The Devil's Handshake by
Murray Davies
hbk out September 02
Published by Macmillan
at £16.99
Set in 1943, this book is more historical thriller than crime novel. An agent
posing as Christian Beck, a wounded German officer, has been sent to Bavaria to
assassinate Hitler. But everything seems to be against him, including his own side.
He has had to kill a local policeman to cover the tracks of his arrival by parachute,
and this sets a determined detective on his trail. What follows is a thrilling adventure
story and a fascinating insight into the war from the point of view of the German
home front, and the dilemma for the Germans of their leader and the acts committed
in his name.
The opening of the book jumps back and forth between past and present,
between the false Christian Beck and the real, in a way that is a little dizzying at first.
But eventually we fix on the actions of unlikely hero Robin Lusty, who is set to
become the fake Major Beck. He is part of a small, insignificant unit within the SOE
led by Oxford don, Geoffrey Cricklemarsh. The unit has been sidelined in
interdepartmental wrangling, and has surprisingly been asked to arrange the
assassination of Hitler. It comes as no surprise later that this has been deliberately set
up by Cricklemarsh's superior in the assumption he will fail miserably, and cause his
own demise. Unfortunately, Robin Lusty is quite successful at passing himself off as
Beck, and inserting himself into the affections of Ilse Runge, who runs the inn near
where Hitler is staying at Berchtesgaden. His affair is even more useful when it
emerges Ilse is a friend of Eva Braun, Hitler's ladyfriend.
The depiction of the eccentric and bungling officers in charge of British
intelligence is amusing if a little unconvincing; the daily life in Nazi Germany is more
compelling. But what I liked most, and what brought the book alive for me, was the
character of Sturmbannführer Jäger, the German detective. Saddled with a pompous
and politically obsessed superior, Jäger is an honest copper, who sees through the
Nazi propaganda, steering a course between the demands of the Gestapo, and the
horrors of the war. He is also an inexorable force homing in on Lusty/Beck as the
murderer of a village policeman. That his target is also a spy and assassin is almost
secondary. He is for me the most sympathetic, the most realistic character in the
book. All the same, you don't want him to find Lusty before he can get away. After
all, Lusty has a lot to contend with. Not only is Jäger after him, his cover is close to
being blown, the Gestapo are closing in on his radio transmissions, the SOE don't
want him to succeed and close his escape route, and he is in a dilemma over falling in
love with Ilse Runge. Finally, he gets to shake hands with Hitler.
Of course, history tells us that he didn't succeed. And it is to Davies's credit
that he skilfully takes us through the whole book without this being a problem. Nor
does it reduce the tension of the ending. War story or crime story, this is a cracking
good yarn.
(
Ian Morson
Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger)
