Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936 by Jeffery Deaver

Cat and mouse in 1936 Berlin, November 25, 2004****


This novel is a considerable departure from Deaver's recent Lincoln Rhyme crime novels in that it is set in Berlin in the 1936 pre-Second World War era. Yet it retains many of the elements which have made Deaver's novels bestsellers.

Paul Schumann, gangster hitman, is caught by the authorities in New York but, instead of being carted off to jail, he is given a choice- go to jail and face execution or go to Berlin and assassinate one of Hitler's top henchmen, the mythical Reinhard Ernst, who is in charge of Germany's illegal rearmament effort. If he performs this task, he will be freed and given money to set himself up in a legitimate printing business.

So it's off to Berlin for Schumann under the guise of a sportswriter covering the Olympic games. But, as he is about to meet his contact, Schumann stumbles upon a murder which sets the delightful Willi Kohl of the Kripo on his trail. As Schumann hunts his prey, he too is hunted over a feverish 48 hours in Berlin. We come to meet Hitler, Goering, Himmler , Goebels and other historical figures who masterminded the evil of the Third Reich.

The novel is also populated by characters such as Otto Webber, a conman who is of great assistance to Schumann in his endeavour, and Kathe Richter,a schoolteacher who has been forced out of her job for teaching Goethe and with whom Schumann falls in love. The plot twists and twists in many directions and the ending is unexpected. In the end Willi Kohl and Paul Schumann both put the lives of others ahead of their self-interest.