, beyond even his comprehension.

Rabb totally immerses readers in place and time and his character development is brilliant. We experience what Hoffner sees and feels, even his despair and impotence. And we witness the horrifying stirrings of anti Semitism, glimpse the spectre that will be Nazi Germany.

Jonathan Rabb blends history with fiction in Rosa with exciting results. Rosa Luxemburg was real, as were many characters from that time. Her murder and disappearance of her body were never solved in real life. This book is one possible explanation. For lovers of mystery, suspense, and history, Rosa is a must have, must read.

Berlin in January 1919 was bitterly cold and damp. The Great War was over and Germany was in the throes of defeat, its citizens impoverished, with ersatz everything for sale and no money to purchase anything. The gallant young men who had marched off to fight for God, Kaiser and Fatherland a mere five years before, were dead, maimed and/or disillusioned, bitter and unemployed. A generation of young women would never marry, their potential spouses buried beneath the winter snow. When the Kaiser abdicated, Fredrich Ebert, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, established the Weimar Government in time to sign the humiliating Treaty of Versailles, which forced Germany to pay billions in gold marks - reparation money it did not have. Inflation was rampant.

Tremendous fear of communism permeated the country. Many thought that Russia's Bolshevik Revolution would spread across the border, so most Germans were content to turn a blind eye to the loss of certain liberties, constitutional rights, and accepted the "strong-arm tactics" which prevailed against anyone who threatened the country's stability. The "Spartacus League," (Spartakusbund), German communists named after the slave who lead a rebellion against the Romans, was founded by Rosa Luxemburg, during WWI to counter the German Social Democrats' support of the war. Luxemburg, a Marxist politician, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary, along with her colleague, Karl Liebknicht, challenged Reichschancellor Ebert's government, as did the far right-wing Free Corps (Freikorps). Miss Luxemburg's failure to organize a coherent political opposition to the Social Democratic leadership proved fatal both to the outcome of the German revolution and to her own life. The state forces reasserted control and crushed the rebellion, brutally murdering Rosa, Karl Liebnecht and many other Party members, sympathizers and workers.

Although Rosa, called the "Devil Jewess" by her enemies, was assassinated on January 15th, 1919, her body was not discovered until five months later. The mystery of her corpse's location during that winter and early spring has never been solved. Jonathan Rabb proposes a credible solution in his penetrating historical mystery, "Rosa." The author's extensive research on life in post-WWI Germany enriches this fascinating novel tremendously.

Detective Inspector Nikolai Hoffner, and his young assistant Hans Fichte, find themselves at the center of Berlin's revolutionary violence. Their offices at Kriminalpolizei, (Kripo), Headquarters are right on Alexanderplatz, at the center of the chaotic uprising. The social upheaval and subsequent battles provide but a momentary distraction for the two detectives, however. A vicious serial murderer is on the loose in Berlin, and their attention is intensely focused on the case. Four middle-aged women have turned up dead, all mutilated with identical, intricate markings etched into their backs. Hoffner and Fichte have spent almost six weeks trying to solve the bizarre crime. When the political police (Polpo) intervene, veteran cop Hoffner is disturbed and angry. Why would they be interested in a serial murderer? A fifth body is discovered - the MO is the same. Later that day, at the morgue, honchos from Polpo reveal yet another lifeless body, number six - this one is Rosa Luxemburg. She has the same marks carved into her back as the others. If Miss Luxemburg had been assassinated by the authorities, as rumored, or been killed by an angry mob, also rumored, then why and how did she receive the specific signature of the serial killer? No one, other than the police, knew of the killer's existence, nor about any of the clues at the crime scenes. The revolution had been front page news for weeks. And the Kripo was certainly not looking to enlighten the public about a mass murderer and their failure to catch him.

The Polpo take possession of Luxemburg's body and refuse to release it. As Hoffner conducts a labyrinthine criminal investigation, suspense heightens as startling discoveries are made - in Berlin, Munich and Belgium. In the process a wide cast of compelling secondary characters are introduced, including a Jewish expert in lace making, Oliver Twist-like errand boys who work for the highest bidder, a charismatic pilot, Leo Jogisches, a former lover and colleague of Rosa's, Albert Einstein, Dietrich Eckart (Hitler's mentor), and artist Kathe Kollwitz. The Polpo goons are always a step behind or just ahead of Hoffner. In spite of continual warnings to ignore their machinations, the Detective Inspector persists on his own course. Subplots of love, betrayal, anti-Semitism, secret societies and the political foreshadowing of Nazism make for a riveting read.

Nikolai Hofner is a superb multi-faceted character. He is a consummate professional, a brilliant detective, with a tremendous sense of irony, driven to discover everyone involved in this most complex of cases. He will not be deterred. A man with a past, a flawed yet courageous individual, Nikolai develops feelings of compassion and admiration for Rosa Luxemburg, as he begins to know her through her papers and his investigation. He also demonstrates fairness and sympathy for his partner's weaknesses. However, he is unable to show his wife and sons the love he feels for them.

This is a fantastic novel noir set in an extraordinary place and time in history. The narrative is fast paced and well written, filled with period detail. The mystery at the book's core is a real one and the author's solution is creative, believable and thrilling in its implications. I highly recommend "Rosa."
JANA

One of the best novels I've read in a long time. Great story, great characters, great writing. I felt as if I were literally transformed back to 1919 Berlin. The entire plot was so compelling, fast-paced, original. The author obviously did his homework -- I believed all of his possible historical scenarios could have actually taken place as opposed to that Da Vinci garbage which was just ridiculous and kept taking me out of the story. You feel Rabb's expertise on every page. I hope he does a sequel -- I'd love to watch Hoffner crack another fascinating mystery.

Jonathan Rabb's latest novel arrives just in time to rescue us from the historical-fiction-lite style of Dan Brown and his imitators. Rosa is everything a historical novel should be, and I think it deserves to be mentioned among the very best works in the genre. Rabb makes 1919 Berlin come alive, and with a light touch. The details are never forced, and the history is never pedantic--which is no small feat when one considers that Rosa takes place against an incredibly complex historico-political landscape.

The best thing about the novel, though, are its characters. Rabb writes beautifully, and his characters have real depth and humanity. He never settles for a stereotype or cardboard cut out. (The main protagonist, Nikolai Hoffner, for example, is reminiscent of Graham Greene's tortured, flawed, well-meaning anti-heroes.) As a result, Rosa is so much more than the recent crop of historically-inflected campfire-stories like the Da Vinci Code. It is just compelling, well-written fiction.

Without question, fans of historical fiction should check out Rosa. But I would also recommend it to those looking for good, new literary fiction who may not otherwise venture into historical fiction. The review of Rosa in Harper's Monthly placed the book in the company of the works of Malraux, Raymond Chandler and Robert Musil. I think that readers of Rosa will agree that such comparisons are apt.

I love good historical mysteries. My criteria are that they be well-written and as a history buff, that they be as historically accurate as possible. In other words, the DaVinci Code need not apply! Jonathan Rabb's Rosa is a great new contribution to this genre. After running across reviews of Rosa in Harper's and The Boston Globe, I made this mystery my first summer read. It is terrific. I couldn't put it down. I was captivated by the characters, the descriptions of Berlin's physical and political landscapes following World War I, and the intriguing plot, with its many twists and turns. I hope there's a sequel so I can follow the further adventures of the clever, angst driven detective inspector Hoffner.

I was a big fan of Rabb's Overseer (not as much his Book of Q), but neither of them comes close to what he's accomplished in Rosa. This is a spectacular piece of writing. The descriptions of Berlin in 1919 make the city into a living, breathing character. His main character, a world-weary detective, is one of the richest I've read in a long while. Nikolai Hoffner is not the best of men, and yet you find yourself firmly in his camp as he makes his way through the squalor of post-War and post-Revolution Germany in search of a serial killer. Of course, nothing is as it appears (some of the twists both shock and seem obvious, all at the same time). And that's the beauty in how the story comes across.

What makes this really great story telling, though, is the detail in the secondary characters - a pilot crippled during the war, an underworld boss, an old Russian Colonel forced to live in a homeless shelter - who seem absolutely real. And when it comes to the genuine "historical" characters who were in Berlin at the time - Albert Einstein, Kathe Kolwitz - nothing is overdone. They remain as "real" as the fictional characters Rabb has created. It's an amazing touch to describe Leo Jogiches (Rosa Luxemburg's former lover and fellow socialist) by his hairline: it "rose too high on one side and made everything seem to droop to the left." A socialist whose face droops to the left. It's touches like those that make Rosa a rare kind of book.

The book jacket endorsement by Philip Kerr for Jonathan Rabb's Rosa was enough for me as his Berlin Noir is fabulous.

The historical background of Rosa Luxemburg and the brief communist revolution in Germany in 1919 is presented with great details. The complexities of post WWI Germany serve to pave the way for a series of intricate murders and reflect Jonathan's research and its clever use.

Surprises compounded by the levels of authority in Berlin -the Kripo- criminal investigations; the Polpo- the political detectives and operatives are presented with an eye to a rash of brutal murders and the political realities Lace, chemicals, poisons, maps all play an important role in the unfolding of a humane interpersonal drama. Rabb's characters are convincing and not stereotypes. A must read for anyone who loves history and its possible or probable explanations.

I recently reviewed Rabb's second novel Shadow and Light which I enjoyed but which I found confusing and meandering. I liked it well enough to try Rosa which features the same detective later along in the Weimar years. I should have read Rosa first. That would have made the plot machinations in Shadow and Light a little easier to follow. I do, however, think Rosa is a more successful effort but both are worth a read.

Mr. Rabb's handling and control of the language is superb, creating whole characters with a few short strokes and putting a reader into the story without unnecessary over-description. The major characters are full and rounded, complemented by wholly realised minor ones.

A superb political mystery, introducing the complex police inspector Nikolai Hoffner in the Berlin of 1919, as he investigates the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and several other women. How he pieces together what appears to this reader to be a unique murder plot, and how the murders are tied to the politics of the day and to their far-reaching ramifications, is forcefully compelling.

The City of Berlin, through beautifully spun descriptions (clearly well researched) becomes just as powerful a character in the drama as Hoffner's manoeuvrings to pursue the villain and outwit his politically connected and motivated bosses. Yet for all of his professional abilities, Hoffner has stunning flaws of a very human nature, particularly as regards his family, making him empathetic, puzzling and all too human. One certainly can come to say, "I know this man".

The puzzle is of course brilliantly revealed, yet with an ending quite different from what one might expect as the political ramifications carry a weight of their own.

For those who love a dark political mystery, superbly realised, with an all too human protagonist, this is a five-star read.

A real thinkers' novel, it explores rather deftly society in post-WWI Berlin. At the centre is a rather gruesome series of murders which are highlighted by the fact that one of the apparent victims is a noted socialist, Rosa Luxembourg. It is so much more than a simple murder mystery that at times I was hard put to approach it in the usual fashion; who did it, who's doing it, and why. A society in torment where no one appears to be really in control, it was a time where various ideologies competed for space on the world stage. What Inspector Hoffner soon discovers is that his own personal emotions are teased out to the breaking point, all while the city anxiously awaits the solution to the traditional who & why? But are Berliners really interested in that, or are they more concerned with with getting on with life and commerce. See what I mean?! With an artist's touch Jonathan Rabb deftly paints a portrait of Berlin from the slums to the mansions of Charlottenburg. I kept thinking the authour would turn into an unfocused rant the discussion of Socialism's place in German society, but was pleasantly surprised at every turn. It can be read and enjoyed in so many different ways that you could be equally at home reading this at the beach as in your study. Just be prepared to be challenged and entertained! A must have read from the recent crop of books on the market.