Gunner: A Joseph Gunner Thriller

In this superb historical espionage thriller, Parks (To Die in June) introduces Joseph Gunner, a former Scottish police detective on medical leave in Glasgow after being injured on a French battlefield during WWII. Gunner intends to return to police work once he’s healed and has found his brother Victor, a conscientious objector whose allegiance to Russia has put the siblings at odds. Then two German POWs are murdered, their fingers cut off and their faces mutilated. Gunner’s former boss convinces him to investigate, and some quick digging reveals that both victims were the spitting image of high-ranking Nazi official Rudolf Hess. Soon, Gunner is unraveling a complex Third Reich espionage plot involving multiple body doubles. Along the way, he also finds Victor and warns him that he faces a firing squad for treason if British officials catch up with him. Parks excels at capturing the brutality of war, writing vividly of Germany’s relentless bombing of Glasgow and the makeshift hospitals springing up in bars and on football fields to treat the wounded. Gunner, meanwhile, is a clever, endearing hero whose personal and professional baggage have enough heft to sustain future installments. This is a winner. Agent: Isobel Dixon, Blake Friedmann Literary. (Apr.)