Very interesting book describing events taking place during Olympic Games in Germany in 1936. Paul Schumann (since my copy is not in English but in my mother tongue it is possible I’ll make some spelling errors) is a freelance assassin working for New York mobs. Although he is a killer he only chooses “righteous kills” - meaning he is only going after other blood-handed notorious mobsters.

Soon, he is facing a tough decision – to end up in jail or to accept the proposition from US government to do a small “job” abroad - in Nazi controlled Germany.

Deaver succeeds in creating great characters (not just Paul, WW1 veteran who ends up like a hired gun but has moral values, but also disillusioned inspector Kohl and ruthless minister of armament Ernst) and recreating atmosphere of totalitarian regime where everybody is spying on their neighbors and is ready to sell them just to ensure safety for themselves (although one can ask oneself is anybody safe in such society). Unfortunately this “big brother is watching” touch-and-feel seems to be returning in our own time.

Lots of twists and turns to satisfy any thriller fan.

Recommended. ( )

I like Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme novels but this is not a Lincoln Rhyme novel. This is about the anti-hero, Paul Schumman, in 1936. He is a hired gun, a button man, an assassin, a rub-out man with a heart. That is where he leaves me. I can't imagine a professsional killer who is not self centered and sociopathic. Deaver tries to "redeem" Schumman by making him care about others, fall in love, rescue victims of the Nazis, etc. Anyway, the story is how the Feds catch Schumman but offer him a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card by having him go undercover for them and assassinate Reinhard Ernst in Germany during the Olympics going on in Berlin. Deaver confuses the reader by making Ernst a sympathetic character until the end of the book just like he does with Schumman and Schumman's new friend, Otto Webber, an organized crime survivor. The only character I liked was the German detective chasing Schumman, Willi Kohl.

I made myself read half the book and then I finally gave up trying to like it and skimmed the end and put it down. Deaver disappointed me on this one so I will stick to his Lincoln Rhyme novels for now. Amazon's Editorial Reviews gave it good reviews but I just couldn't seem to like Schumman and the story left me cold. (And I love history!) ( )

I knew after reading a quarter of this book that another author wrote a similar story but I couldn't remember where and it nagged me until the end of this book. But finally I remembered - "The Devil's Handshake" by Murray Davies. The stories are similar - an Allied agent sent into Germany to assassinate a high-ranking Nazi, he is betrayed at every turn, a German woman falls in love with the assassin....the assassin is pursued by a policeman....

It's 1936 and soon it will be the Olympics in Germany. Paul Schumann, part-German but now American citizen and Mafia hitman, is arrested in New York and threatened with the electric chair for murders he carried out for the mafia. But he's offered a deal - his record will be wiped clean if he agrees to go to Germany under the cover of a journalist covering the Olympics and assassinate the Nazi official appointed by Hitler to organise Germany's rearmanent in preparation for war. Schumann agrees and he goes to Berlin where he meets an American agent and together they plan the hit. But when he arrives in Berlin, Schumann is forced to kill someone else to cover his tracks and this puts the German police on his trail. A very good book, wrapped around real historical events (including the black athlete Jesse Owens) but if you have read the other book, you will constantly be reminded of the similarities. ( )

Slightly more disturbing than even most Deaver novels, which is saying something. Contains language, violence, and disturbing sexual content (abuse). ( )