Garden of Beasts [Paperback]

As is the case with many in the US legal profession, Jeffery Deaver decided to switch one moneymaking job for another--and thank God he did (who needs another lawyer?), when he can produce books like Garden of Beasts. His Lincoln Rhyme crime novels, with their doughty quadriplegic investigator, have been consistently excellent, with only a touch of tiredness creeping in recently. Rhyme was a highly unusual protagonist, and the convoluted serial killer narratives were refreshingly innovative in a desperately overcrowded field. In such winners as The Bone Collectorand The Stone Monkey, Rhyme and Amelia (his police colleague) had their work cut out. But it was apparent that Deaver might be sensing imminent burnout when he came up with two new heroes in The Blue Nowhere: cop Frank Bishop and computer hacker Wyatt Gillette.

And it seems this change of pace didn’t slake Deaver’s desire for the new; here he is changing direction again with Garden of Beasts, a period-set thriller that is as utterly different from anything he’s written as might be imagined--but quite as adroitly written. The setting is New York in the Thirties, and the protagonist here is hitman Paul Schumann, who ends up in police custody after one of his hits misfires. Schumann is given two options: journey to Berlin to terminate Hitler’s associate Reinhard Ernst, or end up in jail for a very long time. Guess which option Schumann chooses? Correct! His danger-fraught journey through a vividly created Berlin, as the preparations for the Olympics transform the city, has the pulse-raising energy of the Rhyme books--particularly as a canny German cop is breathing down Schumann’s neck. With its scarifying picture of a burgeoning Third Reich, Garden of Beasts is Deaver on top form; perhaps Schumann might be more fully developed, but few Deaver fans will complain.--Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Jeffrey Deaver's thrillers are united by his fascination with people doing what they are good at. Garden of Beasts is separated in time and place from his modern thrillers, but both of its heroes are supremely competent men. The shame is that they are working against each other. Gun for hire Paul Schumann is offered a chance to avoid the electric chair. All he has to do is go to Berlin for the Olympics and take out Ernst, chief of the bureaucrats who is building German's military might for Hitler. And in Berlin, honest apolitical cop Kohl finds himself on Schumann's trail without any idea of what he is up to. Deaver is as good here at what an intelligent policeman could do with limited forensic resources as he is in his series about contemporary high-tech criminalist Lincoln Rhyme.

Ernst, meanwhile, is caught up in the Third Reich's vicious infighting and hard at work at a particularly nasty and inventive scheme. This is a splendidly atmospheric historical thriller that wears its research lightly--it is also endlessly inventive in the twists and turns of its characters' movements through a society built on betrayal and sudden death. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

'the master of plot twists and intrigues'

'Deaver fans expect the unexpected from this prodigiously talented thriller writer...This is prime Deaver, which means prime entertainment'

'Everything is not what it seems in this exciting, superbly researched thriller'

'Full on action for Deaver devotees and gripping stuff'

'the nimbleness of his plot and his relentless attention to detail make this too good a book to miss.'

'Deaver fans expect the unexpected from this prodigiously talented thriller writer...This is prime Deaver, which means prime entertainment' --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

'Everything is not what it seems in this exciting, superbly researched thriller' --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

'Full on action for Deaver devotees and gripping stuff' --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

'the nimbleness of his plot and his relentless attention to detail make this too good a book to miss.' --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Paul Schumann is a German-American living in Brooklyn in 1938 and a hitman for the mob. When he is arrested he is taken to an unnamed Colonel in intelligence and given a choice. Either go to jail for life or help his country. The US has discovered that Germany is secretly rearming and that the architect of this rearmament is a man named Rudolph Heinrich, a senior Nazi official and one of Hitler's right hand men. The Colonel wants Schumann to pose as a member of the Olympic team, travel to Berlin and assassinate him. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

In his most ingenious and provocative thriller yet, New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver takes his trademarked plot twists and break-neck pacing to Nazi Berlin.

Paul Schumann, a German-American living in New York City in 1936, is a mobster hitman known equally for his brilliant tactics and for taking only "righteous" jobs. But when a hit goes wrong and Schumann is nabbed, he's offered a stark choice: kill Reinhard Ernst, the man behind Hitler's rearmament scheme, and walk free forever, or be sent to Sing-Sing for a life sentence or the electric chair.

The instant Paul sets foot in Berlin his mission becomes a deadly cat-and-mouse chase, with danger and betrayal lurking everywhere. For the next 48 hours, as the city prepares for the coming summer Olympics, Schumann stalks Ernst, while a dogged criminal police officer and the entire Third Reich apparatus search frantically for the American. Packed with fascinating period detail and featuring a cast of perfectly realized local characters, Olympic athletes and senior Nazi officials – some real, some fictional – Garden of Beasts delivers breathtaking action, a wrenching look at Nazi-era Berlin and, even more so than in Deaver's previous books, a series of stunning surprises at the end.

Former journalist, folksinger and attorney Jeffery Deaver’s novels have appeared on a number of bestseller lists around the world, including The Times, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. The author of eighteen novels, he has been nominated for five Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and an Anthony award. He is a two-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Readers’ Award for Best Short Story of the Year and is a winner of the WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award. His books A Maiden’s Grave, and The Bone Collector have been made into films, the latter starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. His most recent novels are The Stone Monkey, The Blue Nowhere and The Vanished Man. He lives in Virginia and California. Readers can visit his website at jefferydeaver.com.

Jeff Deaver was a lawyer before quitting work to become a full-time writer. He divides his time between Washington, DC and California.