The Death of The Fuhrer

by Roland Puccetti

"Let me tell you a story-about the death of the Fuhrer"
It all began in a sordid garret in the Latin Quarter of Paris, where a Russian doctor lay on his death bed. His Story was unbelievable, unguessable-but it sent our hero Karl into the sealed Fuhrerbunker in Berlin, then to a Gothic castle in northern Spain, and finally on a mad mission into the most macabre plot in thriller-writing history.

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 1972 novel was one of the most ludicrous (and most fun) I’ve experienced. Picture if you will: It’s the early 1950s, and a conspiracy is revealed by a Russian doctor on his deathbed. Hitler is not really dead. His brain was allegedly removed beforehand and placed into the head of someone else. But whose? Our narrator Karl Gisevius— who we don’t know much about other than the fact that he’s a German doctor visiting Paris at the book’s start — means to find out, and kill the Führer once and for all. All by himself.

It’s pretty much full-on action and adventure and espionage the entire time, with hardly any setup or background, and containing some of the most revolting scenes I’ve ever come across in fiction (Slightly Spoilery and also Gross, but I can’t not mention the self-brain surgery, minus any painkillers, followed by the dude running around actioning and adventuring with his exposed brain sloshing around and his scalp flapping against the back of his neck, which was both nauseating and headache-inducing. I’ll admit to mostly skimming this section, with my butt cheeks clenched the entire time).

I loved the setting, which mostly takes place in a giant, walled-off castle filled with Nazis secretly continuing their grotesque experiments, which our hero Karl infiltrates with shocking ease. Despite the ridiculous premise, there were plenty of intense moments, and I was entirely invested throughout even though Karl is a bit of a moron at times, charging full steam ahead without thinking repeatedly. But deep down he’s just a simple guy that really wants to murder Hitler so I can’t be too hard on him.

This was definitely in the upper echelon of mens adventure-type fiction I’ve read, with loads of gunfights, sabre duels, and chases through endless passageways, as well as a sex scene so bizarre I couldn’t keep from smiling throughout. Not to mention a final paragraph that recontextualizes the entire narrative. It’s also written in a fast, easy-breezy style that made it hard to set down. The only real negative is that Puccetti hasn’t written anything else in this vein (or much of anything else at all, really), as I would snatch it up in a heartbeat if he had.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

The amazing thing about this--and, reminder, this is about saving Hitler's brain and that's no spoiler--is how straightforward and restrained the whole thing is, up until the last quarter or eighth or so. (At which time Puccetti trots out mind control technology and Dr. Gisevius does some do-it-yourself brain surgery. But I digress.) Gisevius is a matter-of-fact narrator and is both weirdly capable and weirdly calm when reasonable people would start freaking out. His motivation and determination, and indeed the source of his competence, are left unexplained until shared in one unnecessarily large plot twist reveal. At which time the reader realizes that Gisevius's planning and strategy have been pretty lousy. Which is funny in itself.

[Marty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite simply, one of the greatest adventure novels ever written. It's probably the only book in which the hero has sex with Adolf Hitler and later performs brain surgery on himself.

More on my blog: http://craneshot.blogspot.com/2012/10...

[I.D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of a man who learns that Hitler didn’t die, but instead had his brain put into someone else’s body, and decides to go after him and kill him once and for all.
This was great, totally bonkos, seedy, action packed, tense, gross, and worth reading. It’s probably the only book written where someone has sex with both Hitler and a vinyl couch and definitely the only one where that same person performs brain surgery on himself. It’s written matter of factly but keeps upping the ante so well that the 160 pages breeze by. Great schlocky stuff!

[Tom Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There I was, nude and exhausted, unarmed and with the whole top of my brain exposed to raw air."

A hell of a sentence, and I defy you to not be even a little curious how our hero got like this.

[Victor Mahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bizarre story, though a real treat to have a different genre representing one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century.

[Stahlgewitter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A real brain-teaser.