Book Review: Garden of Beasts : A Novel of Berlin 1936

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Garden of Beasts : A Novel of Berlin 1936     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Jeffery Wilds Deaver
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Historical   Thriller
Simon & Schuster, Jul 2004, 432 pp.

In 1936, contract freelance hit man Paul Schumann enters the Hell’s Kitchen apartment to bump off Malone, but the mark is not here. Paul realizes he has been set up and the subsequent phone call tells him that twelve armed men wait for him to throw out the window his two guns, to remove his jacket, and wait for their entry with his hands up if he wants to survive.

Navy Intelligence Officer Bull Gordon gives Paul a choice. If he refuses, they have evidence to prove he murdered people, which would lead to at least life in Sing Sing that is if they do not turn him into cement. Paul accepts their kind offer to go to Berlin to kill Colonel Ernst, Hitler’s brilliant militarization expert.

Disguised as a reporter covering the Olympics, Paul sails across the Atlantic, but a Nazi undercover agent believes he might be a paid assassin. Paul kills the spy, but not before word reaches Berlin. When he kills a second person in the German capital, Police Inspector Kohl is on his crowded trail loaded with Nazis wanting to kill Paul before he completes his mission.

Jeffrey Deaver is at his best with this suspense laden historical thriller that brings 1936 Berlin vividly alive in a contrasting manner. On the one hand, there is the Olympics while on the other there is the Nazi movement. The three subplots (Paul’s mission, Inspector Kohl’s investigation, and the Nazi efforts to kill the American) all tie together in a fantastic tale that will bring deserved accolades to Mr. Deaver as he proves once again that he drives more than just a Lincoln.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner