The Butchers of Berlin - Tapa dura

For fans of Robert Harris, David Peace and Joseph Kanon - a taut, gripping and darkly menacing novel set in wartime Berlin. 'Powerful evocation of a city living in terror' Sunday Times Crime Club 'Ambitious, darkly atmospheric' The Times Berlin 1943. August Schlegel lives in a world full of questions with no easy answers. Why is he being called out on a homicide case when he works in financial crimes? Why did the old Jewish soldier with an Iron Cross shoot the block warden in the eye then put a bullet through his own head? Why does Schlegel persist with the case when no one cares because the Jews are all being shipped out anyway? And why should Eiko Morgen, wearing the dreaded black uniform of the SS, turn up and say he has been assigned to work with him? Corpses, dressed with fake money, bodies flayed beyond recognition: are these routine murders committed out of rage or is someone trying to tell them something ...

Chris Petit has written a trio of acclaimed "beyond black" political thrillers covering a serial killer operating in sectarian Northern Ireland (The Psalm Killer); dirty money in World War II (The Human Pool); and terror, arms trading and the bombing of a civilian aircraft (The Passenger); as well as The Butchers of Berlin which also features the characters Schlegel and Morgen. He is an internationally renowned filmmaker.