Spoils of Victory

Connell’s intense sequel to 2015’s Ruins of War finds CID criminal investigator Mason Collins in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the heart of black marketeering for the entire American sector in post-WWII Germany. In the aftermath of a blown attempt by Mason, disguised as a local, to infiltrate a powerful German gang in a bar, he runs into an old friend of his, John Winstone, who’s a special agent with the Counter Intelligence Corps. Mason joins Winstone for an evening out, but the investigator’s suspicions are raised by his friend’s newfound wealth. Winstone manages to convince Mason that his sumptuous house and the trappings are part of his cover and that he has been investigating a criminal ring that has ties to both German criminal elements and officers high in the U.S. military. Then Winstone is murdered, and the scramble is on to find the incriminating documents that he assembled. Connell keeps readers guessing to the end as to just who’s trustworthy and who might be part of the shadowy syndicate. [em]Agent: Matt Bialer, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Feb.) [/em]