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 WrightCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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