Garden of Beasts

A Novel of Berlin 1936

By: Jeffery Deaver

Narrated by: Jefferson Mays

In the most ingenious and provocative thriller yet from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver, a conscience-plagued mobster turned government hitman struggles to find his moral compass amid rampant treachery and betrayal in 1936 Berlin.

Paul Schumann, a German American living in New York City in 1936, is a mobster hitman known as much for his brilliant tactics as for taking only “righteous” assignments. But then Paul gets caught. And the arresting officer offers him a stark choice: execution or covert government service. Paul is asked to pose as a journalist covering the summer Olympics taking place in Berlin. He’s to hunt down and kill Reinhard Ernst—the ruthless architect of Hitler’s clandestine rearmament. If successful, Paul will be pardoned and given the financial means to go legit.

Paul travels to Germany, takes a room in a boarding house near the Tiergarten—the huge park in central Berlin but also, literally, the “Garden of Beasts”—and begins his hunt. In classic Deaver fashion, the next forty-eight hours are a feverish cat-and-mouse chase, as Paul stalks Ernst through Berlin while a dogged Berlin police officer and the entire Third Reich apparatus search frantically for the American.

Garden of Beasts is packed with fascinating period detail and features a cast of perfectly realized locals, Olympic athletes, and senior Nazi officials—some real, some fictional. With hairpin plot twists, the reigning “master of ticking-bomb suspense” (People) plumbs the nerve-jangling paranoia of pre-war Berlin and steers the story to a breathtaking and wholly unpredictable ending.

The novel won the Steel Dagger award for best espionage thriller of the year from the prestigious Crime Writers’ Associate in the United Kingdom.

very good

Any additional comments?

This was a welcome change to the Rhyme books. Deaver has created a new set of interesting characters within an entertaining and well paced story. This would be a welcome beginning to a new series. It offers a similar milieu as the Alan Furst novels but is faster paced.

"Noir" Historical Fiction

In this book, Jeffrey Deever has crafted an historical novel "noir". That is to say, he's written a book that takes us back to the summer Olympics of 1944. Our intrepid hero is NOT a detective though. He is instead a German-speaking American who makes his living as a "button man", or a man who kills for the mob. He is a little unusual though. He will only kill bad men: those with their own murders on their souls; and those are murders of innocents.

He is tasked with killing a high-level German official. This story kept me on the edge of my seat. I couldn't put it down. It was so craftily constructed; so devilishly devised; so wickedly written I was pretty much spellbound from start to finish.

Jefferson Mays did a great job on the narration. If you like historical fiction and old style "detective" books, get this book. You will love it. It is a wonderful blend of both genres.

Audiobooks this good are not easy to find.

Personally, I enjoyed this story more than anything written by Le Carre, Deighton, or Forsyth. And the narrator's accents, cadences, nuances of emphasis were done masterfully.

I loved it!!!

Outstanding historical fiction. Denver has outdone himself in this. Jefferson Mays has now become one of my favorite narrators!

Wonderful! One of my favorite audio books ever.

IMPORTANT! - YOU HAVE TO BE PATIENT THROUGH THE FIRST CHAPTER. It is written in the slang of 1930s New York, which means it is super hard to understand at first. However, by the second chapter, the story moves to Germany, and the conversation is in German (translated, of course) -- so there is no more heavy slang.

WHAT I LOVED ABOUT THIS....
Excellent, memorable characters --- from a sly inspector to a rascal of a German con man.
A great storyline. It is a fast-paced cat-and-mouse game with plenty of twists and turns.
With the setting in Nazi Germany, I was afraid the story would be dismal and depressing, but it wasn't. Yes, there were dark moments of evil, but that was the backdrop, not the main story.
Wonderful narration. The narrator was able to perform so many voices, so believably.

WHAT I WAS LEFT WITH
I was left wanting more. I hope Deaver does a sequel! This is his best work, in my opinion.

WHAT I RECOMMEND
Listen to it. You won't be disappointed