Deadfall in Berlin

Rating:
Summary: Opens with a bang and doesn't let up!
Review: When I studied writing techniques for mysteries, one of the first lessons I learned was that if you don't have your dead body show up in the first chapter, you had better have it in the second chapter. Deadfall In Berlin immediately takes the reader to the book's central murder and then catapults the reader into a psychological mystery that is both extraordinary and rivetting.

Will is an actor living in Chicago in 1975 who has been going through hynoptherapy when at home and alone during an autohypnosis session, he regresses back to when he was 10 years old, living in war-torn Berlin during the Allied bombing. He witnesses his mother's murder, but the details are sketchy. When he tells his therapist of the experience, he finds that he is being stalked by a mystery person apparently bent on killing him. Is that person the same as who killed Will's mother? To find out, his therapist sends him into a deep trance back to Berlin to relive those last few days when one of the most glorious cities in Europe was reduced to rubble.

The descriptions of Berlin during the Allied bombing are incredible. Zimmerman did his historical homework well. The tale he weaves moves quickly, but smoothly. There were no lapses in plausibility: the descriptions and character actions are entirely believable. This the first book by Zimmerman I have read, and you can be sure that I will read more.

Rating:
Summary: Opens with a bang and doesn't let up!
Review: When I studied writing techniques for mysteries, one of the first lessons I learned was that if you don't have your dead body show up in the first chapter, you had better have it in the second chapter. Deadfall In Berlin immediately takes the reader to the book's central murder and then catapults the reader into a psychological mystery that is both extraordinary and rivetting.

Will is an actor living in Chicago in 1975 who has been going through hynoptherapy when at home and alone during an autohypnosis session, he regresses back to when he was 10 years old, living in war-torn Berlin during the Allied bombing. He witnesses his mother's murder, but the details are sketchy. When he tells his therapist of the experience, he finds that he is being stalked by a mystery person apparently bent on killing him. Is that person the same as who killed Will's mother? To find out, his therapist sends him into a deep trance back to Berlin to relive those last few days when one of the most glorious cities in Europe was reduced to rubble.

The descriptions of Berlin during the Allied bombing are incredible. Zimmerman did his historical homework well. The tale he weaves moves quickly, but smoothly. There were no lapses in plausibility: the descriptions and character actions are entirely believable. This the first book by Zimmerman I have read, and you can be sure that I will read more.