From international bestselling author Harald Gilbers comes the heart-pounding story of Jewish detective Richard Oppenheimer as he hunts for a serial killer through war-torn Nazi Berlin in Germania. Berlin 1944: a serial killer stalks the bombed-out capital of the Reich, preying on women and laying their mutilated bodies in front of war memorials. All of the victims are linked to the Nazi party. … linked to the Nazi party. But according to one eyewitness account, the perpetrator is not an opponent of Hitler’s regime, but rather a loyal Nazi.
Jewish detective Richard Oppenheimer, once a successful investigator for the Berlin police, is reactivated by the Gestapo and forced onto the case. Oppenheimer is not just concerned with catching the killer and helping others survive, but also his own survival. Worst of all, solving this case is what will certainly put him in the most jeopardy. With no other choice but to futher his investigation, he feverishly searches for answers, and a way out of this dangerous game.
more
I had a hard time on how to rate and review this book
It’s about a week since I finished the book and I finally getting around to formulating my thoughts.
I first list the negative aspects.
Reading this book it felt like the author was putting down his vision of the story as they appeared in his head without trying to organize them so there be a smoother flow of the story line for the reader.
Too often I found myself confused and flipping back a page to see if I missed one. I notice that this has become a bit of a trend lately but at least most of the time they try to kind of put up a chapter heading that gives you a clue. Maybe the book read better in the original German langue. If I went this feeling alone I would have given it a three star.
Now for the positive, this story is a bit unique. Most books deal with the horror in the concentration camp. Live in the Ghettos, survival by hiding and the inhuman transportation of the Jews from various part of Europe.
Here we learn about the German Jews that had a non-Jewish German partner. The wife would be given a choice, divorce which pretty much meant a dead sentence for the husband. If they decided to stick with their spouse they had go live with their husband in a designated area but at least most of the time it stopped the husband from been send to a dead camp. If the wife left or died then the husband lost this thin line of protection.
In the story our Jewish man was a former detective, so a man with a good job and authority. He also was a soldier for the German Reich during World War I. His fairly comfortable life changed with the rise of the Nazi regime. At the time of story he is resigned to his new status expecting any time to be arrested and send to a concentration camp. It becomes clear when a Gestapo enters his home at night and orders him to follow. He automatically picks up his little suitcase expecting never to go home again.
Fate places him in a kind of partnership (if you can call it that) with a Gestapo officer. Distrust of each other from both sides they do develop respect for the other person and manage to work together.
Learning about the situation of the Jew and the Gestapo officer it is hard to determine who is worse off.
The ending gave our detective back some of his dignity by giving him control on how he was going to die and not at the hands of the Gestapo been tortured to dead.
Germania is an intense murder mystery set in WWII Berlin. The dual storylines of the ravishes of war and locating the perpetrator of a gruesome murder means there is a lot going on in this book. The story was originally written in German, and the translation is flawless. The author’s research shines in the details throughout the story.
A serial killer targeting women who appear to have had relations with the Nazi SS is making the party nervous, so former detective and Jew, Richard Oppenheimer is brought in to help find the killer. The author’s portrayal of Oppenheimer’s life as a Jew in Nazi Germany and his conflicting feelings about helping with the investigation add greatly to the depth of the story. The plot twists and red herrings make for a gripping read. The plot tension and pace are perfect. Oppenheimer desperately investigates the murders not only to find the killer, but hopefully, to keep he and his wife alive.
Author Gilbers vivdly develops each character and gruesomely describes each murder victim. It was very easy to visualize the characters and scenes while reading. Fans historic fiction or murder mysteries will love Germania.
Dark WWII serial killer mystery
Very strong sense of place
Fiction for fans of true crime
Novel in translation; originally published in German in 2013
Germania is SO far outside my usual genres, but I’m very glad I read it. With the first few pages, I was completely immersed in the death, destruction, and tension of 1944 Berlin. MC Richard Oppenheimer is a police inspector who was first forced out of his position for being Jewish and then conscripted to assist the Nazis solve a series of heinous murders of women.
This is more ‘slow burn’ than ‘on the edge of your seat’ mystery. In the best way, I felt an impending sense of doom throughout the novel that grew with every chapter.
Note: The descriptions of crimes against women are fairly vivid and could be triggering. Also, long German place names are prevalent throughout; I skimmed over them. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the gifted copy.
An exceptional tale. Oppenheimer is a Jewish investigator living in Berlin during the time of Hitler. The story details his day to day life as he becomes involved in an investigation of a serial killer. It is eerie to watch him do this investigation while his life is also at stake everyday from the very people he is being forced to work with. The challenges he faces with his Arian wife as they struggle to survive in a world that wants to divide them is palpable. The author shows the deep struggles between good and evil that each of the characters faces without ever seeming to come to any conclusion.
Germania by Harald Gilbers is proof that a translated book can be done well. I read pretty fast, but Germania took a week to read. It wasn’t that it was boring, but it is different then serial killer or thriller books written by American authors. While it kept me turning the page because I wanted to find out what would happen next, it didn’t have that frantic pass of an investigation that I am used to. Add in all the German history and places that I am not familiar with, and it had me slowing down even more so I didn’t miss any of the details.
The slow tempo worked well in Germania though. It helped to emphasize the drudgery and waiting that people were feeling during the war. Even the bomb sirens meant that one would be waiting for hours in the shelters, with little to do but sleep and worry.
Gilbers was able to combine the horrors of war and what horrible things people do to each other, right alongside the good in people. The simple act of the madam of a brothel giving the Jewish protagonist some extra money because she understood how cruel the world is, was just one of many examples.
So many historical fiction novels about WWII deal with either the battles or the concentration camps, so I really enjoyed the different premise of Germania. You get to read about the relationships between Germans who truly felt that they were superior, Germans who couldn’t fathom what their country was doing, Jewish people who were trying to just survive, and how Jews and Germans survived together.
I can see how the ending may be disappointing to some people who are used to the killer being caught and a “happy” ending. Germania does not give the reader that, instead it shows the true ending for many who lived through WWII.
Thanks to the publisher, author and Netgalley for this ARC for a review.
I fully enjoyed this taut, tense thriller/mystery. Excellent characters and descriptions, and a fine, complex plot full of tension and danger. Highly recommended.
I don’t often find myself drawn to books about WWII and Nazi Germany; however, I was intrigued by the idea of a serial killer mutilating women, in Berlin, in 1944. As is often the case, I find reading historical fiction to be easier to digest than a text book, and usually more enlightening overall.
Today we think of Germany as having no Jews anywhere but in concentration camps or ghettos. Since I don’t read much about this time period, I sincerely hope that there were Jewish people living in Berlin as late as 1944. Gilbers places Oppenheimer and his wife (who is not Jewish) in a designated “Jewish House” where they have a dwindling number of neighbors.
Gilbers has taken a bold step in making the detective investigating the case a Jew. Richard Oppenheimer was a detective inspector until forced out of that position because of who he was. At the time of his removal, he had been honored because he had solved a case very similar to the one he finds himself investigating at the behest of SS Hauptsturmführer Vogler. Some of the German titles are a bit daunting, but if you break them down into syllables, they are easier to read (i.e., Haupt sturm führer).
Without going into spoiler details, there is a scene involving Oppenheimer and a gang of Hitler youth that will put ice water in your veins. It made me think of where some of the youth today are headed under the tutelage of today’s nationalistic propaganda machines.
GERMANIA is the first in a series of German language novels about Oppenheimer (published in 2013). As I was reading, I thought perhaps the author was British given some of the words and phrases used. I now think that it must have been translated into the Queen’s English. (This is merely an observation and is in no way meant as a criticism.) I always feel strange saying that I ‘enjoyed’ reading a novel about a serial killer, but I did enjoy reading this one. Should the subsequent books in the series be translated into English, I will surely read them.
A Murder Mystery/Thriller Set In An Interesting Time and Location
When I read the teaser for this novel, I found it quite intriguing. Upon reading that teaser, I knew I wanted to read it. I was not disappointed. The setting is around June 1944 in Berlin where the SD officer forces a dismissed Jewish Inspector, Oppenheimer, with a history catching a sadistic serial killer to help investigate a murder of a woman with a mutilated pelvic area and very publicly dumped at a World War I memorial. The storyline unfolds in an environment living and enduring constant Allied bombings, and with the SD, a Security Protection Service of the SS, the Gestapo, Wehrmacht intelligence, old friends who didn’t care that Oppenheimer was Jewish, others who took great offense being integrated by a Jew, Hitler Youth who took offense at a Jewish Oppenheimer would not obey their orders, and lastly, Goebbels who makes an appearance.
During the first chapter, my attention was captured. During the entire novel, I wanted to keep reading. All of the above made the read quite rich for me. Inspector Oppenheimer, the narrator most of the time, is kept in the dark because the investigation is being handled as top secret. There were the twists and turns but now half of his deck of cards was blank for Oppenheimer. The last aspect of the main storyline was the suspense that Oppenheimer was a Jew in Nazi Berlin. This kept an edginess from the start to the last few pages.
The B-storyline was just as complex. Much of Oppenheimer as a person is provided in his interactions with his wife, a dear doctor friend, his Nazi handler, an old police friend, and an old World War I fellow soldier. I even saw his Nazi handler as a human being at times.
What I like was the translator trying to keep the German flavor. The street names used the German, ß, for the double letter, s, in the word street, straße. This was reinforced by the use of German ranks vice their equivalents. There were other words that made the language sound foreign. I learned about some Jews were privileged and had a change not to be sent to the death camps. Also, the common use of methamphetamine, yes – crystal meth in a pill form, by German soldiers and civilians. It was called Pervitin. I knew of this before, but it added another layer of realism to the novel. Unfortunately, some signature British words are used that I just do not see any German using. Vulgar language is almost non-existent. Violence generally described after the fact, and the women were horrible mutilated, but handled as just another aspect of the investigation. This last aspect plus the extreme racism places this novel clearly in the adult content category. Lastly, this novel was not an easy read; it took some effort but it was rewarding.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this novel even though it was not an easy read or quick read for me. All the loose ends were tied up by the end. I am looking forward to reading the next novel in the series if it is translated into English. Because of the few distractors, I rate this novel with four stars. It is well worth the read and I do recommend it.
I have received a free prepublication e-book version of this novel through NetGalley from St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books with an expectation for an honest, unbiased review. I wish to thank St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books for the opportunity to read and review this novel early.
400 pages
3 stars
A good story with a unique premise.
It is 1944 Berlin and a “retired” Jewish detective is contacted by the Gestapo to solve a string of particularly horrible murders taking place in the capital. Women are being killed and left at Nazi monuments about the city. All of the murdered women have ties to the Nazi Party.
Richard and his non-Jewish wife Lisa live in the Jewish House, basically under house arrest and surveillance with several others who are in a similar situation.
Richard is beset by doubt. Why him? What does the Gestapo really want? What do they expect him to do? While fearful, he is glad to be working as a detective again.
This is a fairly well written and plotted novel. It didn’t really grab me as I had hoped it would do. I enjoyed reading it however.
I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books for forwarding to me a copy of this good book for me to read, enjoy and review.