The Blameless Dead by Gary Haynes

 

• Paperback: 463 Pages
• Publisher: Endeavour Quill (18 Mar. 2019)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1911445642
• ISBN-13: 978-1911445647

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

In the dying days of World War Two, Pavel Romasko and his Red Army colleagues pick their way through the detritus of a dying Berlin. Stumbling upon the smoking remains of a Nazi bunker, they find something inside that eclipses the horror of even the worst excesses in the city above them.

As the war ends, retribution begins. But some revenge cannot be taken at once. Some revenge takes years.

Which is how, seventy years later, FBI agent Carla Romero and New York lawyer Gabriel Hall are enlisted to investigate a series of blood-chilling crimes that seem to have their roots in the distant past — even though the suffering they cause is all too present. And for one of them, the disappearance of young women is a particularly personal matter.

Review

The Bameless Dead has a split storyline between the present day in America and Berlin 1945.  In the present day a man is murdered and a disturbing DVD is missing.  Lawyer Gabriel Hall takes on the defence of the man accused of the murder and finds himself working with FBI Agent Carla Romero in a case that takes a sinister turn with its roots in WWII. In 1945 Berlin, the Germans are defeated, and the Russians come across a secret bunker that contains horrors and brutality never seen before.  They say revenge is a dish best serves cold, and sometimes it takes seventy years.  A combination of historical fiction, crime, thriller and mystery this is a fast paced and intelligent read.

I do love split time line reads; the different plots, characterisation and the variety they add.  Gary Haynes uses this plot device brilliantly and at times I felt I was reading two different books as it jumped between 1945 and the present.  The link between the past and present is kept a mystery through most of the book which adds to the suspense of the how and why of the crimes investigated.  Gary Haynes is a very detailed and thorough writer.  He set the scene beautifully at the beginning of each chapter, bringing the landscape and time period vividly to life.  He gives the same level of detail to his characters; their physical and mental attributes and their back stories which to mean makes a huge difference to a book and how I connect with a character.

Gabriel Haynes has a degree in law and an interest in history which he uses to his advantage in the plot of this book.  The historical detail is amazing, and I love to learn something from a book and I certainly did reading this.  Like most people I like to think I know quite a bit about WWII, but I didn’t know much about the Russian involvement, and the Russian states and their varying allegiances.  I have to admit though, at some points, I did get a bit confused and felt there was maybe too much information as I had to keep checking back.  There are some difficult issues raised in this book, with references to the  torture and brutality in War and how that can stay in the psyche for years after.

The Blameless Dead is tense, chilling and sinister thriller about the horrors and depravity committed in the name of war and revenge.   There is plenty of action and adventure in this pacy read that takes us across continents and covers a seventy years of history.  Erudite in its historical detail, this is a dark and compelling read, I loved it.