Random Things Tours: Blackout by Simon Scarrow

 

Berlin, Germany, end of 1939. In the middle of the long, harsh and dark German winter, a hole of darkness is about to open. A winter that will last more than a season. There are blackouts taking place all over the city, regularly. And suddently, there are corpses. In the long night of humanity, dark holes are vacuuming away any chance of goodness.

Blackout, the latest book of the bestseller historical fiction writer Simon Scarrow, is a historical murder mystery set in Nazi Germany. ´Politicians would come and go, but there would always be criminals´. Criminal inspector Horst Schenke, not a member of the Party, is coordinating the searches for the culprit, and has to deal with a whole lot of Nazi officials of different ranks and colours. Not intimidated, he keeps going, no matter the pressures and the showing off. The murderer hunting women ´under the cover of the blackout´ should be found as fast as possible, before he is making more victims. It is a run against the clock, although overall the pace of the book remains too relaxed compared to the intentions of the characters.

The writing is methodical, well researched and creates an ambiance relying on historical facts and details. However, I had the feeling often that the authors is walking on historical tiptoes which it is in fact no shortcoming, given the heavy weight of the timeline. At the end of the volume, there is a short historical essays delineating the non-fiction context, and a map of Berlin marking the main locations where the story takes place creates a geographical familiarity, especially for the reader who does not have the chance to cross those places on a regular basis. 

As for the crime story, it advances slowly but firmly and it´s solved in the last part of the book. The narrative is neither spectacular or complex but relies on a specific context and historical moment. Therefore, it accumulates an inherent tension of a moment which has multiple meanings - based on the specific historical and political moment, the specific characters and their unique personalities, the common stories they are involved into.

Blackout is a good read for anyone passionate about both historical fiction and murder mysteries. For someone like me, living in Berlin and at a certain extent interested in WWII histories, it offers an interesting literary take within a terrible historical period of time and on a specific place. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own