Today it is over to Mandie who is sharing her review of Munich Wolf by Rory Clements. Thanks to publisher Zaffre for the advance copy via Netgalley. Here’s what it’s all about:
Source: Netgalley Release Date: 18 January 2024 Publisher: Zaffre
About the Book
Munich in the 1930s is a magnet for young, rich, aristocratic Brits. They come to learn German, but also to go wild, free at last from the suffocating constraints of strait-laced England. They ski in the Alps, swim in the lakes, drink in the beer cellars and fall for the charms of dashing SS officers.
What they don’t see – or choose to ignore – is the cold, brutal, underbelly of the Nazi movement which considers Munich its spiritual home.
But not every German is a Nazi. Murder squad detective Sebastian Wolff is one of those walking a tight line between doing his job and falling foul of the political party he abhors.
When a high-born English girl is murdered, Wolff is ordered to solve the crime. He has a fine record and, importantly, he is fluent in English. But he realises the mission is a poison chalice, for Hitler is taking a personal interest in the case – as is his young English acolyte Miss Unity Mitford.
Wolff is hemmed in on all sides. At work, he is watched closely by the secret police, at home he could be denounced at any moment by his own son, a fervent member of the Hitler Youth.
And when he begins to suspect that the killer might be linked to the highest reaches of the Nazi hierarchy, he fears his task is simply impossible – and that he will become the killer’s next victim.
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Mandie’s Thoughts
Having read and enjoyed books 6 & 7 in the Tom Wilde series by Rory Clements I jumped at the chance to read Munich Wolf a standalone set in Munich in the 1930’s just as Hitler is really starting to take hold and already there is a feeling of hate and distrust to the Jewish community. Sebastian Wolff is a murder detective in the Munich Police force and his unease with the way Germany is heading quite often sees him at odds with those in power. An altercation sees him sent to Dachau where he is subjected to some of the horrors there. Thanks to his connections he is released to head an investigation into the murder of a young British girl, but he is assigned to work with he very officer that got him sent to the concentration camp. Cam they put aside their mutual distrust to solve the case or will it just distract them? Added to this he is struggling to find common ground with his son who is now firmly part of the Hitler youth movement.
Wolff has his work cut out for him on this case. There is pressure to get it solved quickly but with his colleague working against him down to their beliefs it is not going to be easy to get to the truth. If this is not enough he also finds that the murdered girls’ friends are uncooperative when he tries to find out what happened in the run up to the killing. When the case is conveniently solved he just can’t accept it and goes digging further and what he finds is not quite what he expected.
Fighting his own demons after his service in WW1 but despite this he is like a dog with a bone and does not believe in the neatness of the case. The fact that he is willing to put his career and his life on the line to get to the truth makes him someone you would really want on your side. His interactions with Sergeant Hans Winter show the differences in points of view regarding law enforcement but as the investigation progresses you can see the slight thaw in their working relationship and the slow change of opinion in what Wolff is doing. As he says, “they might make a detective out of Winter one day”. With quite a few potential suspects and those in power eager to shut things down the final revelation of who was behind the killings was a bit of a surprise. This book has certainly given me a broader view of Hitler and his rise to power and how the varying factions of law enforcement dealt with things and were not often on the same page. It also highlights how early on that the Jewish community were treated as second class citizens and persecuted. I think that there is more that we could learn about Sebastian Wolff and would love there to be more books with him and Hans Winter.
About the Author
RORY CLEMENTS is a Sunday Times bestselling author. He won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award for his second novel, Revenger , and again for Nucleus in 2018. A TV series of the John Shakespeare novels is currently in development. He is a consistent Sunday Times bestseller and has sold over 400,000 prints copies of his 15 novels to date. Rory lives in Norfolk with his family.
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