Brandenburg

As WWII recedes into the past, writers of Fourth Reich thrillers have had to come up with new and believable ways of keeping the menace of Hitler (if not Hitler himself) alive. In this ingenious yet frustrating thriller, Meade's solution to this vexing problem involves Hitler's relationship with his niece, Geli Raubal. Hitler, however, is far from the thoughts of investigator Joe Volkmann when, in the present, the death of a reporter in Paraguay (who was investigating the death of a smuggler) leads him back and forth between South America and a reunited but riot-torn Germany, in search of ex-Nazis. Volkmann's search also leads him into the arms of the dead journalist's beautiful cousin, Erica Kranz, whose father was a member of the Liebstandarte SS division. Members of that division appear to be part of a conspiracy that has something to do with a photograph, circa July 1931, and a silver-haired German in the wilds of Paraguay. The good news is that Meade, whose first novel, Snow Wolf, dealt with an attempted assassination of Stalin, spins out this involving yarn with skill and clarity. The bad news is that this only serves to highlight a number of frustrating problems: the middle of the novel bogs down in what amounts to police procedural interviews; Volkmann's recurring suspicions of Erica seem perfunctory; and the final confrontation with the real villain is rushed and weightless. Which is a shame, because when the pace picks up and the revelations explode in the final section of the book, you get a sense of what this thriller could have been with a tighter midsection and a final confrontation worth its outstanding premise. 125,000 first printing; $250,000 ad/promo; author tour. (June) FYI: Brandenburg will be marketed jointly with the St. Martin's mass market release of Snow Wolf, which will see a first printing of 750,000.