A year after Germany's defeat, Gregor Reinhardt has been hired back onto Berlin's civilian police force. The city is divided among the victorious allied powers, but tensions are growing, and the police are riven by internal rivalries as factions within it jockey for power and influence with Berlin's new masters.
When a man is found slain in a broken-down tenement, Reinhardt embarks on a gruesome investigation. It seems that a serial killer is on the loose, and matters only escalate when it's discovered that one of the victims was the brother of a Nazi scientist.
Reinhardt's search for the truth takes him across the divided city and soon embroils him in a plot involving the Western Allies and the Soviets. And as he comes under the scrutiny of a group of Germans who want to continue the war—and faces an unwanted reminder from his own past—Reinhardt realizes that this investigation could cost him everything.
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"Set in Berlin in 1947, McCallin's third novel featuring German detective Gregor Reinhardt (after 2014's The Pale House) is his best yet."
— Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Luke McCallin was born in Oxford, grew up in Africa, went to school around the world, and has worked with the United Nations as a humanitarian relief worker and peacekeeper in the Caucasus, the Sahel, and the Balkans. His experiences have driven his writing, in which he explores what happens to normal people—those stricken by conflict, by disaster—put under abnormal pressures. Luke has a master’s degree in political science, speaks French, is learning Spanish, and can just get by in Russian. He lives with his family in France.
John Lee is the winner of numerous Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. He has twice won acclaim as AudioFile’s Best Voice in Fiction & Classics. He also narrates video games, does voice-over work, and writes plays. He is an accomplished stage actor and has written and coproduced the feature films Breathing Hard and Forfeit. He played Alydon in the 1963–64 Doctor Who serial The Daleks.