Garden of Beasts
by Jeffrey Deaver
Hodder & Stoughton $101
This is a classic action-thriller set in Berlin during the 1936 Olympic Games. Paul Schumann, a German-American living in New York, is a hit man known for his brilliant tactics and for taking only 'righteous' jobs. But when a hit goes wrong and Schumann is caught, he's offered a stark choice: kill Reinhardt Ernst, the man behind Hitler's rearmament scheme, and walk free; or be sent to the electric chair. The instant Schumann sets foot in Berlin his mission becomes a deadly cat-and-mouse game. For the next 48 hours, as the city prepares for the Olympics, Schumann stalks Ernst, while a dogged policeman and much of the Third Reich security apparatus search for the killer. A fascinating look at Nazi-era Berlin, packed with period detail and featuring a range of colourful local characters, Olympic athletes, and senior Nazi officials - some real, some fictional.