Pun Salad

This is another book off WSJ reviewer Tom Nolan's Best Mystery Books of 2019 list. Seven down, three to go!

There's not much whodunit content. It is (mostly) set in Germany between the World Wars, in Munich where the Nazi Party is surging in power and influence. So when a terrorist crime is committed, who did it? Duh, dude: the Nazis.

The titular Good Cop is Willi Geismeier, an unkempt police detective in Munich. He's an excellent case-clearer, with good instincts and a dogged pursuer of the truth. Unfortunately, this doesn't endear him to his corrupt and lazy superiors. Nor does it portend well that the Nazis are infiltrating the police department, rewarding their friends, covering up the truth. As Tom Nolan says, Willi is forced to "play a long game with history".

It's a pretty good page-turner, but I'm beginning to think that Tom Nolan's "Best" list is politically influenced. In addition to Willi's story, the true-history of Hitler's efforts are described in detail. Few people these days are Hitler fans, but the book is pretty heavy-handed in drawing Trumpian parallels. Hitler apparently promised to "make Germany great again" and if you missed the author's first reference to that, there are at least a couple more.

Basically, Trump-is-Hitler believers will nod in recognition to such dog whistles. Others will sigh and move on. At least there were no references to the insidious Nazi-sympathetic radio stations, known as Das Fuchs Netzwerk.

Speaking of dogs… The author, Peter Steiner, is (probably) more widely known as a New Yorker cartoonist, and People of a Certain Age may well remember his most famous cartoon from 1993:

By Source, Fair use, Link

I believe just about every geek's door and bulletin board at the University Near Here had a copy of that cartoon.