Fiction, Mystery & Crime

The Eye of the Abyss

Name: The Eye of the Abyss
Author: Marshall Browne
ISBN: 9781429992756

by Marshall Browne

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Overview

It is Germany, 1938, and Franz Schmidt is the chief auditor in a commercial bank in a provincial city. But as Schmidt will soon learn, the bank's prestigious new client, the Nazi party, is at once its least desirable. Schmidt will oversee their account, and soon, he is embroiled in the duplicity, violence and horror that is Nazi Germany. Schmidt can't help but be involved, and the first victim of the harsh realities of the Germans' politics is a Jewish secretary whom Franz tries to help, much to his wife's distress.

As Schmidt finds himself caught up in dangerous political machinations, he also finds himself, as the result of an act of compassion, under deadly suspicion. The Schmidts struggle to protect their marriage and their family without compromising their sense of decency, but eventually, Franz's world explodes. As events spin out of control, Franz must act, and he seeks revenge on those responsible by attempting a massive fraud on the Party itself.

In Eye of the Abyss, Marshall Browne crafts an intelligent historical thriller reminiscent of Philip Kerr, Christopher Reich and Alan Furst with a riveting pace and spellbinding plot all his own.

Synopsis

It is Germany, 1938, and Franz Schmidt is the chief auditor in a commercial bank in a provincial city. But as Schmidt will soon learn, the bank's prestigious new client, the Nazi party, is at once its least desirable. Schmidt will oversee their account, and soon, he is embroiled in the duplicity, violence and horror that is Nazi Germany. Schmidt can't help but be involved, and the first victim of the harsh realities of the Germans' politics is a Jewish secretary whom Franz tries to help, much to his wife's distress. As Schmidt finds himself caught up in dangerous political machinations, he also finds himself, as the result of an act of compassion, under deadly suspicion. The Schmidts struggle to protect their marriage and their family without compromising their sense of decency, but eventually, Franz's world explodes. As events spin out of control, Franz must act, and he seeks revenge on those responsible by attempting a massive fraud on the Party itself. In Eye of the Abyss, Marshall Browne crafts an intelligent historical thriller reminiscent of Philip Kerr, Christopher Reich and Alan Furst with a riveting pace and spellbinding plot all his own.

About the Author, Marshall Browne

Marshall Browne, born in Melbourne, is a sixth generation Australian. He is currently working on a second Inspector Anders thriller. His wife Merell, is an interior designer, and their daughter Justine, works at the Australian Embassy, Washington D.C..

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Editorials

The New York Times

Like the shifting reality of Schmidt's life, the changes in his character are as subtle as they are harrowing, a triumph of Browne's clean, exacting style. — Marilyn Stasio

Publishers Weekly

Aussie-based Browne takes a break from his highly praised series about a one-legged European police detective, Inspector Anders, to start what one hopes will be another series, about a one-eyed German banker secretly fighting the Nazis. Franz Schmidt, chief auditor for a family-owned bank in an unnamed south German city, loses his eye defending a Jew attacked by Nazi thugs in 1935. A quiet and meticulous man, he apparently bears no grudges, though his wife and best friend aren't so sure. Three years later, when his bank is chosen as a repository for large amounts of Nazi Party cash, the other shoe drops, and Schmidt becomes a man of action. First, he takes great risks trying to help a female bank employee whose mother was Jewish. Then he dreams up a plan to punish Dietrich, the sleek and seductive party operative placed inside the bank. As he did in his two other books (Inspector Anders and the Ship of Fools and The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders), Browne quickly creates a dark and convincingly Kafkaesque landscape, filled with people whose strengths and weaknesses radiate credibility. Dietrich and another top Nazi, von Streck, are frighteningly vivid, as are the endangered woman, her police inspector father, Schmidt's determined wife and his fragile friend. And Schmidt himself has our complete attention from the beginning, as he and we look for some possible light in the gathering storm of Nazi oppression. Readers who enjoy the WWII mysteries of Alan Furst, J. Robert Janes and Philip Kerr should especially savor this fine book. (Oct. 6) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

As chilling a thriller as you'll read this year, set in Hitler's jack-booted Germany, 1938. Browne puts his well-received detective series (Inspector Andrews and the Ship of Fools, 2002, etc.) on hold while he takes us on an unsettling ride back to that time of swastikas, storm-troopers, and government-sanctioned thuggery. You've been there before, you'll say, but this ride is different. That's because Herr Franz Schmidt, chief internal auditor of Bankhaus Wertheim & Co.-German financial institutions don't get snootier-is different. He's "[s]hort, small-boned, compact," physically very far from your basic action hero. In fact, it's rather a surprise to him that he's a hero at all, though he is-early evidence accruing when, to his astonishment, he springs to the aid of someone being beaten half to death by a Nazi street gang. That episode costs him an eye, and he's about to risk much more. For ordinary citizens, it's an unsettling time in Germany. Those long unemployment lines have ended, the economy is booming, yet gloom and bleakness seem to be its concomitants. Everywhere, there are signs of the Nazi fist tightening. At the bank one day an SS Captain Dietrich turns up insisting that the Nuremburg Laws be enforced, that all employees tainted with Jewish blood be dismissed. Most immediately affected is the lovely Fräulein Lilli Dressler, long-time private secretary to the bank's General-director and clearly the odious Dietrich's target. It's when Franz comes to her aid-again surprising himself-that he sets in motion a series of events that cause him to lose much that is precious to him but to gain something valuable also: a cause. Utterly convincing evocation of a dread place and time,through characters that engage mind and heart. Brilliant storytelling.

From the Publisher

"Like the shifting reality of Schmidt's life, the changes in his character are as subtle as they are harrowing, a triumph to Browne's clean, exacting style."- New York Times Book Review (12/14/03)