Walter Satterthwait Cavalcade

Cavalcade

Walter Satterthwait

Dune, Feb 2005, $23.95, 368 pp.

ISBN 0312339746

In 1923, The Pinkerton Agency based in London is hired by the Nazi Party to find the person responsible for trying to assassinate Adolph Hitler in Tiergarten Park. He was meeting with General Von Secit hoping that he could convince Von Secit to allow Hitler to have a Putch without the army interfering. While the men are talking, a shot rings out and a gun is found but there is no trace of the assassin.

English agent Jane Turner and American agent Phil Beaumont travel to Berlin where they discover that only eight people, all trusted aides of Hitler, knew about the meeting. The Nazi's want to blame the communists who control part of Germany but the Pinkerton agents believe that the assassin either was one of the eight people or that one of them talked to somebody who then acted on the information. Jane and Phil spend most of their time questioning the eight men but as they get closer to the truth, the octet closes ranks and tries to kill the Pinkerton Agents who the Nazis know detest their war-mongering, hate spewing agenda.

Germany in 1923 is a country on the verge of bankruptcy with beggars living on the streets and men, women and youngsters selling their bodies to get a meal. Walter Satterthwait shows why it was so easy for Hitler to rise to power because he gave the people hope that if they band together and take care of the Bolsheviks and the Jewish "Problems", Germany can because a powerful country again. CAVALCADE is an investigate thriller that shows how hate can fester under certain conditions allow atrocities to occur. This is a very exciting and intriguing reading experience.

Harriet Klausner