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The Arms Maker of Berlin
This powerfully suspenseful new novel from Dan Fesperman takes us deep into the early 1940s in Switzerland and Germany as it traces the long reach of the wartime intrigues of the White Rose student movement, which dared to speak out against Hitler.When Nat Turnbull, a history professor who specializes in the German resistance, gets the news that his estranged mentor, Gordon Wolfe, has been arrested for possession of stolen World War II archives, he’s hardly surprised that, even at the age of eighty-four, Gordon has gotten himself in trouble. But what’s in the archives is staggering: a spymaster’s trove missing since the end of the war, one that Gordon has always claimed is full of “secrets you can’t find anywhere else . . . live ammunition.”
Yet key documents are still missing, and Nat believes Gordon has hidden them. The FBI agrees, and when Gordon is found dead in jail, the Bureau dispatches Nat to track down the material, which has also piqued the interest of several dangerous competitors. As he follows a trail of cryptic clues left behind by Gordon, assisted by an attractive academic with questionable motives, Nat’s quest takes him to Bern and Berlin, where his path soon crosses that of Kurt Bauer, an aging German arms merchant still hoarding his own wartime secrets. As their stories—and Gordon’s—intersect across half a century, long-buried exploits of deceit, devotion, and doomed resistance begin working their way to the surface. And as the stakes rise, so do the risks . . .
367 pages, Hardcover
First published August 4, 2009
118 people are currently reading
1510 people want to read
About the author
Dan Fesperman
20 books418 followersDan Fesperman’s travels as a writer have taken him to thirty countries and three war zones. Lie in the Dark won the Crime Writers’ Association of Britain’s John Creasey Memorial Dagger Award for best first crime novel, The Small Boat of Great Sorrows won their Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for best thriller, and The Prisoner of Guantánamo won the Dashiell Hammett Award from the International Association of Crime Writers. He lives in Baltimore.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 134 reviews
December 7, 2009
“Intelligent thriller” is almost an oxymoron, given that the whole purpose of the genre is to ... well, you know, thrill. I mean, nobody reads Dan Brown for serious insight into the history of Christianity and the politics of the Roman Catholic church. (Well, they shouldn't, anyway.) All that ingenious plot-twisting and hair's-breadth-escaping from deadly intrigue tends to annihilate anything like thought.
Which may be why novels like Dan Fesperman's are so rare – or at any rate not as popular as Brown's, or James Patterson's, or any number of other masters of the nonstop page-turner. Fesperman just can't help drawing on his experience as a journalist covering foreign conflicts, most recently for the Baltimore Sun. And that experience puts the meat on the intricate bone structure of his thriller plots. You come away from a Fesperman novel not only abuzz with the exhilaration of the chase, but also aware that you've absorbed something of the complexity of the world's conflicts, grown more keenly aware that they're are a lot more complicated than politicians and ideologues make them out to be.
Fesperman's “The Prisoner of Guantánamo,” for example, gave the reader a glimpse of the culture of that notorious place of incarceration, more vivid and subtle than anything you'd find in news reports, and it did so in the guise of a murder mystery and a spy chase. “The Amateur Spy” took us to a crossroads of Middle Eastern terrorist intrigue and discovered something that's easy to forget: Human beings with the essential traits of being human – hopes, ideals, needs, desires, as well as cruelty and weakness and fallibility -- dwell there.
The typical Fesperman hero is a guy with a certain amount of expertise and often a shadowed past who finds that experience and expertise aren't always quite enough to keep him out of trouble. Usually, as in any good thriller, there's a beautiful woman involved, one who is almost certainly not what she seems. So it is with with “The Arms Maker of Berlin”: Nat Turnbull, mild-mannered history professor, finds himself in cahoots (and bed) with a mysterious and alluring German woman, Berta Heinkel, as they try to locate some documents that may have led to the death of Turnbull's mentor, a retired, alcoholic and recently disgraced historian.
These documents are not just a Hitchcockian McGuffin, the gimmick that drives the plot, but they're also a portal into the history of Germany in the twentieth century. They have to do with the dark past of Kurt Bauer, a German industrialist best known to the public as a manufacturer of household appliances but also ... well, the title kind of gives it away. And what puts Turnbull into thriller-style jeopardy is not only that Bauer, described by one character as “a man whose little black book could help someone build the next nuclear weapon,” may be aiding and abetting some bad guys (i.e., Iranians), but also that the United States intelligence agencies have a pretty strong interest in not letting the truth about Bauer be known. As a historian, Turnbull is dedicated to uncovering the truth, but the FBI, which hires him to lead them to the documents, would just as soon keep it covered, alternately abetting and thwarting Turnbull's search.
While the story of Turnbull's sleuthing unfolds, Fesperman also flashes back sixty-odd years to the story of young Kurt Bauer, who at 17 falls in love with a pretty girl, Liesl Folkerts, who belongs to an anti-Hitler group known as the White Rose. For Bauer, love trumps politics, and that leads him to do something that has grave consequences, an action recorded in the documents Turnbull is looking for. Both stories – Turnbull's and Bauer's – are deftly told, the fiction underpinned with historical details and populated with real human beings such as the German anti-Hitler theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the American spymaster Allen Dulles. And Fesperman's fictional characters, particularly Kurt Bauer, are smartly imagined and subtly drawn.
But what truly animates the novel is Fesperman's awareness of how the calamitous history of Germany in the twentieth century continues to inform current events. From Turnbull's point of view – and Fesperman's – the “cast of players” is “Modern Germany made flesh, in all its macabre and tragic grandeur.” “The Arms Maker of Berlin” doesn't have quite the breathless immediacy and headlong action of Fesperman's ripped-from-the-headlines terrorism tales, “The Prisoner of Guantánamo” and “The Amateur Spy”, which makes it less successful as a thriller. But on the intelligence side of the “intelligent thriller” conundrum, it's a stronger and subtler, and perhaps more satisfying book.
Which may be why novels like Dan Fesperman's are so rare – or at any rate not as popular as Brown's, or James Patterson's, or any number of other masters of the nonstop page-turner. Fesperman just can't help drawing on his experience as a journalist covering foreign conflicts, most recently for the Baltimore Sun. And that experience puts the meat on the intricate bone structure of his thriller plots. You come away from a Fesperman novel not only abuzz with the exhilaration of the chase, but also aware that you've absorbed something of the complexity of the world's conflicts, grown more keenly aware that they're are a lot more complicated than politicians and ideologues make them out to be.
Fesperman's “The Prisoner of Guantánamo,” for example, gave the reader a glimpse of the culture of that notorious place of incarceration, more vivid and subtle than anything you'd find in news reports, and it did so in the guise of a murder mystery and a spy chase. “The Amateur Spy” took us to a crossroads of Middle Eastern terrorist intrigue and discovered something that's easy to forget: Human beings with the essential traits of being human – hopes, ideals, needs, desires, as well as cruelty and weakness and fallibility -- dwell there.
The typical Fesperman hero is a guy with a certain amount of expertise and often a shadowed past who finds that experience and expertise aren't always quite enough to keep him out of trouble. Usually, as in any good thriller, there's a beautiful woman involved, one who is almost certainly not what she seems. So it is with with “The Arms Maker of Berlin”: Nat Turnbull, mild-mannered history professor, finds himself in cahoots (and bed) with a mysterious and alluring German woman, Berta Heinkel, as they try to locate some documents that may have led to the death of Turnbull's mentor, a retired, alcoholic and recently disgraced historian.
These documents are not just a Hitchcockian McGuffin, the gimmick that drives the plot, but they're also a portal into the history of Germany in the twentieth century. They have to do with the dark past of Kurt Bauer, a German industrialist best known to the public as a manufacturer of household appliances but also ... well, the title kind of gives it away. And what puts Turnbull into thriller-style jeopardy is not only that Bauer, described by one character as “a man whose little black book could help someone build the next nuclear weapon,” may be aiding and abetting some bad guys (i.e., Iranians), but also that the United States intelligence agencies have a pretty strong interest in not letting the truth about Bauer be known. As a historian, Turnbull is dedicated to uncovering the truth, but the FBI, which hires him to lead them to the documents, would just as soon keep it covered, alternately abetting and thwarting Turnbull's search.
While the story of Turnbull's sleuthing unfolds, Fesperman also flashes back sixty-odd years to the story of young Kurt Bauer, who at 17 falls in love with a pretty girl, Liesl Folkerts, who belongs to an anti-Hitler group known as the White Rose. For Bauer, love trumps politics, and that leads him to do something that has grave consequences, an action recorded in the documents Turnbull is looking for. Both stories – Turnbull's and Bauer's – are deftly told, the fiction underpinned with historical details and populated with real human beings such as the German anti-Hitler theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the American spymaster Allen Dulles. And Fesperman's fictional characters, particularly Kurt Bauer, are smartly imagined and subtly drawn.
But what truly animates the novel is Fesperman's awareness of how the calamitous history of Germany in the twentieth century continues to inform current events. From Turnbull's point of view – and Fesperman's – the “cast of players” is “Modern Germany made flesh, in all its macabre and tragic grandeur.” “The Arms Maker of Berlin” doesn't have quite the breathless immediacy and headlong action of Fesperman's ripped-from-the-headlines terrorism tales, “The Prisoner of Guantánamo” and “The Amateur Spy”, which makes it less successful as a thriller. But on the intelligence side of the “intelligent thriller” conundrum, it's a stronger and subtler, and perhaps more satisfying book.
April 19, 2017
I must admit that, having not read the book’s description or looked closely at the cover, I was completely surprised that this book had a World War Two theme to it. What I simply assumed would be a modern terrorist thriller was actually about a historian in search of a heavily guarded truth. I may have been a trifle disappointed during the first chapter, but things improved once the plot got going.
What I Liked
Fesperman continues to impress me with the range of historical periods he has covered in his novels up to this point. Mid-90s Bosnia, post-9/11 Afghanistan and Jordan, Guantanamo Bay, and now Nazi Germany.
Unlike the previous book, The Amateur Spy, there weren’t pages of backstory to sift through before getting the plot going.
I’ve read a number of novels set in Nazi Germany, but this one seemed unique in that it detailed the lives of the non-Nazi Party elites.
The differences in style and pace really helped bring out the flashbacks.
What I Didn’t Like
Things seemed to come together a little too perfectly at the end.
The main character, Nat, seemed overly clever for someone thrust into an international mystery plot. There wasn’t much of a learning curve and he was far too confident that nothing would happen to him.
I’m still not sure I understand Berta’s motives for her behaviour. Obsessive, okay, but I don’t see why she wasn’t more cooperative. And, although she wasn’t exactly what she seemed, the real Berta was hardly sinister.
Recommendation
Thrillers like this that provide background and knowledge about a historical period are definitely worth reading. Fesperman has always excelled at this. While I still think his first two books set in Bosnia are his best works (of the ones of I’ve read), it’s definitely worth reading this one if you have an interest in World War Two.
What I Liked
Fesperman continues to impress me with the range of historical periods he has covered in his novels up to this point. Mid-90s Bosnia, post-9/11 Afghanistan and Jordan, Guantanamo Bay, and now Nazi Germany.
Unlike the previous book, The Amateur Spy, there weren’t pages of backstory to sift through before getting the plot going.
I’ve read a number of novels set in Nazi Germany, but this one seemed unique in that it detailed the lives of the non-Nazi Party elites.
The differences in style and pace really helped bring out the flashbacks.
What I Didn’t Like
Things seemed to come together a little too perfectly at the end.
The main character, Nat, seemed overly clever for someone thrust into an international mystery plot. There wasn’t much of a learning curve and he was far too confident that nothing would happen to him.
I’m still not sure I understand Berta’s motives for her behaviour. Obsessive, okay, but I don’t see why she wasn’t more cooperative. And, although she wasn’t exactly what she seemed, the real Berta was hardly sinister.
Recommendation
Thrillers like this that provide background and knowledge about a historical period are definitely worth reading. Fesperman has always excelled at this. While I still think his first two books set in Bosnia are his best works (of the ones of I’ve read), it’s definitely worth reading this one if you have an interest in World War Two.
August 18, 2013
Nat Turnbull is a sympathetic protagonist with his blend of curiosity, intuition, and methodical obsession with historical research. He is a historian so engrossed in his discipline that it comes as a complete surprise when his wife files for divorce. The object of his obsession is World War II Germany, specifically, the search for undisclosed machinations –betrayals. Along with his former mentor, Gordon Wolfe, he is fascinated by the architecture of failure. “Just as when a building collapsed no one wasted time studying the parts that didn't fail. Look deeply enough into the origins of some huge movement in history, they believed, and you would inevitably find a personal snub, a romantic breakup, or some kind of thwarted ambition.” Poring over texts and artifacts, then, is only a beginning for both of them. The critical link is the emotional state of not only the participants, but the ripple of unintended consequences inflicted upon their successors. It is no wonder that Nat is fascinated with visiting the buildings and streets where history took place. His imagination is able to conjure the optimism and fears of the players who once walked those streets.
The plot is classic thriller. Nat is summoned to the Adirondacks by Gordon's wife. Gordon has been arrested – accused of stealing government files. Despite an unresolved estrangement, Nat rushes to assist Gordon, who claims the files were planted. At the arraignment, he meets a mysterious German woman named Berta who also seems to be following the case with interest. Gordon is in his 80's now. A charming raconteur whose tales are fueled by a balance of alcohol and erudition. Plus, in his youth, he actually worked with the OSS in Bern, and so had first-hand knowledge of many of the Nazi's fleeing Germany.
A parallel story follows the war-time activities of Kurt Bauer, now in his 80's, head of a powerful armaments manufacturer. Bauer's clandestine contacts reach to Washington DC, Tehran and, coincidentally, a small town in the Adirondacks. His story, however, begins in December of 1941. Hitler has already invaded Russia. It is both surprising and sobering to hear that even at that early stage, many knew that the invasion was not going well, and that suspected that the war was unwinnable, despite the government's propaganda.
Thus, the reader is left with several mysteries to be pursued. First, what is the connection between Nat Turnbull's investigation and Kurt Bauer's story? Second, were the files actually planted in Gordon's house, by whom, and why? Finally, who is the mysterious woman, Berta, and what is her interest in Gordon?
Bauer's story seems to be a coming of age tale of first love and naivete. Dietrich Bonhoffer and later, Allen Dulles have brief cameo roles to play in this developing drama. Unfortunately, I found this thread, though crucial, less interesting than Nat's present-day pursuit for lost files, and secret code names. Readers who found both parts of the story equally riveting will be able to rate this book more positively. A second flaw was the absence of a sense of danger to Turnbull. There are hints, but I failed to find them convincing. I felt ambivalent about this book, although on the whole, I enjoyed it. (I also enjoyed S. McGee's review on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Maker-Berlin-Vi...)
What elevates this book from the ordinary is Festerman's disciplined respect for history. Both Nat and Gordon are interested in the seeds of betrayal. Festerman's exploration provides both answers and further questions. He shows us Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrestling with the contradictions of his own theological beliefs, and how an abstraction comes to be ignited into action: “...the difference between a
cheap grace – one that comes easily and is all talk – and a costly grace, one where you are willing to make true sacrifice and take real risks.” Or, is the seed Liesl's angry declaration to Bauer: “What does it matter if you are 'silenced' if you have nothing to say to begin with?” Then, like his historian protagonist, Festerman follows the many variations betrayal can take. For him, there is no simple dichotomy between loyalty and betrayal.
The plot is classic thriller. Nat is summoned to the Adirondacks by Gordon's wife. Gordon has been arrested – accused of stealing government files. Despite an unresolved estrangement, Nat rushes to assist Gordon, who claims the files were planted. At the arraignment, he meets a mysterious German woman named Berta who also seems to be following the case with interest. Gordon is in his 80's now. A charming raconteur whose tales are fueled by a balance of alcohol and erudition. Plus, in his youth, he actually worked with the OSS in Bern, and so had first-hand knowledge of many of the Nazi's fleeing Germany.
A parallel story follows the war-time activities of Kurt Bauer, now in his 80's, head of a powerful armaments manufacturer. Bauer's clandestine contacts reach to Washington DC, Tehran and, coincidentally, a small town in the Adirondacks. His story, however, begins in December of 1941. Hitler has already invaded Russia. It is both surprising and sobering to hear that even at that early stage, many knew that the invasion was not going well, and that suspected that the war was unwinnable, despite the government's propaganda.
Thus, the reader is left with several mysteries to be pursued. First, what is the connection between Nat Turnbull's investigation and Kurt Bauer's story? Second, were the files actually planted in Gordon's house, by whom, and why? Finally, who is the mysterious woman, Berta, and what is her interest in Gordon?
Bauer's story seems to be a coming of age tale of first love and naivete. Dietrich Bonhoffer and later, Allen Dulles have brief cameo roles to play in this developing drama. Unfortunately, I found this thread, though crucial, less interesting than Nat's present-day pursuit for lost files, and secret code names. Readers who found both parts of the story equally riveting will be able to rate this book more positively. A second flaw was the absence of a sense of danger to Turnbull. There are hints, but I failed to find them convincing. I felt ambivalent about this book, although on the whole, I enjoyed it. (I also enjoyed S. McGee's review on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Maker-Berlin-Vi...)
What elevates this book from the ordinary is Festerman's disciplined respect for history. Both Nat and Gordon are interested in the seeds of betrayal. Festerman's exploration provides both answers and further questions. He shows us Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrestling with the contradictions of his own theological beliefs, and how an abstraction comes to be ignited into action: “...the difference between a
cheap grace – one that comes easily and is all talk – and a costly grace, one where you are willing to make true sacrifice and take real risks.” Or, is the seed Liesl's angry declaration to Bauer: “What does it matter if you are 'silenced' if you have nothing to say to begin with?” Then, like his historian protagonist, Festerman follows the many variations betrayal can take. For him, there is no simple dichotomy between loyalty and betrayal.
February 19, 2013
No book has made me so lividly angry that I want to tare it up and burn it, and I do mean that in a very positive way, Dan Fesperman has done a really great job with this book he filled it with suspense, and then he cuts it off to go back to the past then builds up and reverts back to the present, it keeps you glued to the pages, before you know it it is 3am in the morning and you are still reading this was my first interdiction into the spy novel genre and I must say it Brilliant!
November 8, 2022
Dan Fesperman's "The Arms Maker of Berlin" is a relatively fast-paced (for a Fesperman novel, anyway) piece of historical fiction "starring" (drum roll, please) a history professor. It's an interesting look back at a time period, the end of WWII, that's rapidly fading from our collective memory as those who actually lived through it are leaving us.
Our story begins with Nat Turnbull, a history professor whose specialty was The Resistance in Nazi Germany, being advised that his old mentor with whom he'd had a falling out, Gordon Wolfe, was arrested for possession of stolen archives from the war. Nat is hired by the FBI to review the documents that Wolfe had in his possession and he quickly determined that some files were missing. The Feebs want him to help track the missing documents down, whereupon he discovers that he has a little competition, a German woman who seems to be seeking the same materials. She agrees to help Nat in exchange for assurances he'll share information, but it becomes apparent they have different agendas. Nat's document thief mentor is found dead in his jail cell but thankfully left some cryptic clues that may allow him to locate the 4 missing files, so the race is on.
The chapters bounce back and forth between present day and a narrative about the young son of a powerful German industrialist and his involvement in Berlin's nascent White Rose resistance movement, his budding romance with a girl who was leading the group, and the efforts of his family to find a way out of what appears to be a losing war being fought by the home team. As Nat's research goes deeper and secrets are uncovered, it appears the twin story lines may converge at some point....
I liked the way Fesperman inserted historical figures like Allen Dulles and various prominent Nazi leaders into his narrative and I also appreciated his descriptions of the activities of the White Rose group. There wasn't a huge population of resisters in Germany during the war and the risks taken by the group to perform fairly mundane work like printing pamphlets were immense. The back and forth in the chapters between past and present time tended to make the action move pretty quickly. As with other Fesperman novels, the dialogue wasn't great but didn't get in the way of the narrative. I did find some of the action to be on the unrealistic side, but not majorly so. The big eye-opener for me was learning how cutthroat historical research can be. Who woulda thunk it?
Our story begins with Nat Turnbull, a history professor whose specialty was The Resistance in Nazi Germany, being advised that his old mentor with whom he'd had a falling out, Gordon Wolfe, was arrested for possession of stolen archives from the war. Nat is hired by the FBI to review the documents that Wolfe had in his possession and he quickly determined that some files were missing. The Feebs want him to help track the missing documents down, whereupon he discovers that he has a little competition, a German woman who seems to be seeking the same materials. She agrees to help Nat in exchange for assurances he'll share information, but it becomes apparent they have different agendas. Nat's document thief mentor is found dead in his jail cell but thankfully left some cryptic clues that may allow him to locate the 4 missing files, so the race is on.
The chapters bounce back and forth between present day and a narrative about the young son of a powerful German industrialist and his involvement in Berlin's nascent White Rose resistance movement, his budding romance with a girl who was leading the group, and the efforts of his family to find a way out of what appears to be a losing war being fought by the home team. As Nat's research goes deeper and secrets are uncovered, it appears the twin story lines may converge at some point....
I liked the way Fesperman inserted historical figures like Allen Dulles and various prominent Nazi leaders into his narrative and I also appreciated his descriptions of the activities of the White Rose group. There wasn't a huge population of resisters in Germany during the war and the risks taken by the group to perform fairly mundane work like printing pamphlets were immense. The back and forth in the chapters between past and present time tended to make the action move pretty quickly. As with other Fesperman novels, the dialogue wasn't great but didn't get in the way of the narrative. I did find some of the action to be on the unrealistic side, but not majorly so. The big eye-opener for me was learning how cutthroat historical research can be. Who woulda thunk it?
June 15, 2012
Spies and the second world war. Who doesn't love stories about one or the other?
Spies in the Second World War? Getting better.
Spies today and spies in the Second World War - Now that's a match made in some sort of secret (service) heaven for me.
So 'The Arms Maker of Berlin' had ticked all my right boxes even before I began reading it. And I wasn't disappointed when I finished. Actually, I was disappointed, but only that I had finished it.
What's it about? Hard to pin down without writing a review nearly as long as the book itself, really. Events in Nazi Germany in the closing months of the Second World War, love and betrayal - on many levels - the ripples this causes through the various protagonist's lives through the intervening, post-war partition of Germany, to re-unification and into today's international espionage world.
I found the book really quite moving and genuinely thought-provoking. Yes, there are spies; war-time spies, cold-war spies, the start of the CIA, the Stasi in East Germany and the current international espionage wars of today. It is also about a much more intimate picture of love and emotion and what the emotions caused by love, made people do when under almost unimaginable pressures, like the Second World War. People finding that love and war makes it almost impossible for them to do right, for doing wrong. And about how the effects of World War II, still reach out to today; the emotional 'ripples' from that period, are still being felt.
The book's timeline moves back and forth between the early 1940's and the present day and you will have to pay attention. But it then pays dividends as the story develops and secrets, motives and why people did what they did, gradually become clear.
As I say, I thoroughly enjoyed this one and whilst the cover comment about Dan Fesperman being the new John le Carré, is inappropriately wide of the mark, this is nonetheless one of the best novels I've read in a long time.
Spies in the Second World War? Getting better.
Spies today and spies in the Second World War - Now that's a match made in some sort of secret (service) heaven for me.
So 'The Arms Maker of Berlin' had ticked all my right boxes even before I began reading it. And I wasn't disappointed when I finished. Actually, I was disappointed, but only that I had finished it.
What's it about? Hard to pin down without writing a review nearly as long as the book itself, really. Events in Nazi Germany in the closing months of the Second World War, love and betrayal - on many levels - the ripples this causes through the various protagonist's lives through the intervening, post-war partition of Germany, to re-unification and into today's international espionage world.
I found the book really quite moving and genuinely thought-provoking. Yes, there are spies; war-time spies, cold-war spies, the start of the CIA, the Stasi in East Germany and the current international espionage wars of today. It is also about a much more intimate picture of love and emotion and what the emotions caused by love, made people do when under almost unimaginable pressures, like the Second World War. People finding that love and war makes it almost impossible for them to do right, for doing wrong. And about how the effects of World War II, still reach out to today; the emotional 'ripples' from that period, are still being felt.
The book's timeline moves back and forth between the early 1940's and the present day and you will have to pay attention. But it then pays dividends as the story develops and secrets, motives and why people did what they did, gradually become clear.
As I say, I thoroughly enjoyed this one and whilst the cover comment about Dan Fesperman being the new John le Carré, is inappropriately wide of the mark, this is nonetheless one of the best novels I've read in a long time.
January 5, 2022
Dan Fesperman is a master storyteller who writes “international suspense thrillers” which are not full of guns, technology and violence, but which tell stories of characters who you believe in. Part of the reason for his brilliance is his devotion to thorough research, part of it is how he interweaves his story and characters into the real world and his history, and part of it is his ability to develop characters, heroes, villains and those in-between with whom the reader can empathise. I enjoy his books immensely and I improve my mind by reading them. Verve highly recommended.
January 25, 2011
Disappointing, particularly in comparison to The Small Boat of Great Sorrows. Cardboard and often unrealistic characters, and a very formulaic and again somewhat unrealistic plot. Seemed like the book form of an average at best Hollywood blockbuster style spy thriller with the typical "everyman" protagonist. I might as well have watched National Treasure.
February 2, 2020
This kind of book normally would have been 3 stars for me, but I’m giving a 4 in this case, because it covered 4 things that fascinate me: Berlin, Bern, Bonhoeffer and the White Rose. I usually steer clear of historical fiction, but due to these 4 topics, I wanted to read this. I listened to it on audio, and the (male) narrator was pretty bad—using a falsetto for all the females, and speaking in accented English for all the Germans (which makes 0 sense, if you think about it for 5 seconds). Despite that, I did enjoy this story. I’m not sure I’d quickly reach for more from the author, unless they were on topics that I’m especially interested in, like in this case.
February 13, 2022
This took a long time for me to get into. The main characters were flat, and in the current-day timeline had very little development. There was a lot of running around looking for hidden documents. Vague mentions of Iranian bad guys who had no connection to the story except to illustrate that one of the Germans must be bad because they worked with Iran. I liked the historical section better, but still not enough to recommend the book. Rating moved up to three stars because I eventually was interested in finding out how it ended.
May 29, 2012
The Arms Maker of Berlin is a curious book. It’s essentially an Indiana Jones-style hunt for important historical documents, with a tangle of individuals and groups also after the prize. It’s a book that left me a little conflicted. It really shouldn’t have worked. The prose was workmanlike and sometimes clunky. The characters were stock, and fairly thinly drawn, and the dialogue often wooden. And the plot was pure fantasy and ridiculous in places. And yet, despite all that it kind of works, in the same way as some Hollywood action films work – the Indiana Jones movies, for example. It has goodies and baddies (and it’s not always clears who is which), a splash of romance, some intrigue and mystery, a dash of suspense and violence, and a veneer of historical respectability. Which kind of compensated for the other shortcomings. There are lots of better crime/thrillers concerning the Second World War from Philip Kerr, Alan Furst, John Lawton and others, but if you like an Indiana Jones-style yarn this might be for you.
January 22, 2010
I've read all of Mr. Fesperman's novels and I'm afraid he's running out of steam. His first two, set in Sarajevo are great as is the Warlord's Son. But the last few, Prisoner at Guantanamo and Amateur Spy and finally the Arms Maker feel increasingly perfunctory. Arms Maker in particular has weak unsympathetic main characters and a villain whose evil feels pretty pedestrian in the scheme of things. That and discussions of academic intrigues and research papers make this all feel like inside baseball. Here's hoping Mr. Fesperman can recapture the passsion of his early novels.
August 10, 2021
Another excellent historical fiction by journalist, traveler, and researcher Dan Fesperman, who creates his narrative by drawing on archival sources and historiography. This story straddles WWII and 2007, as a middle aged historian searches for the truth of what happened to his friend and mentor who served with Allen Dulles in the OSS. It’s fiction, it’s fun, but along the way you will find factual episodes that bring the past alive.
January 26, 2023
Yet another great read by Fesperman; I enjoyed the modern date historian search for WW2 espionage and discovery of betrayals and exploits with great plot twists. I’ve been reading Fesperman in reverse order from ‘Winter Work, Safe House, the Cover Wife, Double Game’ All are great reads! I’ll continue to read the rest!
January 28, 2010
Entertaining, not incredibly substantial historical detective story, concerning lost OSS files from the end of WWII. Funny to be reading this and Lords of Finance at the same time, both with Hitler on the peripheries, but to very different effect.
November 27, 2016
Don't let the weighty title mislead you- this is a delightful story involving a present day historian attempting to discover the actions of his recently deceased mentor in World War II Switzerland and Germany.
September 22, 2017
Our driving characters in this book are university professors who researchers into WWII, specifically the waning days in Germany and resistance. I found it compelling and calling to me when I was not actively reading.
Present day and historical characters have depth and desire and have import.
Present day and historical characters have depth and desire and have import.
July 21, 2018
4.5 stars.
Exceptionally well plotted story of espionage, betrayal, exposure and revenge. Superb character development with an exciting chase to the climax. Leaves one with the dilemma of not wanting to put it down and yet wanting to prolong the pleasure of reading it.
Exceptionally well plotted story of espionage, betrayal, exposure and revenge. Superb character development with an exciting chase to the climax. Leaves one with the dilemma of not wanting to put it down and yet wanting to prolong the pleasure of reading it.
January 1, 2020
This is my third Fesperman book. Loved it. He builds a great story with awesome Nazi intrigue. So many twists. So many great spy transitions. Great character developments. One of those stay up till you finish it novels.
I have another of his in the night stand pile...
I have another of his in the night stand pile...
November 28, 2020
Not an easy book to wade through but very good nevertheless. I like Fesperman a great deal, and have read a few of his books. This one is quite slow for quite a way into the book but heats up in last 3rd. Worth reading.
October 11, 2022
My first WW2-era mystery and to no surprise I really enjoyed it. There was definitely some poor plot writing at certain points where seemingly crucial parts of the story were summarized in a few paragraphs, but maybe he didn't want the book to be 500 pages. Closer to 3.5 than 4 I would say.
March 8, 2019
This book introduces us to Berlin and Bern at during WW11. Berlin was the seat of the vicious Nazi regime. Bern was where those Germans with the financial means and connections in high places went to escape the rigors of life in a country at war. Kurt Bauer, son of Rheinhold Bauer, the eponymous Arms Maker, is infatuated with Liesl Folkerts, a vivid and outspoken girl whom he met at the home of Wilhelm Stuckart, second in command at the Reich Interior Ministry. Liesl mentions that she and some others gather at the home of Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, despised by some Germans because he spoke out, albeit mildly and in the form of appealing to people's better natures, against what he was witnessing in the country. Liesl invited Kurt to attend an up-coming get-together. We then meet some of the White Rose members, young Germans who decided to fight against the Nazi terror by writing, printing and distributing pamphlets. Here is the second offering by the founding group in Munich: "nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as to allow itself to be "governed" without any opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to basest instincts. It is certainly the case today that every honest German is ashamed of his government." Kurt joins the newly-forming White Rose cell in Berlin, not so much out of conviction as a desire to be close to Liesl, the spirited leader of the group. This was in spite of a conversation Kurt had had with Pastor Bonhoeffer in which the Pastor warned him that any possible sentimentss for Liesl must be matched by equally strong feelings for the White Rose movement. Kurt cast this injunction aside, and in order to gain favor with the Nazis to facilitate his family's departure for Bern, he betrayed the group, the members of which were rounded up and imprisoned. Part of Kurt's devil's bargain with his Nazi interlocutor was that Liesl was not to be harmed. Three members of the group were executed, Liesl was killed outside the prison by shrapnel, her release papers in her hand, found by Kurt who had also been released.
Fast forward to the present where Nat Turnbull is a professor of history at Wightman University, specializing in modern Germany from the Weimar Republic of 1919 through the long, deadly shadows of Hitler's Third Reich. He is deep in the university's storage vaults when he receives a phone call at 1.04 am, from a number he recognizes as that of his erstwhile mentor Gordon Wolfe. It is Gordon's wife Viv. She reported that Gordon had been arrested. The FBI arrived and took him away, alleging he had stolen some valuable archives. Viv said that when she and Gordon arrived after dinner out, at their cottage in the Adirondacks "there was a pile of boxes sitting there, right on the kitchen table." Gordon said they were planted, nevertheless he was taken away to the local jail at Blue Kettle Lake. Nat is surprised by an FBI agent who was hidden in the library stacks and says he has been ordered to take Nat to look at the archive Gordon was alleged to have stolen.
Upon his arrival at Gordon and Viv's cottage, the FBI agent in charge, Clark Holland, asks Nat to have a quick look at the documents. A cursory examination confirmed to Nat that these were long missing historical papers from the Nazi era, with an emphasis on The White Rose resistance group. Why, you might ask, somebody be interested in this coterie of idealistic young Germans? Because Kurt Bauer had betrayed the White Rose. Is it he who is trying to find the archives or other ex-Nazis? When Gordon dies in prison it is not known if he was killed or died from lack of his heart medication. It is then up to Nat to find out who is behind the resurfacing of the archive and Gordon's death, believing the two must be connected.
Nat travels to Bern, Switzerland, and Berlin, Germany, accompanied by a German academic whose motives may be self-serving. Nat discovers that Gordon was been an ace spy under Allen Dulles at the OSS in Bern. He was his own primary source when it came to writing about WW11. Nat also enounters Kurt Bauer, now a rich, irascible old man with secrets to keep. All will be revealed, dear reader, when you read this suspenseful, enthralling thriller.
Fast forward to the present where Nat Turnbull is a professor of history at Wightman University, specializing in modern Germany from the Weimar Republic of 1919 through the long, deadly shadows of Hitler's Third Reich. He is deep in the university's storage vaults when he receives a phone call at 1.04 am, from a number he recognizes as that of his erstwhile mentor Gordon Wolfe. It is Gordon's wife Viv. She reported that Gordon had been arrested. The FBI arrived and took him away, alleging he had stolen some valuable archives. Viv said that when she and Gordon arrived after dinner out, at their cottage in the Adirondacks "there was a pile of boxes sitting there, right on the kitchen table." Gordon said they were planted, nevertheless he was taken away to the local jail at Blue Kettle Lake. Nat is surprised by an FBI agent who was hidden in the library stacks and says he has been ordered to take Nat to look at the archive Gordon was alleged to have stolen.
Upon his arrival at Gordon and Viv's cottage, the FBI agent in charge, Clark Holland, asks Nat to have a quick look at the documents. A cursory examination confirmed to Nat that these were long missing historical papers from the Nazi era, with an emphasis on The White Rose resistance group. Why, you might ask, somebody be interested in this coterie of idealistic young Germans? Because Kurt Bauer had betrayed the White Rose. Is it he who is trying to find the archives or other ex-Nazis? When Gordon dies in prison it is not known if he was killed or died from lack of his heart medication. It is then up to Nat to find out who is behind the resurfacing of the archive and Gordon's death, believing the two must be connected.
Nat travels to Bern, Switzerland, and Berlin, Germany, accompanied by a German academic whose motives may be self-serving. Nat discovers that Gordon was been an ace spy under Allen Dulles at the OSS in Bern. He was his own primary source when it came to writing about WW11. Nat also enounters Kurt Bauer, now a rich, irascible old man with secrets to keep. All will be revealed, dear reader, when you read this suspenseful, enthralling thriller.
April 16, 2019
I picked up this book, based on a recco I read somewhere of another of DF's books (Safe Houses). I couldn't get that one so decided to try this one instead.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by the book. It has pleasantly tight story-telling, an impressively convoluted yet a fathomable plot, a fairly deep characterization of some its key characters - though not all, and this last reason is why, IMHO, the book falls short of a glowing 5-star feedback.
The character of Kurt Bauer is perhaps the most deeply explored, though later on, Gordon gets his space. However, both have a lot of depth in the past tense - in the present, Gordon is an enigma, never really explained and Kurt is curiously kept largely in the shadows. There's hardly ever any doubt about the hand behind the curtain for all that happens to Nat in the story, but perhaps a little more present-tense space to Kurt may have helped identify the reader with Kurt. Or, maybe that was never the intent. Berta's character is shown as the most driven - next only to Kurt, yet has very little backstory - again clearly by design as a tease to the reader. It is only in the very last chapter that we find out what really has been driving Berta all this time.
Which brings me to the most impressive part of the book.
The plot.
The way the story unfolds is really brilliant, and I'm still surprised thinking back to how the author was able to spin all those pages, while packing the surprises that he does in the last 10% of the book. And they are big ones. Turn everything on its head, and then some. While it brings the story to a neat conclusion, it takes a little too much of credulity to believe how everything could fit in and be concluded so neatly by someone so obviously inexperienced as Nat. He may be a good History Professor, but he is a clumsy investigator, and I still can't understand why the law enforcement agencies gave him the leeway and support that they end up giving.
Excepting for those rather secondary gripes, the book is a very good read, and while the plot is nowhere close some of the best Reacher or Bosch or even Virgil Flowers puzzles, it has its delights. Most interesting is how slowly the layers of the story are discovered and revealed by Nat's character, and how one thing leads him to the next.
That was most satisfying.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by the book. It has pleasantly tight story-telling, an impressively convoluted yet a fathomable plot, a fairly deep characterization of some its key characters - though not all, and this last reason is why, IMHO, the book falls short of a glowing 5-star feedback.
The character of Kurt Bauer is perhaps the most deeply explored, though later on, Gordon gets his space. However, both have a lot of depth in the past tense - in the present, Gordon is an enigma, never really explained and Kurt is curiously kept largely in the shadows. There's hardly ever any doubt about the hand behind the curtain for all that happens to Nat in the story, but perhaps a little more present-tense space to Kurt may have helped identify the reader with Kurt. Or, maybe that was never the intent. Berta's character is shown as the most driven - next only to Kurt, yet has very little backstory - again clearly by design as a tease to the reader. It is only in the very last chapter that we find out what really has been driving Berta all this time.
Which brings me to the most impressive part of the book.
The plot.
The way the story unfolds is really brilliant, and I'm still surprised thinking back to how the author was able to spin all those pages, while packing the surprises that he does in the last 10% of the book. And they are big ones. Turn everything on its head, and then some. While it brings the story to a neat conclusion, it takes a little too much of credulity to believe how everything could fit in and be concluded so neatly by someone so obviously inexperienced as Nat. He may be a good History Professor, but he is a clumsy investigator, and I still can't understand why the law enforcement agencies gave him the leeway and support that they end up giving.
Excepting for those rather secondary gripes, the book is a very good read, and while the plot is nowhere close some of the best Reacher or Bosch or even Virgil Flowers puzzles, it has its delights. Most interesting is how slowly the layers of the story are discovered and revealed by Nat's character, and how one thing leads him to the next.
That was most satisfying.
April 10, 2023
This is the best book I've read all year. The suspense starts from page one and doesn't let up all the way through. Nat, a historian, is shanghaied by the FBI and put on the trail of some missing documents from World War II about the White Rose, his academic specialty. His mentor, an old wartime OSS hand, dies suddenly and suspiciously and leaves him clues. But entering the mix is a dodgy blond woman researcher from Germany and a middle eastern man of dubious intentions. The scene shifts back to the wartime and we see Kurt Bauer, the teenage scion of a major industrialist, trying to survive the war while retaining the affections of his lady love. The time frame shifts back and forth throughout the book. There is double dealing and betrayal everywhere, both then and now.
The research that went into this novel is incredibly rich and the plot is nearly believable because of it. There is plenty of death and spycraft to satisfy the hardcore thriller buff and more than enough detail of Germany and Switzerland for those more inclined to appreciate ambience and history. Keeping track of all the players and trying to discern their true motivations is a challenge in itself. The sexual tension is muted but palpable in places. In short, the book has everything. Read it.
The research that went into this novel is incredibly rich and the plot is nearly believable because of it. There is plenty of death and spycraft to satisfy the hardcore thriller buff and more than enough detail of Germany and Switzerland for those more inclined to appreciate ambience and history. Keeping track of all the players and trying to discern their true motivations is a challenge in itself. The sexual tension is muted but palpable in places. In short, the book has everything. Read it.
November 15, 2017
Nat Turnbull is a present day historian who has surpassed his mentor in their chosen field of focus, the German Resistance during World War Two. But his mentor reaches out to Nat when he is arrested on suspicion of stealing some classified material. The arrest has drawn attention from several parties, the U.S.and foreign governments, powerful business people, and an obsessed German historian. The death of his mentor starts Nat on a nation hopping chase to find answers demanded by some to be uncovered and determined by others to remain hidden. The classified material may indict a current weapons manufacturing corporation owner of Nazi ties.
The story adds occasional chapters about the events during WWII that related to the missing files of classified material. But mostly it focuses on the thrill of the hunt experienced by Turnbull as he reconnects to his mentor by retracing his WWII activities. His focus is at times so intense that he misses some of the dangers stirred by his hunt.
The story adds occasional chapters about the events during WWII that related to the missing files of classified material. But mostly it focuses on the thrill of the hunt experienced by Turnbull as he reconnects to his mentor by retracing his WWII activities. His focus is at times so intense that he misses some of the dangers stirred by his hunt.
January 28, 2018
Dan Fesperman was a journalist before being a novelist and that certainly shows. In terms of exposition and character development at times his writing can be a bit clunky and in terms of "thrills" it can sometimes be a bit paint by numbers or in the shadows of the masters of the genre...And yet he deserves a place at the table for his detailed research and at times fresh contemporary and underutilised settings.
However in this case I feel I have been here before and with writers where there is more interesting, less cliched characters, more compelling and fresh excitement and better writing.
Not unenjoyable but half way through I just put it to one side preferring to read other excellent and potentially excellent books in my collection.
However in this case I feel I have been here before and with writers where there is more interesting, less cliched characters, more compelling and fresh excitement and better writing.
Not unenjoyable but half way through I just put it to one side preferring to read other excellent and potentially excellent books in my collection.
July 19, 2025
Dan Fesperman has done it again but this time he’s written a different kind of book. It’s not a real mystery. It’s more of a novel about World War II and the Nazis. If you like to read like I do to learn new things to be entertained and to get a peek at other people’s lives Then this is a good book for you. I heard more and learned more about the hunger in Germany about a resistance movement in Germany, German . I also learned how a professor of history might write a novel and do his historical work and many other things a great book he kept me kept me listening all day long and I really didn’t want to put it down and it ended with with a satisfying ending. I hope you enjoy it.
January 14, 2020
A book premises on a strange (laughable, really) conceit -- that membership in the fraternity of historian will allow a man passages into the world of espionage. Supposed FBI agents will make deals with such historians, forsaking good sense and legal limitations, simply because these prized scholars passionately care about past events. If you can swallow that notion, and I found it a whale sized portion, the rest of the book is constructed of fairly conventional tropes for the genre, albeit cleverly needed in a bit of WWII history.
April 6, 2018
Hopping back and forth between WWII Germany and Switzerland and 2007 Germany, Switzerland and various locations in the US, this is one of those stories where current events play into the past. Somewhat evocative of The DaVinci Code, historian Nat Turnbull is left with a series of clues that will lead to a shocking revelation about a wealthy German industrialist. There are a few twists and turns and also some predictable events. Also - for crying' out loud, Nat, call your handlers!!!!!
November 17, 2024
Of The Very Best In Class.
There are vast quantities of novels on the second war, many below average, many good & a very small number of the highest quality. This book is at the very top of the top.
Not only is it based on ‘events’ that happened, but the depth of the whole story, the way it uses the mechanisms it does, it’s essentially one of the very best tales told, using multiple forms, spaces & periods.
There are vast quantities of novels on the second war, many below average, many good & a very small number of the highest quality. This book is at the very top of the top.
Not only is it based on ‘events’ that happened, but the depth of the whole story, the way it uses the mechanisms it does, it’s essentially one of the very best tales told, using multiple forms, spaces & periods.
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