Dead of Night: The chilling new World War 2 Berlin thriller from the bestselling author (CI Schenke)

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This is Simon Scarrow's second book featuring Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke in Berlin shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland. This is an interesting and dark read set at a bleak time in the history of humankind. Horst Schenke appears to be an honourable man and a dedicated policeman but he is working for a regime which is not honourable and which bases it’s very existence on crimes against humanity.

The book reads fast, but definitely isn't for the squeamish and those who can't handle the descriptions of the atrocities committed, and to Scarrow's credit, he doesn't go into the detail an historian might go into. For me, there is a clear improvement. The author has always superb stories in mind and this novel doesn't disappoint in any way. The characters are more formed now and the reader can relate to their respective evolution more. For me, I really enjoyed reading how the characters developed and grew, especially with how their own relationships with other characters within the story and universe developed. Schenke sees the paradox of his position but can do little about it- “if ideology became a licence to murder then how could there be any moral justification of such an ideology” At first, the cases seem unconnected, but soon chilling links emerge that point to a terrifying secret. Schenke isn’t the only one in jeopardy. So is everyone within his circle, including Smesler’s widow who has a secret of her own.The historical attention to detail was the strength of Dead of the Night, references to a serial killer on the autobahn the Christmas before is a fascinating true crime to explore by itself, and life in Berlin felt very authentically captured One freezing night, an SS doctor and his wife cheerfully return home from an evening out. By sunrise, the doctor will be lifeless in a pool of blood. Ruth, who is in real danger, is hiding from the Nazis, and despite Schenke's misgivings, he feels he owes it to her to look into the suicide, going to visit Brigitte's home, where it becomes clear that suicide does not fit the evidence. However, the dangers of looking into it soon become apparent when he is abducted by thugs, and when he gets a phone call from none other than Reinhard Heydrich warning him off, the suicide verdict will stand. Schenke's relationship with the beautiful Karin has progressed to a level that he asks her to marry her. She agrees, but he becomes aware that there is much he doesn't know about her when Karin asks for a favour, for him to meet an American journalist that will bring nothing but trouble. Unhappy, feeling coerced, he acquiesces, which is how he finds himself meeting a grieving mother, Johanna Scholz, whose daughter, Greta, supposedly died of pneumonia at the Schiller Clinic in Potsdam.

The way that Simon Scarrow writes is utterly compelling, he’s like my favorite History Teacher, because although Dead Of Night is a work of fiction, it is based on truth, and in his exceptional style, taught me to look at how working and living in Berlin under the threat of Hitler and his SS henchmen when one is just trying to do one’s job, becomes a minefield of difficulty. In our protagonist, Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke, we have a man who cannot fight due to an injury sustained whilst racing for the famous Silver Arrows Racing Team, so he has risen to the rank of Criminal Inspector with the Kripos, and he loves his job, and just wants to keep fighting the criminals, murderers and rapists and make sure they are caught and punished….sounds simple right? But during wartime in Berlin, nothing is simple, no one trusts one another, and Horst finds himself embroiled in a case that he has been warned off investigating, and when he continues to do so puts himself and those he cares about in grave danger.

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It is the middle of a bitterly cold Winter in the Berlin of 1941 and Horst and his team are investigating a plot to print forged ration coupons.

Writing about the inspiration for Dead of Night, Simon Scarrow describes it as being the story of how ‘an extreme ideology prepares the ground for unthinkable and unconscionable actions’. I expect we can all think of contemporary parallels. Navigating such a situation while keeping his integrity intact is the dilemma Schenke faces. He’s a patriot but one who has become ashamed of what his country is doing. It’s these difficult choices that make the book so powerful, exposing as it does some of the darkest deeds of the 20th century. The hurried and official version of the Reich is suicide, but Smesler’s widow doesn’t believe it. At the risk of running afoul of the Gestapo, neither does Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke. The warnings to drop the investigation only compel Schenke to dig deeper. Then Schenke learns of the suspicious death of a child in a remote clinic outside Potsdam. The book lifts a veil from another less reported Nazi horror and manages also to show a good view on the daily life in Nazi Berlin before they started the second phase of WW2. How not everybody was evil but how everybody was terrified in a country that put less of an effort into a valid legal system. Horst Schenke policeman and not a member of the Nazi party has to find his way into society that becomes les reigned by moral but madness. In times of war, under a ruthless regime, there are places no man should ever enter. And Schenke fears he may not return alive . . . Most of us, I imagine, are aware of the vile actions of the Nazi regime towards Jewish people but perhaps less so about the atrocities committed against other sections of the population in pursuit of Hitler’s warped and perverted ideology. (As the author notes, sometimes fiction can do a better job of shedding a light on such things than ‘dry tomes of history’.) It’s just such an atrocity that Schenke uncovers in the course of his investigation. But is it an act of personal revenge or something more sinister?Was it murder or suicide? Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is told that under no circumstances should he investigate. The doctor's widow, however, is convinced her husband was the target of a hit. But why would anyone murder an apparently obscure doctor? Compelled to dig deeper, Schenke learns of the mysterious death of a child. The cases seem unconnected, but soon chilling links begin to emerge that point to a terrifying secret. This thriller is set in January/February in Berlin 1940, when after a night out SS Dr Schmesler is found dead the next morning in his home office by his wife.