.com The same historical intensity and credibility that he used in his tremendous debut thriller about a plot to kill Joseph Stalin (Snow Wolf, available in paperback) enliven Glenn Meade's equally ingenious second novel. After the reunification of Germany, investigator Joe Volkmann shuttles back and forth between Berlin and South America in a search for murderous ex-Nazis. Volkmann's probings reveal new information about many things--especially the strange sexual relationship between Adolf Hitler and his niece, Geli Raubal.From BooklistMeade's second foray into international intrigue (after Snow Wolf ) imagines that Nazis biding time in South America hatch a viable plot to take over contemporary Germany. The novel opens with a splendidly tantalizing episode of eavesdropping by a Paraguayan reporter who, before he's caught and killed, hides a tell-tale tape recording. In Strasbourg, the reporter's cousin brings her worries to Joseph Volkmann, a British investigator for the (fictional) intelligence agency of the European Community. Volkmann then roots around in Paraguay and uncovers the tape and the SS connections of those implicated in the reporter's murder; back in the would-be Fourth Reich, he stalks sinister figures active in the neo-Nazi fringe until the plot reaches a critical mass consisting of plutonium, a son of Hitler, and a coup in Berlin. Fast, sly, and slick, this thriller delivers the goods--tension, action, plot twists--until the smoke clears on the last page. Gilbert TaylorFrom Kirkus sHaving cleared up the mystery of Stalin's death (Snow Wolf, 1996), Meade chronicles to chilling effect the rise and fall of a Fourth Reich led by Hitler's long-lost son. Joseph Volkmann, a British Army officer seconded to the Strasbourg-based DSE (the EU's multinational equivalent of the FBI) is tipped off by journalist Erica Kranz that her cousin's murder in Paraguay and the assassination of a right-wing political activist in Berlin may be linked to a smuggling scheme. Assigned to what he assumes is a drug case, Joe checks possible sources in Europe as well as South America. After being subjected to surveillance at every turn of his globe-trotting investigation and stumbling on a series of unsolved homicides throughout Germany, he realizes his brief involves far more than narcotics. Joe's suspicions are confirmed when an Asuncin police captain with whom Joe's been working is slain in a shootout with aging fascists in Mexico City. Pressing on, Joe also learns that the contraband he's been tracking is bomb-grade uranium that a band of neo-Nazis plan to use as the centerpiece of a cunningly organized putsch fronted by Karl Schmeltz (the boy Hitler fathered by Geli Raubal and then ordered to Paraguay after her suicide). Deadly serious about their takeover of a Germany made restive by unemployment and the increasing incidence of foreign workers, the latter-day Hitlerites execute the Federal Republic's chancellor and take out the cabinet as well. With time running out and communications impossible, a desperate Joe joins forces with a patriotic terrorist named Wolfgang Lusch to storm a seemingly abandoned monastery on a snowbound mountain outside Munich, where Schmeltz and his co-conspirators have a fully operational missile (with a nuclear warhead) aimed at the heart of Berlin. Another literate and suspenseful thriller from an estimable storyteller who proves that beginner's luck had nothing to do with his impressive debut. (First printing of 125,000; $250,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright 1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. how can i get free books Brandenburg: A Thriller
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Not very thrillingBy Dennis M.This is a really great story that falls a bit short of its potential. The author tells the story from the perspective of many of the characters. In some cases, the characters are about to engage each other in some aspect of the plot. So, reading the story from the perspective of one character the author takes you to an exciting point of the story - the suspense is beginning to build - what will happen next? Then, you turn the page and your taken back some period of time, perhaps minutes or perhaps hours, and begin reading the story from the perspective of a different character. In reading about what they are up to, you learn what is going to happen to the other character where the suspense was just beginning to build. And, voila, no more suspense - a thriller gone astray. I probably won't read any more books by this author.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. AwesomeBy JoenCyndiThis book was great. It's twists and turns made me reluctant to set it down. I highly recommend it. This story was well researched and written.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Thrilling but complicatedBy johnThe story line was very interesting once the plot was finally brought to life. For me, the story line had to many different people introduced with much fanfare only to disappear never to be heard from again. For those who came back there were so many you almost forgot what factor they did play in the ultimate plot. There was also duplication of some facts which suggested that the author himself was afraid all of the material inserted between would cloud the readers recall! Not one of Glenn Meade's better books as far as I was concerned.