Gary Haynes – Steph's Book Blog

About The Book

In the dying days of World War Two, Pavel Romasko and his Red Army colleagues pick their way through the detritus of a dying Berlin. Stumbling upon the smoking remains of a Nazi bunker, they find something inside that eclipses the horror of even the worst excesses in the city above them.

As the war ends, retribution begins. But some revenge cannot be taken at once. Some revenge takes years.

Which is how, seventy years later, FBI agent Carla Romero and New York lawyer Gabriel Hall are enlisted to investigate a series of blood-chilling crimes that seem to have their roots in the distant past — even though the suffering they cause is all too present. And for one of them, the disappearance of young women is a particularly personal matter.

The Blameless Dead is an epic edge-of-the-seat drama that sweeps across centuries and continents, taking in some of the most important events of modern history and exposing them in honest and unflinching terms.

My Review

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. I have read many books that take place around the end of WW2 but never one that concerns Russia and Germany. And never one that showed the level of brutality that occurred frequently. It made my blood run cold. It wasn’t just the physical cruelty, it was also the mental abuse. Especially in the 1950s, when you saw how prisoners were treated in the Russian camps.

There are many characters across this dual time frame novel. I managed to follow them quite well but I did find the various ranks and groups confusing and had to read back a few times. The author does a very good job of showing that the atrocities committed in the war still had an impact for some in the modern day. The acts mentioned were not those that took place in the Nazi camps. Instead it was the ethnic cleansing that took part in areas across Europe. It is books like that has me wanting to know more.

Whilst it was difficult to read at times I did prefer to read the events from during the war. I felt that the author had done extensive research and I think people do need to know what occurred. I couldn’t work out how the two time frames connected, when it was eventually revealed I felt saddened and stunned.

Today it is my pleasure to be able to reveal the cover for The Blameless Dead by Gary Haynes.

But first I will tell you what the book is about:

In the dying days of World War Two, Pavel Romasko and his Red Army colleagues pick their way through the carnage and detritus of a dying Berlin. Stumbling upon the smoking remains of a Nazi bunker, they find something inside that eclipses the horror of even the worst excesses in the city above them.

As the war ends, retribution begins. But some revenge cannot be taken at once. Some revenge takes years.

And so it is, as post-war Europe tries desperately to drag itself back onto its feet, and soldiers attempt a return to normality, that retribution continues to ferment in the Gulags of the Soviet Union and beneath the surface of apparently ordinary lives.

The Blameless Dead is an epic, compelling, edge-of-the-seat drama that sweeps the reader from twentieth century Europe to modern-day New York, taking in some of the most important events of modern history and exposing them in honest and unflinching terms. Part murder-mystery, part historical novel and shot through with adrenalin-pumping action, this novel superbly demonstrates that, while the hostilities may cease and the peace be signed, the horror that is war is never really over.

goodreads

And now for the cover

The Blameless Dead