Brandenburg: A Novel by Glenn Meade

Brandenburg: A Novel by Glenn Meade
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Description: 60 years ago, the greatest crime against humanity was committed. Today it's only a heartbeat away from happening again.

In the pulse-pounding tradition of Robert Ludlum, John Le Carre, and Frederick Forsyth, Glenn Meade, the acclaimed, bestselling author of the blockbuster thriller Snow Wolf, delivers unrivaled suspense, unforgettable characters, and a brilliantly absorbing story with a mind-blowing surprise ending.

In Paraguay, a young reporter is found brutally murdered. In Berlin, a political activist is gunned down in the street. In Strasbourg, an international policeman is given the name of a beautiful young German woman-- and the first key to an extraordinary plot...

Joseph Volkmann knows that a string of killings around the world are linked by a single purpose. And he knows that Erica Kranz, whose journalist cousin had stumbled on the story, is linked to the plot. Haunted by the ghosts of the past, driven by the specter of the future, Volkmann and Kranz are about to plunge through a realm of terrorism, fanaticism, and deception-- as they stare at the true face of evil...

My thoughts: This is my second Glenn Meade book and I enjoyed it very much. I really enjoyed The Romanov Conspiracy. This one takes place in present day but draws from the events of German WWII. The evidence is sparse in the beginning and early leads seem to dry out. The protagonist is not a Jason Bourne type but a son of immigrants who lived through the Holocaust. He learned little from his father who was a young Jewish teen at the beginning of the war. What he did learn was mistrust of Germans but particularly children of former SS officers. Which is where Erica enters.

Erica is a beautiful German woman whose first cousin was recently murdered in Paraguay. He had hinted before her departure that he was working on a big story. What she nor Joseph Volkman know is that eventually Erica would have become part of the mystery whether she had contacted the international police or not. The players in the mystery are children of those who had made a pact years before. There is a shocker in the story that the reader might see coming. I did. What I did not know until the end was if Erica was part of the plan or not.

It is a carefully laid out spy thriller. Enjoyable read.