The Last Man in Berlin: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: As Hitler rises to power
Review: An interesting perspective of Berlin in the era as Hitler was about to take power interwoven with a thrilling search for a murderer. Well written and hard to put down.

Rating:
Summary: Sex. Drugs. Rock 'n Roll. Hitler
Review: This is a very good mystery-thriller, painted on the canvas of the doomed Berlin, and subsequently, doomed mid-twentieth century Europe. It carries with it some of the sadness of the wonderful Alan Furst novels, true to the time and the despair of the Armageddon our forefathers were powerless or impotent or too ignorant to avoid.

Harry Wulff, the last man standing, is a successful detective wanting only to protect the people, the Berliners, from lawbreakers. Of course behind Wulff are the raging battles of the Nazi Party, the communists, as well as the criminals. This is Berlin in 1931 and 1932. Hitler is not Chancellor yet and the Reichstag has yet to be burned.

His love of his partner Johanna, who won't marry him because she is Jewish, his loyalty to his friend Barlach, and his devotion to his father is touching and grounds him. We are dealing with an honorable man in dishonorable surroundings.

Hot on the trail of a psychopath he seeks the advice of Johanna, much like Spenser seeks the advice of Susan Silvermann. But Spenser survives and Harry is left almost on the brink of madness himself.

There was for me almost too much sex and a great deal of it was lurid and uncomfortable. The pschopath kills tranvestites; there is more than a hint of his incestuous upbringing; the Nazis use prostitutes with special skills.

Yet Dold writes a compelling novel and I will read him again, and probably again. 4 stars. Larry Scantlebury