British thriller writer Savarin (A Cold Rain in Berlin
) seems intent on keeping the spirit of Len Deighton and Elleston Trevor alive, as evidenced in the fifth installment in this highly readable series about present-day Berlin policeman Müller, a wealthy man who wears an earring and a ponytail and drives a Porsche, and his burly, working-class assistant, Pappenheim, who smokes too much and delights in needling his superior, known to everyone in the office as the "Great White." This outing is steeped in post-Bond tradecraft, including the nonregulation Beretta 92R that Müller carries in his shoulder holster and uses frequently. As one character points out, the men who seem to be hunting Müller have an unusually high death rate: "you've managed to kill off all those they have sent openly, and not so openly.... Those you don't kill, they do." Müller's longtime quest for the people who murdered his parents comes to a head, and he and Pappenheim, along with lovely U.S. Army Lt. Col. Carey Bloomfield, also get involved in investigating the kidnapping of the family of another American army officer. Savarin certainly knows how to keep genre storytelling surprisingly fresh. Agent, John Richard Parker at MBA Literary Agency (U.K.). (Jan.)
