GARDEN OF BEASTS

Jeffery Deaver provides a visceral experience of the tension in Berlin when German citizens lavishly hosted the 1936 Humanitarian Olympic Games while, simultaneously, Hitler secretly prepared for war and the extermination of Jews. Jefferson Mays presents a wide range of characters with distinction and aplomb. There's Paul, a hit-man for the New York Luciano Mob; Willi Kohl, a senior investigator in the Kripo, the Berlin criminal police; Reinhard Ernst, Hitler's rearmament czar; Leisel, a barmaid with a secret; Kathe, who helps Paul discover the hero inside his hardened soul; and the Fischer brothers, caught up in the abominable Waltham Study. With Mays's reading, this story becomes a caustic tale of the dangers of ambivalence and appeasement in the face of evil. K.A.T. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 04/ JAN 05]