Scan barcode
ianayris's review against another edition
5.0
The Blurb
The terrible struggle that was WWII is over, the Germans have won and now occupy London, but it s up to a hardened British detective to turn the tables, save someone s life, and achieve what he has believed was impossible redemption in this crackling thriller debut.
The year is 1946. Nazi Germany has conquered the British, and now forcefully occupies the country and controls its citizens. John Henry Rossett, a decorated British war hero for the Allies and former police Sergeant, has been reassigned to the Office of Jewish Affairs. Built on Nazi ideology, it is a department strictly under the control of the SS, one of the largest and most powerful organizations in the Third Reich.
Rossett, a man accustomed to obeying commands but also one who has lost everything in the war including his wife and child is given no chance to ask questions, no chance to turn it down.
Ultimately, he has no choice in the matter. So he gets on with his job of rounding up Jews, some of whom he s known his whole life, for deportation. That is until he finds Jacob, a young Jewish boy, hiding in an abandoned building and everything changes. Determined to protect the child, Rossett finds himself on the run, the quarry of not only the Germans but also the Royalist resistance and the Communists.
Each faction has its own agenda and Rossett will soon learn that none of them can be trusted . . . and all of them are lethal.
The Review
With a premise like that, it would take a lot for this book not to be hugely enjoyable. And hugely enjoyable, it certainly is.
John Rossett is a war hero turned collaborator – a somewhat robotic figure, reminiscent of Winston Smith in some respects, from Orwell’s 1984. I struggled with him to begin with - his lack of passion, his empty subservience, until it became clear how the war had damaged him on the deepest of levels.
Then it all made sense.
The plot crackles along in an alternative 1946 London that is beautifully atmospheric, peopled with a whole cast of desperate characters, existing beneath and within the Nazi regime that dominates the lives of every Englishman with a typically iron fist.
There are car chases and gunfights, and a cat and mouse game of oppressor versus oppressed, running throughout the book entire book. Holding it all together, however, is the relationship between two seemingly incompatible characters – Rossett and his boss at the Office of Jewish Affairs, Ernst Koehler. Schumacher portrays their relationship brilliantly, holding the tension of the gossamer thread that connects one with the other with a consistently steady hand.
Although the book ostensibly seems to be about the recovery of some diamonds, almost the entire cast of the book are out to discover, or rediscover, just one thing – their humanity.
This, for me, is an anti-war book. A book that shows what war can do to people, how it can make human beings commit the most horrendous acts, undergo the most horrific experiences, and what it takes from them in the process.
But being what it is, humanity can be found in the rarest of places.
Highly recommended.
The terrible struggle that was WWII is over, the Germans have won and now occupy London, but it s up to a hardened British detective to turn the tables, save someone s life, and achieve what he has believed was impossible redemption in this crackling thriller debut.
The year is 1946. Nazi Germany has conquered the British, and now forcefully occupies the country and controls its citizens. John Henry Rossett, a decorated British war hero for the Allies and former police Sergeant, has been reassigned to the Office of Jewish Affairs. Built on Nazi ideology, it is a department strictly under the control of the SS, one of the largest and most powerful organizations in the Third Reich.
Rossett, a man accustomed to obeying commands but also one who has lost everything in the war including his wife and child is given no chance to ask questions, no chance to turn it down.
Ultimately, he has no choice in the matter. So he gets on with his job of rounding up Jews, some of whom he s known his whole life, for deportation. That is until he finds Jacob, a young Jewish boy, hiding in an abandoned building and everything changes. Determined to protect the child, Rossett finds himself on the run, the quarry of not only the Germans but also the Royalist resistance and the Communists.
Each faction has its own agenda and Rossett will soon learn that none of them can be trusted . . . and all of them are lethal.
The Review
With a premise like that, it would take a lot for this book not to be hugely enjoyable. And hugely enjoyable, it certainly is.
John Rossett is a war hero turned collaborator – a somewhat robotic figure, reminiscent of Winston Smith in some respects, from Orwell’s 1984. I struggled with him to begin with - his lack of passion, his empty subservience, until it became clear how the war had damaged him on the deepest of levels.
Then it all made sense.
The plot crackles along in an alternative 1946 London that is beautifully atmospheric, peopled with a whole cast of desperate characters, existing beneath and within the Nazi regime that dominates the lives of every Englishman with a typically iron fist.
There are car chases and gunfights, and a cat and mouse game of oppressor versus oppressed, running throughout the book entire book. Holding it all together, however, is the relationship between two seemingly incompatible characters – Rossett and his boss at the Office of Jewish Affairs, Ernst Koehler. Schumacher portrays their relationship brilliantly, holding the tension of the gossamer thread that connects one with the other with a consistently steady hand.
Although the book ostensibly seems to be about the recovery of some diamonds, almost the entire cast of the book are out to discover, or rediscover, just one thing – their humanity.
This, for me, is an anti-war book. A book that shows what war can do to people, how it can make human beings commit the most horrendous acts, undergo the most horrific experiences, and what it takes from them in the process.
But being what it is, humanity can be found in the rarest of places.
Highly recommended.
thearomaofbooks's review
DNF around 40%. Not bad writing, just wasn't for me. I couldn't handle the unremitting depression, and it only seemed like things were going to continue to get worse for our (anti)hero.
stephend81d5's review
3.0
interesting debut novel based in an alternative world that the germans had won the war and based in post war london that policeman john rossett finds himself rounding up jews for relocation but for some reason decied to help a small jewish boy jacob and the many twists and turns of this thriller. enjoyed the book and looking forward to the next in the series.