by Joseph Kanon
First published 2002
Jake Geismar arrives in Berlin in 1945 as a CBS correspondent covering the Potsdam Conference. The city lies in ruins, its survivors trading sex for cigarettes and children picking through rubble for scraps. Jake has two missions: write about the American occupation and find Lena, the German woman he abandoned when war broke out. His search takes an unexpected turn when he discovers a dead American soldier washed up near the conference grounds. Jake believes this murder will unlock the story he came to tell. Instead, he uncovers a web of corruption that reaches deep into the occupation forces. The investigation pulls him through a city where the black market rules and moral boundaries have collapsed. As Jake pursues both the killer and his lost love, he confronts a larger crime that looms over everything in 1945, one so massive it seems beyond any justice. His quest becomes a reckoning with both personal betrayal and collective guilt.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, investigation
Setting: Berlin, Potsdam
Period: 1945
Hardcover · Little, Brown
Content warnings: death, violence