Dold,
Gaylord. The Last Man in Berlin. Sourcebooks Landmark, October
2003. c352p. ISBN 1-4022-0124-9. $25.00. Fiction.
Experienced mystery writer Dold (Six
White Horses) serves up a thoroughly researched and evocative
portrayal of Berlin in the early 1930s. In this charged environment—Communists
and Nazis were struggling to overthrow the tottering Weimar
Republic—homicide detective Harry Wulff of the Kriminalpolizei
(Kripo) has made some risky choices. His lover, Johanna,
is a Jewish psychiatrist, and his new boss, Bernhard Weiss,
is the Jewish head of the Staatspolizei (Stapo), the political
police responsible for infiltrating antigovernment organizations.
A spy in Stapo headquarters has been warning the Nazis prior
to police raids. Wulff’s job is to ferret out the “termite” while
trying to solve the murder of a transvestite. Early on, readers
know the identity of the spy, his controller, and the murderer,
so the suspense lies in following Wulff’s investigation
and, to a lesser extent, wondering whether he or his Jewish
lover will perish. Character development, incident, and atmosphere
dominate the story, instead of a driving pace, but nevertheless
interest never flags. For most public libraries.