cover image The Man from Berlin

The Man from Berlin

Luke McCallin, read by John Lee. Tantor Audio, , 12 CDs, 14 hrs., unabridged, $49.99 ISBN 978-1-4945-0232-4

McCallin’s debut novel takes place in 1943 Sarajevo, a city that, in the midst of WWII, is ethnically, religiously, and politically divided. German military intelligence officer Capt. Gregor Reinhardt is assigned the thankless task of partnering with a thuggish local policeman on a hurried investigation into the murders of a well-connected beautiful Yugoslavian activist/filmmaker and another German officer. McCallin’s plot is engaging, involving multiple intrigues, deceits, and trickery. But it’s his internally conflicted protagonist that distinguishes the novel. Veteran narrator Lee provides the large cast of characters with an apparently endless variety of German and Serbo-Croatian speech patterns, all dramatically animated. But he takes special care to enrich Reinhardt’s accented speech with an initial disinterested weariness that eventually hardens into a resolve that justice must be served. Along the way, there are subtle touches—a hint of whimsy when the captain recalls the pleasure of dancing with the vibrant filmmaker, and, later, a breathlessness prompted by the fear that the investigation may be taken away from him. No chance. A Berkley paperback. (June)