(Communist partisans march into Sarajevo at the end of W.W.II)

Luke McCallin’s second installment of his Gregor Reinhardt series is as compelling and nuanced as his first, THE MAN FROM BERLIN.  Two years later, THE PALE HOUSE, finds Reinhardt reassigned from the Abwher, German intelligence to the Feldjaegerkorps, a new branch of the military police with far reaching powers.  The assignment came about following a failed attempt on Hitler’s life that brought a severe crackdown and purge against anyone suspected of having questionable loyalty to the Fuhrer.  Reinhardt had surreptitious links to the German resistance and was worried about his friends and allies.  McCallin creates an unimaginable plot that will place Reinhardt in situations that will call on him to dig deep within himself to survive.

(Yugoslavia during World War II)

In late March, 1945, near Sarajevo, among rumors of deserters Reinhardt comes across a massacre of civilians.  Along with a colleague, Lt. Max Benfeld, Reinhardt investigates the site as a crime scene employing what remained of his past police skills.  After examining the bodies and other evidence he concludes that what occurred was perpetrated by the Ustase, a Croatian fascist ultranationalist party.  Reinhardt locates three survivors and crosses an Ustase checkpoint and brings them to Sarajevo to try and save their lives.  Reinhardt becomes obsessed with the massacre and he begins to wonder if murder was the norm and acceptable behavior in the city as it was surrounded more and more by communist partisans.  As the Germans slowly withdrew north the Ustase wanted to control what remained of Croatia, but they were riddled by different factions with their own agendas.  It was a world dominated by the likes of Vjekoslav Lubaric, the head of the Sarajevo Ustase and Ante Putkovic, who used dice to determine the innocence or guilt of his prisoners.  The Ustase were not an effective fighting force, but were excellent at mass killing.

Reinhardt’s investigation has many threads.  As he tries to bring some semblance of reason to his work he encounters a number of interesting characters.  War Crimes Division jurist, Major Marcus Dreyer, an old friend from the First World War and post war Berlin asks for his help in his own investigation.  It seems that Dreyer suspects German Major Edwin Jansky of a number of illegalities as he is in charge of a Penal Battalion made up of condemned men from all over the Balkans.  It is accepted that Jansky and his men are corrupt and taking advantage of the chaos in the region to rob it blind.  However, Dreyer believes that Jansky and his men may have something to do with the earlier massacre and a number of other murders.

It seems that death becomes Reinhardt’s specialty.  Summoned to an ambush site of dead German soldiers, he finds another five mutilated bodies that were not meant to be found.  As in THE MAN FROM BERLIN Reinhardt has to deal with jurisdictional issues, but in the present situation they lead to greater personal danger for himself and those around him.  Throughout the dialogue McCallin provides a number of asides that fills the reader in with information about Reinhardt’s past.  By doing so we see the further evolution of Reinhardt’s character and moral code as well as how his personal tragedies have affected him.

The mutilated bodies become the axle on which the novel spins as Reinhardt once again has to rely on allies that previously might be considered enemies.  As the story unfolds these allies are somewhat surprising, Suzana Vukic, whose daughter, a Croatian nationalist journalist had been killed, the communist partisan leader, known as Valter, Vladimir Peric, and Alexious, a Greek soldier of fortune trying to save his family.  As McCallin has Reinhardt deal with these relationships he is able to convey the horrors perpetuated by the Ustase as the war begins to wind down.  All the Germans seemed to care about was the withdrawal of as many troops as possible and were not concerned with the actions of their former allies, except for Reinhardt and a few others.  But, is Reinhardt reading the situation correctly, is it the Ustase or perhaps rogue Germans with links high up the chain of command?

As the plot broadens Reinhardt is trying to link the massacres of civilians, the murder of German soldiers, and the corruption that seems to exist everywhere.  McCallin creates a web of deceit that is hard to fathom and the conclusions that Reinhardt reaches are difficult to predict as is the final act in the drama that unfolds.  Once again, McCallin leaves an opening with his final paragraph that will be continued in his recently released third installment, THE DIVIDED CITY.

(Communist partisans liberate Sarajevo at the end of World War II)

(Nazi occupied Sarajevo, 1943)

If one could turn the clock back to the 1990s when men like Slobodan Milosovic and places like Srebrenica were in the news they would recall the horror that they felt. People could not fathom what the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims hoped to gain from all the violence, particularly since the origins of the conflict go back at least to the 4^th century AD with the creation of the Byzantine Empire.  The events of World War II are also part of the Balkan puzzle that we still grapple with today that are displayed in a very thoughtful and chilling manner in Luke McCallin’s novel THE MAN FROM BERLIN.  The war forms the backdrop for the fight between the Ustase, Serb nationalists, and partisan forces as they struggle for the soul of postwar Yugoslavia.

On his third tour of Yugoslavia during World War II, Abwher Captain Gregor Reinhardt finds himself recovering from a drinking binge the night before when he summoned to report to Major Ulrich Freilinger to investigate the murder of an intelligence colleague, and a woman he was with.  A number of problems immediately emerge, one, Reinhardt has not worked a murder case in over four years, and second, the Sarajevo Police Inspector Putkovic claimed his department had jurisdiction in the case, in addition it appeared that the policeman put in charge, Inspector Andro Padelin a member of the Ustase, was a racist and anti-Semite and cared only in solving the crime against Maija Vukic.  Vukic was a well-known film maker and journalist who was a fervent supporter of a Croatian state and freedom from the Serbs.  The fact she had once danced with Reinhardt at a Nazi Party function did not detract from his main goal of locating the killer of Stefan Hendel, the Abwher agent.

There are numerous candidates for the murderer.  Was the individual a Chetnik, a Slavic Nationalistic guerilla force; an Ustase, Croatian fascist; a Yugoslav Royalist; or a member of the partisans under Jozip Broz Tito; or perhaps someone else?  Reinhardt not only has to navigate these groups but there are also SS fanatics and some who want to get rid of Hitler on the German side.  With so many contending groups fighting for control in the Balkans McCallin does a nice job conveying the contentious atmosphere that existed in Yugoslavia that permeates the novel.  What is clear is that the politics of the Balkans throughout the war was byzantine and extreme.

The characters that McCallin creates are unique and at times very difficult to comprehend.  They are people with principles or are they confused or in fact traitors.  Whatever the truth may be the reader will develop respect for certain individuals and scorn for others.  McCallin’s characters are indeed fascinating, among them are Dr. Muamor Begovic, a medical examiner for the Sarajevo police, but also a communist partisan.  Major Becker, a nasty and sadistic individual who is second in command of the Feldgendarmerie or military police and a former Berlin Kripo detective with Reinhardt. Captain Hans Thallberg, an officer in the Geheime Feldpolizi (Secret Police) who admires Reinhardt and tries to assist him.  Inspector Andro Padelin of the Sarajevo police or Ustase, ordered to work with Reinhardt.  General Paul Verhein, the German commander 121^st Jager, whose life journey and loyalties are hard to imagine.  Among these individuals McCallin introduces many people from Reinhardt’s past.  His wife Caroline, son Friedrich, Rudolph Brauer, his best friend, and Colonel Thomas Meissner, his mentor that provide insight into these person Reinhardt will become.

Reinhardt was a man who loved his country, but hated what it had become.  He treasured the friends he made in the army, but grew to hate the uniform they wore.  After the 1936 Olympics, Kripo, the Berlin police were integrated into the Gestapo and Reinhardt had refused to join.  He was posted to Interpol because the Nazis needed his aura of professionalism and his solid reputation.  Once it became clear he was working to perpetuate Nazism he became conflicted because he needed the money to pay for his wife’s medical treatments before she died.  Colonel Meissner would step in and gets him transferred to the Abwher, German intelligence, which reflects what a flawed and conflicted man he was.
It is as an Abwher agent that McCallin develops Reinhardt’s character and the story that forms the core of the novel.  As McCallin spins his tale it is a searing ride with a conclusion that is nuanced and compelling.  It is a plot that should rivet the reader to each page, and fortunately the author brings his story to an ending in such a manner that he leaves enough room to create a sequel entitled, THE PALE HOUSE.

(Nazi occupied Sarajevo, 1943)

Over the years I have developed a proclivity towards certain authors.  In the realm of historical fiction one of my favorites is Steve Berry.  Mr. Berry has published eleven novels in his Cotton Malone series.  Each is a thrilling read as they develop like a puzzle as each character, historical conundrum, and a suspenseful plot fits together like a glove.  I have recently read three of Berry’s novels, THE VENETIAN BETRAYAL, THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT, AND THE PARIS VENDETTA all are stimulating for those who enjoy this genre and are thoughtful as the personal backgrounds of the characters and the historical context that is explored emerges.  The reader travels to Venice, Central Asia, and France as each mystery unfolds whether characters deal with the legacy of Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, or Napoleon as each plot builds on the past to the current issues of terrorism, world finance, or the world balance of power.

Berry’s protagonist Cotton Malone is a former naval officer, US Justice Department agent in the Magellin Billet that specialized in international cases who retired from the government and purchased a bookstore in Copenhagen.  Malone served as a government agent for twelve years and retired at a fairly young age for an individual with his skills.  He was on a case in Mexico City two years before he quit and witnessed the shooting of Mexican prosecutor Elena Ramirez Rico and her significant other Cai Thorvalsen, a Danish diplomat serving in Mexico City, and the son of Malone’s close friend the reclusive billionaire Henrik Thorvalsen.  Malone was wounded during the shooting and for him that was enough.  Thorvalsen approached Malone and offered to sell him the bookstore and the friendship flourished.  They became involved in a number of important situations and they become best friends.  Thorvalsen never gets over the murder of his son and his character is dominated by his feelings of loss and revenge.  Other important characters include Cassiopeia Vitt, an archeologist, scholar, and a women of many martial talents.  In addition, the reader will become familiar with Stephanie Nell who heads the Magellen Billet, and was Malone’s boss at the Justice Department.  Other characters that are included range from National Security advisors to the president, the president himself, other government agents, and a series of terrorists, financial wizards, and other unscrupulous individuals.  Alongside these people are historical personages that Berry relies on to enhance his story lines.

One of my favorite Berry novels is THE ALEXANDRA LINK where the reader is presented with a series of questions; what if the biblical basis for the Israeli state was incorrect?  What if the real evidence for the creation of the Jewish state was in western Saudi Arabia?  What if the ancient translations that led to the writing of the Old Testament from old Hebrew and Greek were open to an interpretation that could destabilize both Israel and Saudi Arabia and reorient the geopolitics of the Middle East?  Intertwine the writings of St. Augustine and St. Jerome; add some nefarious characters that would stand to enhance their power and monetary profit, and sprinkle in American politics and you have a stunning novel.

Another favorite is THE LINCOLN MYTH which has as its main theme the concept of secession and whether the Founding Fathers may have supported the idea that the union of the United States was not a perpetual one.  Berry develops a scenario for Malone to solve that focuses on Brigham Young, the leader of the Mormon Church in 1854 predicting that the Civil War would occur and that would end the persecution of Mormonism.  Young will inform Lincoln where Mormon gold was stored, and Lincoln will provide a document, signed by the Founding Fathers, that said individual states possessed the right to leave the union.  There are six more novels in the Cotton Malone series and I look forward to reading the few I have missed including his latest THE 14^TH COLONY that deals with Canada, an American constitutional crisis, and a former KGB officer.

If you enjoy counterfactual history, in depth character development, and being kept on the edge of your seat Berry’s Cotton Malone series is for you.   For in depth reviews of Steve Berry’s books visit http://www.docs-books.com.

(The Louvre Museum, Paris)

Steve Berry’s novel, THE PARIS VENDETTA provides his usual blend of wonderful primary and secondary characters, intensity, reflecting a firm grasp of history, and the ability to bring the reader to the edge of their seats.  The book is the fifth installment of the Cotton Malone series.  Malone is a former naval officer, US Justice Department agent in the Magellin Billet that specialized in international cases who retired from the government and purchased a bookstore in Copenhagen.  For the first time we learn the details as to why Malone retired at a fairly young age for an agent with his skills.  He was on a case in Mexico City two years before he quit and witnessed the shooting of Mexican prosecutor Elena Ramirez Rico and her significant other Cai Thorvalsen, a Danish diplomat serving in Mexico City, and the son of Malone’s close friend the reclusive billionaire Henrik Thorvalsen.  Malone was wounded during the shooting and for him that was enough.  Thorvalsen approached Malone and offered to sell him the bookstore and the friendship flourished.  They became involved in a number of important situations that have been told in earlier novels.  In the current case it seems that after two years Thorvalsen has identified who killed his son, an action that had devastated the Danish aristocrat and for him revenge and the humiliation of the man responsible was foremost in his mind.  It seems that two men Amando Cabral and Lord Graham Ashby, men who traded in stolen antiquities were about to be charged in a Mexican court for their activities when the killings took place.  Malone was able to kill Cabral, but Ashby, the man who Thorvalsen blamed remained free.

It would not be acceptable for a Berry mystery to just be about murder and revenge and THE PARIS VENDETTA is no exception.  Berry’s novels immediately create a puzzle with each component of the story carefully crafted to arouse the reader’s curiosity, and the current volume is no exception.  At the onset of the plot Berry introduces Napoleon Bonaparte into the equation.  We meet the French dictator in Cairo fourteen months after he has conquered Lower Egypt.  While examining the Pyramids Napoleon decides he must return to Paris because the ruling Directory is not following the revolutionary agenda and has made enemies of most of Europe.  Napoleon’s supposed wealth becomes a major factor in the story’s development.  We are led to Corsica and other environs as Ashby and others seek the deposed dictator’s cache, if in fact it exists.  Further, the Napoleon’s writings become important because according to Thorvalsen the key to uncovering Napoleon’s wealth is in his personal library.  For Ashby the cache is extremely important because of financial difficulties and he is hell bent to locate it.  It seems that Lord Ashby, a “rich” English banker, a possible double agent for the United States, and investor in one of England’s most important financial institutions has made a number of poor decisions and even though his situation has improved by uncovering Edwin Rommel’s gold hidden in Corsica in 1943 he needs further funds.

(a defeated Napoleon)

Another thread in the story is seen through the character of Eliza LaRocque, a rich woman who has maintained a vendetta against the Bonaparte’s since the time of the French emperor’s reign due to how her ancestors were treated.  She has gone on to create the Paris Club, a group of billionaires whose main goal is to influence world markets and financial institutions as a vehicle to enhance their wealth, even if she exploits the terrorist threats.  She joins forces with Ashby, but each have their own agenda in uncovering Napoleon’s cache of wealth.  In addition, Berry introduces the reader to Sonny Collins, an American secret service agent whose bosses have questioned his quest to expose financiers who continue to enhance their wealth financing debt, and wars in particular.  Thorvalsen introduces Collins to Malone and after laying the groundwork in the first part of the book the plot is enhanced, particularly when the international terrorist Peter Lyon is introduced. The question that must be asked is how do all of these characters fit together, and how does Malone navigate the complex situations he finds himself in because of his friendship with Thorvalsen.

Berry’s observations and historical background presented ring very true, especially his remarks about Napoleon and contemporary French society.  Berry’s astute remarks regarding religious and ethnic polarization in today’s France, keeping in mind that THE PARIS VENDETTA is published in 2009, points to the marginalization of France’s Moslem population and the rise of the political right.  If one is looking for a reason why ISIS has been able to create such havoc in France during the last calendar year all one has to do is look to how people of the Islamic faith have been treated in France.

Overall, Berry maintains the quality of knowledge and plot that pulse through the entire Cotton Malone series, and if you are interested the next installment is THE EMPEROR’S TOMB.

(The Louvre Museum in Paris)

(Charles the Great-Charlemagne king of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor)

I have been searching for a post-election tonic as I contemplate the future.  My solution has been Steve Berry novels.  Having just completed THE VENETIAN BETRAYAL I have moved on to THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT to keep my mind from contemplating what a Trump administration might produce.  Mr. Berry did not let me down as he weaves “historical license” with an imaginative mystery to keep me grounded.  Berry’s protagonist remains Cotton Malone, a former naval officer and a member of the Justice Department’s top secret overseas Magellan Billet.  In THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT, the fourth in the Malone series we meet a more personal and introspective character as the novel begins in November, 1971, where Commander Forrest Malone of the USS Blazek, a nuclear powered submarine operating under Antarctica is confronted by a number of issues, the most dangerous of which is a leak of potassium hydroxide fluid that poisons the air on board and Malone’s twenty six year naval career, along with his crew comes to an end.  Cotton was ten years old when his father died aboard the submarine and the government never offered a detailed explanation of what had gone wrong.  Later in life during his naval and Justice Department careers Cotton tried to learn the truth to no avail.  After a nasty situation in Mexico had transpired, Malone decided to retire and purchased a bookstore in Copenhagen.  A few years later the death of his father and the lack of information continued to gnaw at Malone and he convinces his former boss at the Magellan Billet, Stephanie Heller to provide him with naval documents that might lead to the truth.  After receiving an envelope while in Gamisch, Germany with a report on the USS Belzak, Malone is attacked and escapes.  The report from the US Navy Court of Inquiry is nothing more than the navy’s varnished version of what occurred and the misinformation enclosed drives Malone to continue his quest.

As is usual in a Berry novel the plot includes a version of history that is suggestive of a counterfactual approach.  In this case it involves Charles the Great, a.k.a. Charlemagne the King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor.  Berry would have the reader believe that in 1000 AD Otto III wanted to try and reconstitute Charlemagne’s empire, and proof is offered by a small volume that was taken from Charlemagne’s mausoleum.  The volume is in the possession of Dorothea Lindauer, a woman who claims that her grandfather was also killed on the USS Belzak.  The plot becomes very complex in that her grandfather was a Nazi, Hermann Oberhauser, who Heinrich Himmler had placed in charge of the German Ancestral Heritage – the society for the study of the history of primeval ideas designed to unearth evidence of Germany’s ancestors back to the stone age and reinforce many of Himmler’s peculiar racial beliefs.  It seems that Lindauer has a twin sister Christl Falk who approaches Malone to try and learn the truth of what took place in 1971 under the ice in Antarctica.  Further complicating the story is the fact that Oberhauser took part in a Nazi expedition to Antarctica in December, 1938 designed to see if Charlemagne’s teacher and biographer, Einhard’s book was in fact correct.

(Antacrtica)

If this is not confusing enough US Naval Intelligence head, Admiral Langford C. Ramsay has his own agenda when it comes to the USS Belzak.  Ramsay, a man who has further career ambitions dispatches an assassin to take care of anyone who is digging into the events of November, 1971.  It also seems that Edwin Davis, a deputy national security advisor to the president has an interest in learning the truth and despises Ramsay making for a series of interesting alliances among all the players involved.  The question is why does Ramsay go to such extremes after thirty eight years to maintain the navy’s cover-up of the sinking of the USS Belzak?  The story has reverberations of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the pursuit of justice, the concerns of an ancient historian, the plight of the USS Belzak, the belief in the “Watchers” or the “first civilization” that the Nazis believed was Aryan in origin, and the death of Malone’s father, but what do they have to do with each other?

In addition to the above, Berry’s complex plot involves a German family with three interesting characters whose centuries old family legacy is at stake.  Also, two deputy national security advisors to the president each with their own agenda, and of course the president.  All of these components are blended together nicely as Berry tries to keep the reader off balance.  Mission accomplished, and the result is an excellent foray into what could be a past civilization, the interests of Nazi Germany, a major cover-up by the US government, and a group of egos that cannot continence each other.  Try this book and enjoy – the next one up in the series is THE PARIS VENDETTA.

THE VENETIAN BETRAYAL opens in true Steve Berry fashion with a historical scene that lends to the background of the plot.  In this case we find Alexander of Macedonia (the Great) brooding over the loss of Hephaestion, his friend, warrior, and possibly lover who has died.  In his grief he blames Glaucias, the physician for his death, and is executed, but not before we learn that Alexander is ill.  Berry immediately shifts to Cotton Malone, the main character for the author’s series of historical novels.  Malone is a former US Justice Department covert operative who retired two years ago and purchased a bookstore in Copenhagen.  Malone notices a door to a Greco-Roman museum is open so he enters only to find himself in grave danger and is saved from an arsonist’s work by Cassiopeia Vitt, an archeologist, scholar, and a women of many martial talents.  Vitt and Henrik Thorvaldsen, a Danish philanthropist among his many interests have appeared in previous novels as has Stephanie Nell who was a member of the Magellen Billet, an undercover Justice Department operation, and with similar agendas they work well with Malone.

The story is a complicated one.  It seems that when Alexander the Great tried to conquer India around 323 BCE he was met by soldiers riding elephants which he and his army had never experienced and were decimated.  It appears elephant medallions were created and minted to highlight this episode and a number of individuals want to acquire the eight or nine that still exist.  The characters that are developed include Enrico Vincenti, the leader of the Council of Ten that governed the Venetian League, a group of 432 powerful men and women who resented the obtrusiveness of the Italian government.  The Council replicated the 14^th century version of this governing body and their membership had their own concept of wealth and government.  Vincenti is a wealthy man who is the largest stockholder in Philogen Pharmaceutique, a Luxemburg corporation headquartered in Venice but has a complex in Xingyang located in western China.  Philogen’s chief scientist, Grant Lyndsey has developed important viruses and their antiagents that may be weaponized.  The other major character is Supreme Minister Irina Zovastina, the leader of the Central Asian Federation, a grouping of former republics of the Soviet Union that have formed their own political entity, and is obsessed with Alexander the Great.   Vincenti and Zovastina are deeply ambitious and it is interesting to see how their relationship unfolds and how they deal with each other’s goals that do not totally dove tail.  Further confusing the plot line is Viktor Tomas, a double or possibly a triple agent who seems to be in the pay of all sides that appear in the novel.  The question that underlies the novel is how these characters relate to each other and how does the elephant medallions, Lyndsey’s work, and the divergent agendas of the main characters come together to form a suspenseful thriller.

A further plot line which overshadows the first part of the book has to do with the final resting place of Alexander the Great.  Zovastina is convinced that if she can find his remains she can use it as a symbol to spread her federation westward to defeat Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan before she made a move into the Middle East.  She saw herself as replicating Alexander the Great who originated in the west and moved east, Zovastina wanted to reverse the process by moving from the east toward the west.  Enhancing this line of the plot is a secret cure called the “draught” that was used in antiquity to conquer disease.  Further, is the work of Ely Lund, a researcher in a museum in Samarkand, who uncovered a number of important ancient manuscript pages that were linked to the medallions and Alexander the Great’s final resting place.   Malone and company are drawn into this entanglement which includes the Vatican, the president of the United States, biological weapons, and a host of unsavory characters.

Berry does a remarkable job shifting scenes and creating tension.  His historical and Bill Bryson like descriptions are to be commended as HIV research becomes a major component of the story, in addition to the “Greek fire,” an arsonist’s solution that seems to engulf museums across Europe.  If you enjoy fast action, counterfactual history, and strong character development you will enjoy Berry’s work.  For myself I look forward to THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT, the next installment of Berry’s Cotton Malone series.

(Samarkand, Uzbekistan)