FROM A DARK HORIZON

All is not quiet on the Western Front.

Lt. Gregor Reinhardt, of the 17th Prussian Fusiliers, is roused in the middle of a July night in 1918 with news of a bizarre bombing and the condemnation of one of his men, Willy Sattler, for the deed. The left-wing Sattler, who’s recently been demoted to private, has reportedly taken his own life after blowing up a house full of officers. Flashbacks reveal Reinhardt’s testy exchanges with the anti-war Sattler, but he can’t find any hard data about Sattler’s role in the bombings or his movements shortly before. The insolent push back he gets from Voigt, one of Sattler’s closest friends, gives Reinhardt pause. When he learns that Sattler is not dead but lying in a coma, Reinhardt, who can’t help being disturbed by the rush to judgment on the man's alleged demise without sufficient evidence, begins to investigate. He finds an unlikely ally in Sgt. Rudolf Brauer, who becomes his sidekick after having similar misgivings. Since McCallin, whose three previous Gregor Reinhardt mysteries are set during or after World War II, is as concerned with history as mystery, the two are closely intertwined here. The author lays out the tension between the pro-war mainstream German government and the rising Social Democrats as well as the murkier role of the Russians in the war. Series fans should enjoy his portrait of the younger, more impulsive Reinhardt, and a cast of characters proves helpful in keeping the players straight.

A weighty war novel whose mystery reflects the synergy between the political and personal.