It's winter 1945, and Mason Collins, former Chicago homicide detective, now an Army criminal investigator, is hunting a killer in Munich. This is no ordinary murderer. He's dissecting and dismembering his victims alive, with surgical skill, and enacting strange rituals with their remains. Mason, having been a prisoner of war as well as a soldier, has no love for the Germans, but the horror is too much for him to accept his immediate superior's pressure: That this is a German killing Germans, and not a major concern of the US military.

Even if it means cooperating with the German police, he'll do his job as he sees it, and find the killer. Mason's newly assigned partner, a woman war reporter, a member of his old unit in Army intelligence, and a senior German Munich police inspector, all play important roles in tracking the killer, and following him into places where Mason's own life is in real danger.

What makes this more than just another police procedural is the characterization. There is no cardboard here, no one-dimensional characters, not even the killer. He turns out to be a very complex individual, someone beset by internal demons, and there are moments when the saner piece of him is even somewhat sympathetic. Characters on both sides of the American/German divide are decent at their core. The sheer bureaucratic and practical difficulties of trying to conduct a reasonably efficient investigation when records are entirely paper, many records have been destroyed, police and population legitimately regard each other as enemies, and there's a major language barrier. People who in more normal circumstances would be motivated to cooperate, are motivated not to.

Mason has to pick his way through this minefield, before the killings cause public panic.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via Penguin's First to Read program. ( )

What a wonderful novel set in post-war Munich, Germany. There are no worse villains then Nazi doctors and this book solidifies this premise. A solid chase after a serial killer through post World War II Germany. I really look forward to reading the next book in the series. ( )

I don't know if I want to like the main character or not - very good at his job, but not at following orders, or working with the other men assigned to him. Delves into the aftermath of WW2, when the most competent investigators have gone home, and common people are suffering. I'd like to read more about this character, to see how he adapts in the future. ( )

This is close to one of the worst books I have ever read and I have to ask myself why I stuck it out to the end. The simple answer was curiosity if there was even one trite plot device the author left out. The answer, I don't think so.

Let's review the clichés, shall we?

• Inexplicably hostile and incompetent colleague. Check.
• Paper-pushing bureaucratic supervisor who is all ambition, no talent. Check.
• All supervisors care about is appearances. Check.
• Our hero is the sole honest cop in a sea of corruption and incompetence. Check.
• Hero is tortured by his childhood/his past/his war experiences/his choices/his failings. Check Check Check • Check Check.
• Killer is a tortured soul burdened by his past. Check.
• Partner is a lovable galoot and sacrifices for the lead. Check.
• Loving detail of sadistic techniques of the murderer. Check.
• Love interest is a spunky, beautiful, too good for him woman with whom he argues. Check.
• No effort nor chemistry is required for them to fall in love. Check.
• Kid jeopardy. Check.
• Love interest jeopardy. Check.
• Hero jeopardy, Check.
• Killer fixates on hero even though he does not fit his psychopathy. Check.

Add to that and the constant sense the book was written by someone who has spent his life resenting his supervisors and co-workers and everyone who did well because nearly the entire staff of the Army is run by incompetents horse's asses. The author seems to have written a lifetime of resentment for bosses and coworkers into these pages.

Add to that a supposedly excellent cop who ignores his instincts - the better to let the bad guy get away and really, I can not think of one likable or original element to this book.

And I am disappointed as I saw it advertised in Harpers and was eager to read it. I like fiction that is located in WW2 and postwar Germany and hoped this would be the start of a good detective series like Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther, Rebecca Cantrell's Hanna Vogel, David Downing's John Russell and Robert Janes St. Cyr and Kohler. I won't bother with book two, there is so much bad in this writing, that even with vast improvement, it would still be poor. ( )

Mason Collins is put in charge of an investigation into what turns out to be the work of a serial killer, who kills in a particularly horrific manner, torturing his victims before putting their mutilated and splayed bodies on display. The investigation is a difficult one, primarily due to the c haos of the post-war environment.
The book does many things well, describing the conditions in the city and the desperation it creates, the interaction of the Americans and the German population, the treatment of former Nazi's and war-criminals. But the plot gets a little forced as it goes with many unbelievable aspects to it by the end. ( )