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Death Squad London by Jack Gerson - Book Review

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Death Squad London by Jack Gerson

 

If you are into thrillers and murder and suspense type books you will not regret taking a look at this one.

The story is set in London in 1936 and follows the hero, a German refugee by the name of Ernst Lohmann. Ernst was formerly a top detective in Berlin but was forced to leave the country because of his opposition to the Nazi regime.

In London he lives one step above the poverty line, but when an old Jew's daughter supposedly commits suicide, and the courts confirm that verdict, the father asks Lohmann to investigate.

And investigate he does, and along the way he meets and falls in love with the late girl's best friend. She is a wealthy heiress with connections to the government, and it is not long before Ernst is meeting and questioning the out-of-office Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister himself, Stanley Baldwin, and even the uncrowned King Edward VIII, he of Mrs Simpson and abdication fame and all that.

In the course of his enquiries he discovers a gigantic conspiracy that I am not going to elaborate further about here. Suffice to say, the story rattles along at a cracking pace and accurately portrays the spirit of the times, from the Cable Street riots against Oswald Mosley's blackshirts, to pre-war German spies on hiking holidays throughout England, checking out airfields and the like.

There are a couple of minor errors within. The author repeatedly talks of "New Scotland Yard", when surely it was just Scotland Yard back then, and the wail of sirens from the police cars. Even I can remember the rather genteel continuous bell that English police cars rather reluctantly exuded. Sirens there were not!

But we can forgive these minor faults because theis book is a cracking good read and most enjoyable too. If you enjoy it as I did, you could maybe seek out the sister book too, Death's Head Berlin.

 

 

 

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