Changes

In the final days of the Second World War, as the allied guns came ever closer, a young German was sent on a secret mission to America. He was only in his late teens but still resisted telling anyone, including the U-boat captain who took him across the Atlantic, about the nature of his mission. Fifty five years later the U-boat captain, Eric Hoest, long settled in the States, was murdered at his beach home. Samuel Grey, police detective and part-time student was called in to investigate the murder. The local police chief thought that the most likely murderer was the neighbour who had reported the crime, but Grey suspected that the truth was hidden somewhere in Hoest's background.

When I started this book I was convinced that I would struggle to work out who was who and what was going on. That lasted for, oh, half a dozen pages and after that I struggled to put the book down. There's a wealth of background in there but the book wears it lightly. It's fascinating to read about Hershey and chocolate, about submarines and the problems they had with fuel, about how some ol-time Nazis survive against all the odds. There are some new angles on an era which has been overworked in the literary field. None of this would matter though if the plot wasn't good and the characters compelling.