Germania

Germania, is another book in this sub-genre of mystery thriller set during World War II involving the Holocaust.  I would not say this is my favorite style of book to read, but I wills ay that the few I have read recently are very well written and compelling enough to make me stick with them until the end.

Harald Gilbers, a international bestselling author, brings the reader the heart-pounding story of Jewish detective Richard Oppenheimer as he hunts for a serial killer through war-torn Nazi Berlin in Germania.

We meet Richard Oppenheimer, as he awakened in his bed along side his wife, in the middle of the night.  A German officer enters the house and request that Oppenheimer accompany him.  It is really a command and from all the books I have read in the past, I didi not think we were off to a good start.  But it turns out that Richard is Jewish, married to a pure blood German and up until the rule that Jews can no longer hold down a job in Berlin, he was a well respected police detective.  

This call is not for his death, but for assistance on a murder investigation that has the Nazi officers baffled.Richard is being offered a chance to save his and his wife's lives as long as he is working on the case.  This is a very well developed mystery novel with different characters throwing you off track as they are trying to find the murderer before he kills again.  It deals both with the realities of the hate for Jewish people in Berlin and the idea that there are still murderers out there outside of the concentration camp annihilations.

A serial killer who likes to mutilate women is on the loose and the SS is having trouble finding him.Richard is putting his life at risk as he gets closer to the answers.  Gilbers makes Oppenheimer’s fears, and the moral compromises he makes, palpable.  He also makes it all feel so realistic .