The Hour of the Cat

Fintan Dunne #1

by Peter Quinn

It’s just another murder, one of the hundreds of simple homicides in 1939, a spinster nurse is killed in her apartment; a suspect is caught with the murder weapon and convicted. Fintan Dunne, the P.I. lured onto the case; and coerced by conscience into unraveling the complex setup that has put an innocent man on Death Row, will soon find this is a murder with tentacles that stretch far beyond the crime scene…to Nazi Germany, in fact; following it to the end leads him into a murder conspiracy of a scope that defies imagination. The same clouds are rolling over Berlin: where plans for a military coup are forming among a cadre of Wehrmacht officers. Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Military Intelligence, is gripped by a deadly paralysis: he is neither with the plotters nor against them. Joining them in treason would violate every value he holds as an officer. Betraying the plotters to the Gestapo Chief Reinhard Heydrich might just forsake the country’s last hope to avert utter destruction and centuries of shame. Heydrich is suspicious. With no limits to Hitler’s manic pursuit of territorial expansion, with crimes against the people candy-coated as racial purification, the “hour of the cat” looms when every German conscience must make a choice. When he receives an order to assist in a sinister covert operation on foreign shores, Canaris’s hour has come. Hour of the Cat is a stunning achievement: tautly suspenseful, hauntingly memorable, and brilliantly authentic.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Novels, Crime, Historical Mystery

448 pages, Paperback

First published May 20, 2005

About the author

Peter Quinn is the author of the novel Banished Children of Eve (winner of an American Book Award) and previously served as speechwriter for New York governors Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo. A third-generation New Yorker whose granparents were born in Ireland, he is currently Editorial Director for Time Warner and lives in Hastings, New York.

Reviews

[Phil Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is it me, or do some people who post reviews seem to go out of their way to find things to criticise about books they have read? Do they think they are being clever or is it just that they are are bitter and jealous of the fact that they haven't either managed to write a book themselves or actually got anything printed? I ask these questions because some of the reviews of The Hour Of The Cat that I have read bear no resemblance what so ever to the excellent book I have just finished reading. One in particular sticks in my mind that complained that the two parallel stories, one in New York, one in Berlin, bore no relevance to each other. Well forgive me for stating the obvious, but isn't the essence of the story about eugenics and how easily something that is practiced in relative secrecy in the USA can become mainstream policy in another country such as Germany, given the right circumstances? That Man is only a heartbeat away from State sanctioned barbarism?
Peter Quinn has written an excellent book that leaves the reader thinking about what might have been and what could so easily happen given the right circumstances, especially in this age of Mr Trump and the resurgence of the Far Right.
This book holds a lesson for anyone who cares to hear it, as well as being a damn good read.

[Pat Timpanaro · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because it was the first in a series, in which one of the other books was chosen by my mystery book group. This book was the only one which was available electronically through my library.

I found it very difficult to keep track of what was going on in the book. The action, which takes place in the 1930s, keeps switching from Germany to the United States. Perhaps if I had been reading it, rather than listening, it might have been easier to keep track of where the action was and who the characters were. The two stories did come together in the end.

Based on this one book, I have no desire to read anything else by this author.

[Natalie Waddell-Rutter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfectly acceptable story, but I enjoyed the hard-boiled detective story set in NYC more than the Germany story. That could be because the echoes of the Nazi rise to power are reflected a bit too strongly in current events for my taste. It also took at least three-quarters of the book before the two stories were linked. I kept waiting for the stories to merge. It eventually happened, but it took too long for my taste and there was just a tangential overlap.

Canaris in particular bothered me because he didn't do anything. He watched the situation worsen and listened to other people make plans. All he seemed to do was nap in his office. My guess is that was his attempt to ignore the worsening situation and get on with his life.

In NYC, there were so many characters, I had a hard time keeping them all straight. There was the police chief, and a rising attorney general, and a newspaperman, and the private investigator. Why did Quinn put in so many moving parts? Maybe it was to make it more realistic. I wasn't all that impressed.

[Pete Loveday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hour of the Cat
By
Peter Quinn
(Historical Detective)
The setting is both New York and Berlin in 1938.
Grim years and the plot is divided into two – Finton Dunne, an ex New York policeman turned Private Detective, sucked in to investigating the trial and conviction of murderer, with a deadline of an Execution.
Secondly, hero of the First World War, now and Admiral in the German Government, admiral Wilhelm Canaris who is forced to walk the tightrope of love of country and the racial excesses of the Third Reich.
The two stories do merge eventually, but the journey is quite long and drawn out.
An engaging story, told with a keen eye for accuracy and good character development. The references to the practices of eugenics and racial cleansing are disturbing reading.


Four Stars ****
Available on Amazon Kindle.
Published in 20106 in all printed forms and eBook. ISBN 1 920769 78 1

[Sheryl Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting read, but it was a bit hard to follow who was going where and doing what. It took a bit too long for the story to come together for my taste.

Still, it was an interesting view into the minds of the mid-eschelon of the Nazi regime and their counterparts in the U.S. and England.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical insights

Readers with knowledge of the Holocaust and German history will find this to be an interesting read. Those expecting a straightforward murder mystery or police drama will come away frustrated. Enough gems exist here to investigate Quinn's other books, but this one took effort to complete.

[Alan Korolenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

A New York City detective story and a Nazi intrigue tale set in 1938. It centers around the actions of the believers in Eugenics in Germany and New York which is prelude to the coming holocaust and uses the Hurricane of 1938 as a backdrop for the violent final confrontation. The main protagonist, Fintan Dunne, is your classic cynical, wisecracking 1930s PI. The alternating storylines of Dunne's investigation of a murder conviction and the German military officer's plot to overthrow Hitler are finally linked near the conclusion. Both Dunne and Admiral Canaris in Berlin struggle with serious moral questions raised by these historic events. The New York City noir sections with Dunne work best but overall this is a unique and involving take on the genre.

[Carole Hardinge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was definitely more of the historical fiction genre than a murder mystery but it definitely kept my attention. In fact checking the book I learned that both William Donovan and Wilhelm Canaris were historic figures which made their story lines more compelling given that I learned what later happened to both of them. Unlike some other readers I did not have difficulty keeping track of the New York and Germany stories. Chapters were clearly marked and dates readily available while flashbacks were usually in italics.

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.4 stars. Good mystery with a historical overlay that was a really good premise. The story was really hard to follow and even after I got the characters straight, there was never what I call the “click” where a book has you invested and you are deeply engaged in the narrative. Some people had German accents but the main German officer had the most bland non-accent. It was just too scattered and disorganized to really enjoy it. It could have been great. Where are the good editors any more?

[Robert Kendall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the first of a trilogy. HOUR OF THE CAT is set in New York and Berlin in 1938-1939. P.I. Fintan Dunne is hired to look into the case of a man on Death Row for a crime he didn't commit. The story begins as a 1930's PI novel. Than ,it turns into something more complex and sinister,This entertaining crime story has great ambiance.

[Maryann Decicco · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes place in NYC and in Berlin in 1938. The part in NY has the flavor of a film noir detective story. The part in Berlin focuses on the concerns some of the military have about the Nazis and the eugenics movement. I found the NY portions more interesting. And it took some time to connect the two scenarios. The Nazi/eugenics story was disturbing.

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hard boiled detective story set in the mi-to-late 1930s in New York interspersed with the fate of an admiral in the Germany Navy facing Nazi takeover of his country.

The plot keeps your attention, although I prefer the New York detective's efforts to save an innocent man amid police corruption to the gradual hopelessness of the German officer.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

May have done better reading this in print, not as an audiobook. The reader does a very poor "Bogey" imitation for the protagonist. Even so, few readers could have woven together this Chandler/Hammett-wannabee; I don't need a cohesive story line, but this seems stitched together.

[Maren Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Quinn has written a suspenseful layered mystery--one NYC murder starts private detective Dunne on an investigation that begets a larger set of crimes and ties into the 1930's political threats at home and abroad. The characters are quite unique and oddly interesting.

[Harold Ehrlich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!

[Joe Hauglie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story but moves quite slowly.

[Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well it takes a bit of intelligence to follow this hard boiled historical detective novel but the brain expansion is more than worth the effort.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The diversions/back stories slowed the book down. It should have been titled Hours and Hours of the Cat.

[Pam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst book I ever tried to read.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is 1939 and Fintan Dunn, is a PI, struggling to find work in New York City. He had a great lead on a divorce case; a woman wanted him to catch her husband in flagrante delicto in order to improve her case for divorce. But alas, just that morning his potential client was found, literally, holding a smoking gun at her husband who was dead lying next to his hysterical nubile lover. So maybe that is why when he met the beautiful Miss Elba Corado in his office, he actually listens to her request to help exonerate her brother, Walter Grillo, who was convicted of rape and murder and is now serving time on death row. Usually he wouldn’t have given her the time of day. People who think their relatives are innocent are a dime a dozen, but there was something about Miss Corado and her story that made Fintan a bit curious.

Across the ocean in Germany, Adolf Hitler is consolidating his power. Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, as head of Military Intelligence, has discovered a group of Wehrmacht officers who are plotting a coup against Hitler, something Canaris is duty bound to report to the head of the Gestapo, Rudolph Heydrich. But Canaris is reluctant to report the conspiracy, especially as he sees more and more of Hitler’s volatile nature and claims of destiny. Things might have stayed in this uneasy equilibrium indefinitely, but Canaris soon discovers another plot, this time on foreign soil and it is so provocative and dangerous that he is forced to act.

How these very disparate story lines come together is what makes this book so interesting. Based loosely on historical facts, this book fleshes out the period before World War II, giving us insights on the significant events leading up to the war. Quinn really knows his history and he seems equally at home talking about what happened in New York or Germany. He also does an excellent job in fleshing out his characters so that we can see both their strengths and weaknesses as well as their motivations. Their dilemmas seem real and the choices they must make are in some cases extraordinary. Fintan Dunn is quite an interesting character, who although initially seems almost like a caricature of the strong silent PIs of the movies, quickly becomes more nuanced as we learn about his service in WWI and the intelligence work he did during that time. If you are interested in history, particularly of this time period, this is a fascinating read!

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s no easy task summing up the plot of Peter Quinn’s historical thriller, Hour of the Cat. Although the main mystery concerns whether or not a man on death row has been framed for murder, there are several diverse plot lines, a countless cast of characters and plenty of historical details to absorb along the way. And Quinn shows no mercy for those readers who aren’t paying attention as the action shifts between gritty New York locales to the offices and playgrounds of Nazi big shots during the late 1930’s. In Manhattan, Fintan (Fin) Dunne, former cop turned private investigator, reluctantly agrees to help the death row inmate and soon becomes entangled in more sinister matters. In Berlin, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the chief of German military intelligence, attempts to stay on the sidelines as Hitler’s plans become increasingly grandiose. The “science” of eugenics, which espouses the belief that some forms of life are unworthy of life, becomes the link between the two story lines. Informative without being preachy, Quinn never talks down to his readers.

Fintan Dunne is a likeable character. Although savvy and capable, he carries with him a touch of sadness that hints at a difficult early life. The author capably portrays other characters, ranging from politicians to hobos to journalists. And whether Quinn is describing “ramshackle lanes with tarpapered shacks” or “the warm repellent scent of grease, sweat, cheap wine, processed into piss,” the writing is outstanding. It’s not an easy read, but ultimately, it satisfies. And when all is said and done, this novel reminds us how interconnected we humans are and that our actions or apathy in response to world events can have far-reaching effects that reverberate for generations to come.


The above book review was published in CrimeSpree Magazine.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The strength of The Hour of the Cat is its plot, characters, and historical contextualisation and detail. The story is an expansive, complex but intricately plotted tale that blends a traditional style private investigator tale with national and international politics. There are numerous interlinked subplots that mix fictional and real-life characters and are contextualised within the historical record of the time, such as the eugenics movement on both sides of the Atlantic, the expressions of Nazism in the US, the neutrality position of many in the US, developments within Germany and plots inside its military, and even weather events. Along with its elaborate plot are a large cast of characters, each of which is well drawn and accompanied by a back story. The result is a compelling and fascinating tale. Where the story is let down a little is in the telling. The slow pacing, detailed contextualisation, and understated prose produces a rather flat narrative, with a little too much of the telling not moving the story forward, and the complexity of the story might have benefitted from losing one or two subplots. Nevertheless, The Hour of the Cat is a clever tale that provides an interesting insight into the US life and politics just prior to the Second World War.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

An international murder mystery, built around the notorious eugenics fad of the late 30s. Set in 1938, the novel shifts between New York, where private eye Fintan Dunne is trying to sort out a brutal murder, and Berlin, where a few Nazi officers are trying to stop an increasingly irrational Hitler from forcing Germany into another devastating war and imposing his final solution on the Jews and others. The story is historically informed, the period detail, particularly in New York, is interesting, and Dunne is an appealingly human character. Some of the action scenes are hard to follow, though, and the book goes over the top at the end. Still, a good read for those interested in that period, if not the subject matter.

[Chris Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, delving heavily into the backing and supposed legitimacy provided by German scientists and doctors for the ethnic and "inferior specimen" cleansing behind the Holocaust.

There is a story line in New York City also, somewhat along the same lines.

The whole was a little disjointed for my taste, but some passages were downright chilling in their possible comparison to present day political candidates.

For example - this line spoken by a female Jewish doctor, forced out by the Nazi regime:

"Franz and I refused to leave at first. We were convinced Hitler would be tripped up by his vulgarity and ignorance. But he moved from triumph to triumph, and the people gladly followed, even some who had been our friends."

From page 324 in The Hour of the Cat.

[David C Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first of the Fintan Dunne books; not as good as the second one. Set in the late 30s, well written and the characterization is quite good but the plot doesn’t work: dueling narratives centered on euthanasia in Germany and the USA (the Nazis’ have a spy and eliminationist sympathizers in NYC). The problem is that the German sections spin off from the euthanasia program (prelude to the Holocaust) to the high command’s attempts to deal with Hitler. The New York sections are much better and should have been the whole novel. Anyway, the whole thing is triggered by Dunne being hired by a woman whose brother has been framed for killing a woman who worked in a doctor’s office.

Also: Horst Wessel didn’t write the “Horst Wessel Leid”: the “martyred” storm trooper was its subject .

[GlenK · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sprawling work has elements of political and spy thriller but is mostly a tight and gritty 30's style detective novel with a great feel for time and place. Initially the plot meanders a bit and the shifts of focus between New York City and Berlin have an effect on the momentum but once it becomes clear that some grisly events in Germany are tied to some New York murders all is very good. The protagonist, private eye Dunne, is an excellent character, written with a subtlety that ensures he doesn't come off as pulp detective cliche. The inclusion of real people (Bill Donovan, Wilhelm Canaris among them) as main characters is also well handled (think E.L. Doctorow).

[Small Creek · Rating 1 out of 5]

Try taking a walk in a nice, English garden, only to find that you've managed to walk yourself around in circles, getting nowhere, with no idea what you are doing. That's about the experience of reading this; difficult to get through, hard to follow. The initial boost that the blurb gave me petered out ten pages in and, stumbling and grumbling my way through the remaining, I found myself at the conclusion with no idea how I'd gotten there.

Try it out with a clear head and no expectations; you might like it more than I did.

[Monica · Rating 2 out of 5]

The history and setting were fairly well done - the prevalence on both sides of the Atlantic of the pseudo-science of eugenics that was used to justify everything from non-intervention to concentration camps and genocide, the dithering of the Allied powers who didn't want to get involved, the paralysis of the German officer class who despised Hitler and were afraid to oppose him overtly until it was too late, were all pretty well laid out. But I thought the plot and the characters were a little flat, not engaging.

[Carolyn Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set on the eve of WWII, and dealing with the issue of eugenics, this book blends two plots--that of a New York private detective trying to clear a man sentenced to death, and Admiral Canaris, walking a tightrope between his love of his country (Germany) and the horrors of Hitler's rise to power. I recommend it to anyone interested in this time period.

[Janet Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Must agree with others who felt the story was well researched, but confusing and flat. Certainly an decent espionage thriller that could have greatly benefited from keeping the story in fewer viewpoints, and possibly been exceptional