The city is slowly readjusting to peacetime with shortages of many items, much unemployment, and distrust of the new socialist government headed by Frederick Ebert. Just months earlier Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, inspired by the revolution in Russia, sent the Kaiser into exile and attempted to make Germany a socialist state with little success. Both were hunted down and assassinated January 15th, 1919 but Rosa’s body was not found until five months later. Where it was all those months remains a mystery.

Now the bodies of several women have been found throughout the city with bizarre knife marks across their backs and the Kripo (criminal police) fear a serial killer. Nikolai Hoffner and Hans Fichte, one a seasoned veteran of both the military and the police and the other wounded early in the war soon realize that far more than criminal activity is happening. When Rosa’s body is found with the marks only to disappear from the police morgue the game is definitely afoot.

Albert Einstein and Kathe Kollowitz have cameo appearances and lend credibility to the tale but it soon bogs down with overlapping motives and loyalties. There are hints at Hoffner’s past and how events have formed him into such an efficient, ruthless and cold investigator but never fully explored which make his motivations sometimes obscure. At times he is the father figure for the young Fichte while betraying him in other instances. He is distant even in his home life so when circumstances cause a great upheaval on his domestic front he seems incapable of feeling remorse.

Today almost every major German city has a Frederick Ebert street while only in former East Berlin was there one dedicated to Rosa Luxemburg yet she is far more well known than the politician. Rabb illustrates the complexities of life for the average Berliner at the time. Sugar, chocolate and lace are in short supply but political philosophies abound. There are grave social implications even in building the public transportation system. For the reader unfamiliar with German geography, especially the city of Berlin, it is easy to become confused while attempting to sort out the city districts and the layers of social status embedded within each one. Keeping track of the many different characters without always knowing their motives even after the denouement is difficult especially if the reader is not well versed in modern history.

The book reads like a film noir with many characters and plot twists against a dreary background of melting snow, fleeting loyalties and impending doom. Despite these shortcomings and criticisms I recommend the book with this caveat - that perhaps it is best suited to historians or political scientists.

--Jane Davis