An interesting read that I'm glad to have discovered. I'll definitely be seeking out more by this author.

Having been granted a review copy of this book quite a while ago, I finally got around to reading it, in order to be able to post the review on publication day. I am not sure why I left it so long, because, as soon as I started it, I was utterly gripped.

The book begins with art detective, Arthur Brand, being summoned to see the eccentric Michel van Rijn. Personally, I would have ignored the invitation, as Mr van Rijn seems to find amusement in doing bizarre, and surely dangerous, stunts, such as informing the customs people at the airport to investigate Arthur Brand – resulting in his being delayed returning home… That said, luckily, the visit was worthwhile, as Michel van Rijn, who is involved in the discovery of art fraud, informs Brand he has heard talk of a very important piece being rumoured for sale. Feeling himself unwilling to become involved, he suggests that Brand look into it, with his colleagues.

The pieces in question, turn out to be two enormous sculptures, ‘Striding Horses,’ by Josef Thorak. These stood outside the Reich Chancellery; directly in sight of Hitler if he looked from the windows and are, quite literally, enormous. At first, Brand, and his colleagues, feel that these must be frauds – the Chancellery was virtually destroyed in 1945 and, surely, the sculptures would have been damaged, at least, in the bombing? However, then Brand comes across a photograph from that era, which suggests the sculptures were removed before the fall of Berlin in 1945 and this discovery leads him to question whether there could be any truth in this rumour.

What follows is an investigation which reads something like a thriller and I applaud Jane Hedley-Prole, for her excellent translation, as this reads so well. We follow Arthur Brand as he has clandestine meetings, attempts to discover what happened to the sculptures after the war, tracks down Himmler’s daughter and steps into the shadowy world of Nazi artefact collectors and those related to Nazi’s who are trying to keep that dubious flame alive, by selling off their history. This really is an exciting, eye-opening read, which I enjoyed immensely and recommend highly. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Interesting true life story that reads well.
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review

I hadn’t read the description on this book. And I’m glad I didn’t. I probably wouldn’t have selected it. But I am glad I did. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was well written. Great story to tell. Exciting that these things are still around. A great plot to be lucky enough to be part of and then tell the story.

Hitler's Horses is a very entertaining true crime book by Dutch Investigator Arthur Brand. Brand and his colleagues specialise in tracing stolen art and he's been dubbed "The Indiana Jones of the Art World". The description is very apt in this book which reads very much like the script of an Indiana Jones movie with the hunt for iconic Nazi statues leading to him going underground and swimming in the murky waters of Intelligence services, the police,Neo Nazis and the seamy side of the art dealing world .
Brand is alerted to someone selling 2 massive statues that originally stood out the Reich Chancellery, a pair of horses known as the Striding Horses ,which were what Hitler saw when he looked out of the windows of his massive office. The statues disappeared during the bombing of Berlin and were thought to have been destroyed so Brand has to find out if those on offer are fakes. From there a fascinating story unrolls with a disparate bunch of characters that any fiction writer would be proud to have invented...except these are real,if often profoundly eccentric characters,from the Neo Nazi whose close friend is Jewish, the ageing leader of an archaic Order and the man with a Panzer Tank in his garage ,which his neighbours knew about........and a V1 Flying Bomb which they didn't !!
This book definitely comes under "the truth can stranger than fiction" category and is a very entertaining read. Brand is an excellent narrator and tells his story in a fluid and easy to read style. After I'd finished he had piqued my interest enough for me to spend an hour on Google finding pictures of the statues and the old Reich Chancellery, which is every bit as amazing as he describes.
A fascinating story well told.

Thanks to Arthur Brand, Ebury Press/Penguin Random House UK and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.