Straight Into Darkness

I read this book without being prejudiced about Faye and her previous works, this book in my opinion an exceptional fictional experience of the 1920's Germany, The political and social scenario's can be experienced and felt. You can alost smell Hitler, his Brown Shirts and the streets of Munich. Hitler's uprise and his impact on the German youth, overall characterization of Munich and depiction of post war depression is what held my attention. Nicely tied with the murders and lead characters with personalities that almost seem real. I highly recommend this book - but please note that it contains some disturbing sexual and voilent accounts.

Faye Kellerman has made a reputation for herself as a detective novelist, writing books mostly with modern characters, the primary ones being a LA cop and his wife. She's also done some other stuff, one involving strange supernatural events and characters, another a cop thing with her husband, and some years ago she wrote a historical novel set in England several centuries ago. This current book is a historical novel too, but the main character (Axel Berg) is a police inspector in 1929 Munich. As the story begins, he's confronted with the murder of a young married woman whose body has been found in a large park in the city. From there, things get complicated. A second body is discovered, and while the plot is thickening, we also learn that Axel isn't exactly an angel himself. As if things weren't complicated enough, Hitler and the Nazis try to take advantage of the murders by blaming them on the Jews. Berg's not convinced: whatever else he is, he isn't an anti-semite. The book operates on a number of levels. Kellerman's handling of the main character and Germans of the era in general is generally fair, and interesting. She doesn't pull any punches with regards to the anti-Semitism (not surprising: she and her husband are both Jewish) but she doesn't make the Jewish characters in the story into saints, or all the Gentiles monsters, either. There are many layers and nuances to the characters, and not all of them are immediately apparent. I will not one semi-negative thing. The author has several of the characters saying at various points in the book that Hitler was illegitimate. At one point someone recounts that this was in a newspaper, and several of the characters then discuss whether it's the case or not, even adding to the story by saying that Hitler's father married his mother while she was pregnant, to provide legitimacy for the child before he was born. I've never read anything like this in any of the books I've read about Hitler (and I've read more than a few). I have no idea if such things were in the press at the time in Germany, but nothing like this occurs in the modern writing about Hitler. That said, this is an excellent book. I enjoyed it a great deal. It *is* a bit long, but if you stick with it you'll find it a very good book.

"Straight Into Darkness" is a terrific example of how fiction can sometimes be our best teacher of history. Over the past 30 years or so, I've studied the rise of German fascism from many different perspectives, reading almost everything available on the topic. There are hundreds of excellent non-fiction accounts of this terrifying era, including such classics as "The Nazi Seizure of Power," "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," and "The Hidden Hitler." Taken collectively, they explain how virulent racism, nationalism, economic insecurity and political upheaval combined to launch the NSDAP during the 1920s. Hitler, an evil genius at public speaking, was riding a wave that he did not actually create. Faye Kellerman's new novel gives us a snapshot of that period by focusing on Munich in 1929. Her main character, Axel Berg, is a cynical police detective on the murder beat. When someone starts strangling and clubbing women to death, the case becomes a rallying point for Hitler and his brownshirt minions. From Berg's perspective, we can see how the Nazis used the media to whip up even greater fear among the populace -- so much fear that they would ultimately welcome a brutal clampdown on the so-called "degenerates" of Bavaria. Not just Jews, but also modern artists, thespians, musicians, democrats, gypsies, homosexuals, Russians and dozens of other "outsider" groups. What's so remarkable about this novel is Kellerman's rigid refusal to turn her characters into black-and-white cutouts. She won't oversimplify human nature to make a political point. All of her main characters exhibit both good and evil, courage and selfishness, in a way that illustrates what was really happening on the ground level in 1929. It's a real triumph of mature storytelling. Some of the vignettes in this novel are very violent and highly sexualized, so I wouldn't recommend this book to young people. That being said, this is certainly one of the best historical novels I've read in the last 10 years. Bravo, Ms. Kellerman.

The impetus behind Faye Kellerman's new --- and arguably best --- novel, STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS, was borne out of a desire to connect with a hidden part of her father's life. Kellerman's dad was an Army soldier stationed in Germany during World War II. His fluency in Yiddish resulted in his being assigned to communicate with concentration camp survivors, as well as with average German citizens living around the camps. Many of the latter claimed that they had no idea what was going on, even as the stench of burning bodies could be smelled from miles away. The idea that such a thing could happen is almost inconceivable; the mind turns away from the concept, even as the extensive documentation of these events demonstrates them to be all too true. STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS does not deal with the Holocaust, however; Kellerman instead chooses to focus on Germany during the period between the first two world wars --- to demonstrate not how such a thing took place, but rather how it came to be. Kellerman utilizes the mystery suspense genre as an ironic and metaphoric vehicle for exploring this horrific episode in world history. Axel Berg is the novel's primary protagonist. A Munich policeman assigned to the homicide unit, Berg attempts to remain apolitical in a time of heated passion, a time when Adolf Hitler, a controversial figure referred to as "The Austrian," has a small but rapidly growing contingency of followers who are utilizing terror in the streets as a means to achieve their ends. Berg is assigned to investigate the murder of Anna Gross, the wife of a wealthy Jew and the daughter of a successful banker. The police are not lacking for suspects --- there is Mr. Gross, as well as a mysterious gentleman with whom she was known to keep company --- but they barely have time to investigate before another woman is discovered to have been killed. This murder bears similarities to that of Ms. Gross in the aftermath, if not the execution. Berg is under pressure from Martin Volker, his superior officer, to find the killer, or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof, in order to reassure a frightened public. Meanwhile, the people of Munich roil uneasily with the prospect of economic and political uncertainties, as Hitler insidiously makes his move for power. As always, Kellerman's plotting is first rate and her characterization steadfastly perfect. Berg, in particular, is unforgettable; as he works both with and against the system, he emerges as a flawed but ultimately noble and upright individual who is charged with doing the right thing during a time when such an option perhaps does not exist. The most memorable feature of STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS, however, is the city of Munich. Kellerman captures and details Munich --- the streets, the restaurants, the tenements, the factories --- down to their finest nuance, painting a picture of a culture and society just as it begins a precipitous slide into madness. The irony of the novel's overriding, inherent cont

Perhaps author Faye Kellerman, herself, summarizes this book best: "Straight into Darkness" is... "a novel born of my passionate desire to connect to a hidden part of my father's life. Set between the two world wars, it is the tale of a serial killer in the city (Munich) that nurtured the ultimate serial killer (Adolph Hitler)." (Parentheses added. See back cover of the 2005 hardback edition. Note: All citations refer to this edition.) She strongly implies that part of her story is based on her family history. Homicide inspector Axel Berg heads an investigative unit of the Munich police charged with finding a serial killer who begins his killing spree attacking beautiful young women and then expands rapidly into other types of victims. Berg has to contend with Nazi Brownshirt hooligans, the distraction of violent political rallies, superiors who want someone--anyone (although a Jew would be best)--charged, and his own, imperfect nature as he tries to bring what unbiased investigative attention he can to a case that rapidly becomes too political. Hitler, himself, ferments further unrest by adding anti-Semitism, paranoia, and threats. Others, as well, use the killings to further their own agendas in this volatile mix. Kellerman presents Berg as a flawed man, subject to the customs and prejudices of the times. A man who beats his Jewish mistress and takes bribes, still he struggles to do the right thing. The investigation eventually becomes a welcome haven for him, as solving the baffling murders seems eminently more doable than allowing himself to look at what he can do, or even more frightening, what he cannot do, to save his family, his city, and his country from the slide "Straight into Darkness" that he sees all too clearly is to come. Kellerman is relentless in not letting Berg off from responsiblilty, nor does she allow the other groups she chronicles to escape their share of the blame for this slide. She is particularly harsh with the prevailing attitudes. Examples: "I don't agree with everything he (Hitler) says, but not all of his rhetoric is drivel," and "I certainly don't agree with Herr Hitler's taste in art. Nor do I like the thugs and hoodlums that give the Nazis a bad name, but I do like what he has to say about honor and loyalty..." (See pages 55 and 215-216.) Kellerman does a beautiful job of telling her tale and, for the most part, her writing enhances her narrative. She does write more believable dialogue for women than she does for men, who tend to sound alike, although her men's speech patterns may more realistically reflect the formalism and the German language patterns of the times. Kellerman's metaphors flow admiringly true: Example: "The air had been crisp and cool at that turning point when the bite of winter started sinking its fangs into the bone marrow." (See page 80.) She describes well the tribalisms (Example: Bavarians vs. Prussians.), rationalizations (Examples: Germany was betrayed, not defeat