Mini-Reviews of Books #11…
[Note from Steve: Here are two British historical mysteries today for you to consider. Because I’m also reading a Churchill bio, I was looking for something related to WWII. These two caught my eye, and I wasn’t disappointed.]
The Man Who Never Was. Hoylton H. Smith, author (Promethean, 2013). This is a great story—or should I say two stories, forty years apart, that come together? In 1985, a cement foundation shifts at an abandoned coke plant in northern England uncovering a skeleton. The Nazi version of a “dog tag” is found with the bones. Wound marks on the neck indicate murder, so the local police are called in, but soon representatives from MI5 and MI6 arrive on scene.
It’s determined that the foundation was laid in 1945 just before the end of the war. That harks back to the other story, the one involving a five-year-old English boy from a nearby town, his German friend in a POW camp nearby where Luftwaffe pilots are held, and espionage and intrigue on both the English and German sides that continues for years.
Historical mysteries can be frustrating as well as entertaining: it’s often not clear where historical truth ends and fiction begins if the author convincingly mixes the two. This author dedicates his book to three of the principal characters, so there’s some truth in here somewhere. That observation might be intriguing for some readers, but the story stands alone. It’s entertaining, generally well done, and I enjoyed it.
There are caveats. POV is sloppily treated, and the author too often lapses into omniscient, including the “if X only knew…,” which I abhor, considering it a sign of author laziness because s/he’s not laid out the clues so that the reader can make that determination. The dialogue is often long and occasionally preachy—no one talks this way, not even Brits; there’s too much of it too, and too little narrative and characterization. The characters are interesting enough, but they need to be fleshed out a wee bit more. The ending seemed a bit rushed; I also wasn’t clear on the threads linking British intelligence actions in 1945 to those in 1985. That aside, this is all nitpicking on my part: Readers will probably find this book very entertaining.
Schreibers’ Secret. Roger Radford, author (Parados Books, 2015). In 1943, Herschel Soferman arrives at Theresienstadt, a transit ghetto set up in the old fortified Czech town of Terezin where Third Reich “undesirables” (Jews and anyone else the Nazis don’t like) are processed. Life is brutal for the Jews there, but the ghetto was established to fool the Red Cross, so some stronger ones can survive—until they slip up and fall into the clutches of SS Obersturmführer Hans Schreiber, master of the torture center known as the Small Fortress. But Soferman not only survives Schreiber’s murderous clutches, he escapes.
Some fifty years later in London, features reporter Danielle Green goes to interview Henry Sonntag, a wealthy Jewish financier later accused of killing two Jews. During the interview, she is moved by Sonntag’s story of Theresienstadt and Schrieber’s malevolence. Her boyfriend, crime reporter Mike Edwards, isn’t so moved because he’s reporting on Sonntag’s arrest for the murders. Moreover, the old man is believed to be Schreiber, so he can also be charged under Britain’s new War Crimes Bill and tried as a Nazi mass murder. Soferman, now living in Britain, comes forward and identifies him as Schreiber. But the two old men look alike, something noted even at Theresienstadt. So which one is Schreiber? Who stole the identity of whom to escape Germany as a Jew after the war and settle in Britain?
Lurking in the background while this is happening is Dieter Müller, a Heidelberg university professor who’s studying the Holocaust and British Nazi war criminals. He promises to help Danielle and Mark who want to protect the real Jew and punish the real Schreiber. His knowledge is like a fountain of information the two main characters can dip into.
Hopping between a trial at the Old Bailey and a search in Germany for World War Two records, this mystery moves along with enough twists and turns to please any fan of historical mysteries. There are plenty of clues that allowed me to predict the outcome, but I have an unfair advantage, I suppose. No matter; this novel represents one of those cases where all I can say is, “Well done, Mr. Radford!”
Caveat emptor: This book isn’t for the squeamish. The atrocities committed by the Nazis at the transit ghetto portrayed here are only a hint of those carried out in Hitler’s mad rush to eliminate an entire people, but Soferman’s tale is very graphic. This book has been opted for a film; I can’t imagine how they’ll present these scenes. Six million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis in the Holocaust—men, women, and children.
Many readers will find Danielle and Mark’s journey to Theresienstadt and the Holocaust Memorial in Israel cathartic—I had similar feelings visiting the memorial here. The book’s an accurate albeit short portrayal of how human beings, the Nazis, could become inhuman monsters, something that has played out far too often during our brief sojourn on this planet. This book is fiction; the Holocaust was real.
[Waiting for sci-fi? More than Human: The Mensa Contagion is now available on Amazon, Smashwords, and other online retailers. Kindle Countdown Deals: The Collector will go on sale for $0.99, reduced from $2.99. The sale will run from August 28 through September 1.]
In elibris libertas….
