Monday Book Review: THE IRON HEART A Franz Schmidt Mystery by Marshall Browne

Marshall Browne is an Australian writer you've probably seen me talk about before. I consider it one of my callings to spread the word about his work whenever I get the chance. He's just much too good to be overlooked. Browne, a former merchant banker, writes two terrific suspense series: the Inspector Anders books set in modern day Italy and the Franz Schmidt books set in Germany on the eve of WWII.

Forced to choose, I'd pick the Schmidt books as my favorites, but the enigmatic Inspector Anders is not far behind.

THE IRON HEART is the second book in the Schmidt series, published in 2009 and not, currently, readily available in this country for reasons that mystify. I was thrilled when I finally got my hands on a copy - thankfully sent directly to me from Australia, by the very accommodating author. I'm happy to say that the book more than meets my expectations. It is even better than I dared imagine. (Not always the case with second books in a series.)

The first book in the continuing Schmidt saga, THE EYE OF THE ABYSS was/is one of my favorite books and now I must add this second adventure in which Schmidt once again risks life, limb and everything else he holds dear, to work undercover against the insidious Nazi regime. This is as good a book as the first one and simply put, I was completely caught up in the story - kept reading till 3 in the morning one night, same thing the second and third nights. What a terrific book!

The gist of the story: Franz Schmidt is a bank auditor who has helped mysterious anti-Nazi forces (apparently controlled by the powerful General Manfred Von Streck, a member of the Nazi inner circle) in the past. Schmidt's ingenious machinations in the first book resulted in several Nazis killed - framed for embezzlement at Bankhaus Wertheim, the bank Schmidt once worked for. This time around, General von Streck places the clever auditor inside the ultimately more important Reichsbank, 'the financial heart of the Third Reich' in Berlin. It is the freezing winter of 1939.

"You're a man with extremely unusual and useful qualities, a Machiavellian mind. A man upon whom good luck smiles," Von Streck had announced to him in November. It was true, though he'd only become aware of it in those last vexed and dangerous months at Wertheims.

Not only is he to keep his eyes open (well one eye for sure, the other is a prosthesis), Schmidt is to photograph a certain Nazi financial blueprint kept at night in the bank president's safe, then pass the photos on to Von Streck. Schmidt has also to maneuver - daily - through a dangerous phalanx of suspicious Nazi party members and workers who bristle at the idea of his being brought in from the outside to take over as Chief Auditor. These include the zealous amazonian bank manager, Fraulein Freda Brandt, a passionate, resentful woman and her lover and deadly cohort, Sturmbannfeuhrer Sack of the Gestapo. It isn't long before both begin to suspect the Chief Auditor is up to something.

Schmidt also has to tread lightly around the lascivious bank President, Dr. Funk. Funk, an ugly little man with pretensions of grandeur, is a known homosexual. He is intrigued by the handsome Chief Auditor and plots an unseemly romance. Schmidt is repulsed by Funk's drunken debauchery but forced to put up with him if he [Schmidt] has any hope of undermining the Reich's financial plans.

Also working at the bank is the beautiful and aristocratic Fraulein Anna von Schnelling. The young woman (who has caught the divorced Schmidt's eye) is placed in grave danger when she forcefully foils the plans of Herr Rossbach, a vile oaf of a manager (and future boss of her department) intent on rape.

When she has no choice but to turn to Schmidt for help, he is drawn deeper into a secondary plot which can only endanger his primary goal. Deadly undercurrents swirl around him as Schmidt, despite the many distractions, continues to carry out his  assignment. The grimly impatient Von Streck may be working against the Fuehrer's plans, but he is not someone to trifle with.

In another and ultimately very moving storyline, we meet Fraulein von Schnelling's friend, the intellectual (and rather politically naive) Elizabeth von Bose who has been holding literary salons in her Berlin home, inviting society women and others to speak freely against the government. She is sure that the authorities would not act against them, at least without due process. A tragically wrong assumption on the part of von Bose and her well-meaning friends once they are infiltrated and betrayed by a young Swiss doctor.

Perhaps the most heart rending parts of the book are the scenes at Gestapo headquarters once von Bose and a woman friend are picked up by the authorities. The women are helpless against the kind of animal brutality they have never imagined existed.

This brought home to me once again, one of the possible explanations why citizens of 1930's Berlin and elsewhere in Germany did nothing while the Nazi juggernaut marched forward. It's possible there were many people who simply did not believe that humans - Germans themselves - were capable of such depravity on an organized scale. By the time they were forced to believe it, it was too late.

As the factions at work in a futile attempt to help von Bose and her friend combine and overlap with Schmidt's plans, murder and deadly intrigue become commonplace. Ultimately, in one of several hold-your-breath moments in the story, a daring escape to Switzerland (a neutral country during the war) is activated and succeeds because of an ominous and unexpected presence.

Marshall Browne expertly weaves layer upon layer and all I can say is, this is now officially one of my favorite series of all time. (I can only hope there will be a third book.) It's not just Schmidt who intrigues, there are other secondary characters all beautifully realized: Frau Singer, the elderly Jewish woman who lives across the hall from Anna, Abwehr Captain Eugene Von Beckendorf, in love with Anna, but dying of tuberculosis, he will make the ultimate sacrifice to help her and Schmidt, ex-Judge Rubinstein, a Jewish man surviving in the shadows, supplying false papers, working just a step ahead of the Gestapo. All these characters live in this incredible book.

Browne writes with aplomb and the gift of a sure story-teller. He understands the deep conflict of his main character only too well. Herr Schmidt is a reserved, even brilliant man - once just a staid banker -  trying to stay alive, caught on the slippery slope of equivocation as his duties force him more and more into murderous conspiracy.

(There is a further ominous note in the story, the revelation that Schmidt's ex-wife (he divorced her for her own protection) and his little girl are living in Dresden. This is one of the most heavily bombed German cities during the war - over a hundred thousand people were killed.)

Friday's Forgotten or Overlooked Books: Inspector Anders and the Blood Vendetta by Marshall Browne

It's Friday again, time for Forgotten or Overlooked books  - the weekly meme hosted by Patti Abbott at her blog, PATTINASE. Please check in over there to see what other books other bloggers are posting about. Link here.

I've written about the author Marshall Browne before, he's an Australian writer whose work I really admire and enjoy. Unfortunately, his latest books are not readily available in this country so you sort of have to read him hit or miss. Occasionally you might find his latest book on the secondary market.

INSPECTOR ANDERS AND THE BLOOD VENDETTA (2006) is the third in the Anders series following the first: THE WOODEN LEG OF INSPECTOR ANDERS and second: INSPECTOR ANDERS AND THE SHIP OF FOOLS.

Anders is a 51 year old Italian police inspector - a terrorist expert - who was terribly wounded in a bomb explosion, years ago, an incident which took his leg off at the knee. (Can't remember if it's the left or the right.) He wears a prosthesis - the Mark IV - after having gone through the previous Marks I - III which he keeps lined up in a row in a closet at home. Anders has a wry way of always referring to his 'leg' by its current title. He is acclimated to this injury and appears to harbor no bitterness. It also doesn't seem to hinder his success with the women in his life - Anders has a way of falling for almost all the women he meets. But he's the type who can't seem to settle for just one, though he longs for  permanence and the stable life of family. I suppose many men long for this sort of thing but just can't figure out way to make it happen. The longing is at odds with their basic personalities.

After having dealt the Mafia a grievous blow in the first book (he blew up a room full of Mafiosi in Sicily), he is, naturally, on their hit list and had been living out of the country until forced to return to Italy for this current crisis. The minute he sets foot in Milan, men from the South are sent North to hunt him down. But it's a chance that Anders must take.

The Prime Minister himself wants the famed 'terrorist hunter' on the case when Right Wing government ministers start turning up dead leaving the nation in an uproar. All the victims were killed in the same way with the same 'calling card' left at the scene of each crime: a card with a picture of a raven on it.

The government would love it to be the work of ubiquitous 'terrorists' - the usual suspects. But the brilliant Anders is not so sure. With a body guard in tow and only his own wits and sixth sense to help keep him alive, the perpetually brooding Anders must deal with incompetence and chicanery at every turn, even among the very people who are supposed to be working with him to solve the murders.

While on the case, risking life and his one remaining limb, Anders is also putting the finishing touches on his magnum opus: the biography of his ancestor, the 19th century romantic poet, Anton Anders. The manuscript is one he's been preoccupied with on and off for several years. The poet is a man Inspector Anders has always regarded as a hero because of his work and because of a certain duel back in 1875. Obviously Anders cannot afford a distraction at the moment, but he hopes to 'kill' two birds with one stone while in Italy - his small publisher is housed near Milan.

As the murders continue, all with raven calling cards left at the scene, Anders turns up evidence that the downfall of a large accounting firm with tentacles all over the E.U. is somehow involved. The entire case reeks of corruption. Anders, though, thinks the crimes are of a more personal nature, possibly stemming from the initial corruption; a young couple, an accountant and his fiancee, had gone missing several years before, their whereabouts unknown, their bodies never found.

In the meantime, the men from the South make their presence known by attempts on Anders' life, one which grievously wounds his bodyguard, Matucci, an old acquaintance from a previous case. The wary Anders is left with a Carabinieri as bodyguard, a man he doesn't completely trust, but with whom he must work in the last days of the case as they narrow down the hunt for a killer with a mania for ravens.

Anders is a bloodhound following the scent until the bitter end. In the great scheme of things, he is a cop, a pragmatist who, despite the corruption around him, continues moving forward. When he gets to brooding in the dark of the unfriendly night, he thinks he'd rather be writing poetry or sitting in a cafe with a beautiful woman at his side studying the sunset - but then, in the light of day, there's always the next case, the next national emergency.

More Mailbox Loot!

A book arrived in the mail today. (Obviously it's been a great book week, library and mail-wise.) Marshall Browne is a wonderful Australian writer - one of the best, far as I'm concerned. But you might still have occasional trouble finding his books in this country. I urge you to persevere, he is so worth it.

I discovered Browne a few years ago when I read the first of his Inspector Anders books, THE WOODEN LEG OF INSPECTOR ANDERS (is this a great title or what?). I was equally smitten with INSPECTOR ANDERS AND THE SHIP OF FOOLS.

And now, thanks to the author, I've got my very own signed copy of the third Inspector Anders book, INSPECTOR ANDERS AND THE BLOOD VENDETTA. All three books are set in Italy. So, this one fits in nicely with my Italian summer of the book. Ha!

(I've also learned that there's a new Inspector Anders book to be published in Australia, INSPECTOR ANDERS AND THE PRAGUE SPRING DOSSIER. Good news. Maybe at some point it will be available here.)

Here's how the book in the mail all came about: I've written favorable reviews of  a couple of  Marshall Browne's books, including EYE OF THE ABYSS, his wonderful mystery set in Germany just before the advent of WWII. Hint: I love the book. It's one of my all time favorites. Here's my review.

Anyway, long story short: I recently got an email from Marshall Browne who is in this country travelling and the result is I now have the third Inspector Anders book in my clutches. Soon as he's back in Australia, I am to receive a copy of the second Franz Schmidt book THE IRON HEART - the sequel to EYE OF THE ABYSS -  which I have been longing to read for ages. Woo-Hoo!!

Friday: Forgotten Books

My review of a Forgotten Book, The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders by Marshall Browne is posted over on the fabulous mystery/thriller blog: Pattinase. I'm in great and very intimidating company today. Please go take a look when you have a moment. Read more about the elusive Australian author Marshall Browne here.

Forgotten Friday

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." Friedrich Nietzsche

I've discovered that some book blogs use Friday as a day to remind readers of 'forgotten' books deserving of more than just a desultory look the first time around. What with so much being published all the time, so much to read and so little time to really play catch-up, it's often easy enough to overlook a good book lost in the shuffle of time. I posted earlier about some other forgotten books and listed some of my favorites then (you can check the Older Posts if you like, for They Died in Vain), but when I learned of 'Forgotten Friday' I liked the idea and thought I'd join in. I'm not sure if I have to officially notify anyone, but if I do, I'll figure it out. In the meantime, here's my 'forgotten' nominee for today, Friday, August 20th.

The Eye of the Abyss by the inimitable Marshall Browne. (Published in 2002 by Thomas Dunne Books.)

Perhaps because Browne is an Australian writer he is not as well known as he should be in this country and that's really too bad. He needs some sort of publicity machine to spread the word near and far. It's not only that his books are not well known, but he seems to disappear in between the writing of them. That simply won't do.

I am extremely fond of Browne's very well reviewed and received, Inspector Anders series: The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders (and isn't that one of the greatest titles of any book ever?), Inspector Anders and the Ship of Fools and Inspector Anders and the Blood Vendetta. (This last one is not available in the U.S. far as I can tell, though it was published in 2006.) This is a series set in Italy and, in my opinion, is on par with the more famous author Donna Leon's books and though only three titles in so far, I wish it were just as well known.

I'd thought Browne's brilliant novel, Eye of the Abyss, set in 1938 Germany, was a stand-alone, but it turns out that a sequel, The Iron Heart, featuring Franz Schmidt, the 'hero' of the first book, was published in 2009. I've checked around but it doesn't seem to be available here.

Anyway, let's talk about Eye of the Abyss for now and hope for the best for those other two titles. In a way, this is an odd sort of book mainly because it features a banker as the main protagonist - a profession which would hardly inspire visions of the heroic ideal. Especially since the banker in question is a meek German whose main job is to move the Third Reich's money around. But hero he does become.

Quietly and unobtrusively, accountant Franz Schmidt begins to see the light (there are several allusions to 'seeing' in the book but I won't spoil it by revealing the reason why) as he's drawn, in spite of himself, into a plot to throw a spanner into the Nazis' well-oiled monetary machine. Urged by the obsequious manager of the bank to 'look the other way' as all the rest of Germany is doing in the wake of the Nazi ascendancy, Schmidt at first, does just that. Soon though, he is driven to defy the edict that has ruled his life and begins to view his self-satisfaction from a different angle.

It's 'the how' of Schmidt's determined conversion (once he realizes that there are only two sides: good and evil) that grabs the imagination. Here is a man who is the epitome of the 'go along to get along' type and yet, when fate calls upon him, he delivers. It is author Browne's deft touch and perfect understanding of his own creation, that makes all this believable.

Part of this story of the blossoming of a man's soul, concerns Schmidt's perilous attempt to help a Jewish woman. She is the very self-possessed Fraulein Dressler, working in his office. When Dietrich, an officious Nazi official takes charge of the bank, the personnel files are inspected for suspected Jews. Fraulein Dressler qualifies.

Schmidt is a married man but his 'conversion' also involves his growing feelings for the woman. There is a decided erotic element to their furtive dealings as well as the spectre of heartbreaking suspense as Schmidt realizes that helping her may be beyond his capabilities.

But he aims to try and to that end, hatches a desperate plan. Meanwhile Dietrich, the Nazi official, singles Schmidt out for attention as Schmidt's appearance of imperturbability intrigues him. There is one darkly funny scene that almost defies description when Dietrich invites Schmidt for a drink and then, much to Schmidt's disbelief, tries to seduce him. (He is a middle-aged accountant for God's sake!) 

How Schmidt becomes the 'hero' of his own life is an intriguing and in some ways, terrifying, tale worth reading and remembering.