The Road to Ithaca

January 30, 2017
Pastor’s solid fifth Martin Bora mystery (after 2015’s Tin Sky) takes the Wehrmacht investigator from Moscow, where he’s been stationed, to Crete in early June 1941, soon after the German occupation of the island and three weeks before Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union. Bora’s mission is to secure 60 bottles of choice Cretan wine on behalf of NKVD chief Lavrenti Beria. But once the detective arrives in Crete, he receives a much different assignment. A British POW has reported to the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau that, during the recent battle for Crete, a British NCO observed eight German paratroopers enter the home of a prominent Swiss national, where he soon heard gunfire. After the departure of the paratroopers, this witness discovered all the civilian occupants slain. While Bora isn’t as memorable a character as Bernie Gunther, Philip Kerr fans will still find this depiction of an honest German cop working under adverse wartime circumstances intriguing. Agent: Meryl Zegarek, Meryl Zegarek PR.