The fourth, and by far the best in what is an absorbing series. This was a long and immersive novel that after slow beginning totally drew me in.

Gregor Reinhardt is a wonderfully drawn character and the descriptions of the horrors and futility of the First World war are beautifully crafted - if understandably, brutal at times..

The mystery slowly reveals itself and this is a book that is worth the effort to read.

My thanks to the Author publisher's and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
Well written and researched this is the fourth book in the excellent 'Gregor Reinhardt series, but if you have not read any of the previous books WHY NOT, however don't let it stop you reading this book, as the Author has cleverly gone back in time, and our hero is a young Lieutenant on the Western Front in 1918. Atmospheric clever descriptive with a real feel for the time and place and the horrors of trench warfare. There are a sometimes bewildering number of characters, especially if your memory isn't what it was, but this provides numerous suspects, and or victims as our hero investigates a series of murders. A engaging gripping story with plenty of mystery and surprise twists along the way.
Completely recommended.

I have waited impatiently for another Gregor Reinhardt novel since the publication of the WW2 trilogy. The anticipation has been more than worth it. With this prequel the reader is transported back to the dying days of WW1 and the youthful Reinhardt’s first investigation. Luke McCallin has written another winner.

Reinhardt belongs to a brigade transferred from the eastern front to the west, he and his men apparently tainted by contact with the revolutionary Russian troops. When several German officers are blown up at a clandestine meeting, it seems that one of Reinhardt’s men, a known communist, might be guilty, especially following this man’s apparent suicide. Reinhardt is not convinced. Like Socrates’ gadfly, he will not be diverted from his investigation, an enterprise which becomes increasingly and personally dangerous for him.

The plot is extremely complex, but the narrative bowls the reader along, following Reinhardt through a stream of red herrings and diversions until it becomes clear that what is at stake as the war is being lost for Germany, is a battle for the subsequent soul of the German nation. This is a thought-provoking story soaked in the conventions of a superior political thriller. I recommend it highly.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily.
The information provided for this book describes a wartime investigative thriller. There is an enormous list of characters at the beginning which I thought would make it easier to read but I found I was turning back to the list so frequently to check who was who that it interrupted my reading. The book does not follow straight timeline but moved around within a couple of weeks either side of the bombing without indicating the date so the 'investigation' is not straightforward. It is also muddied by pages of conversation which seem irrelevant, such as that between the doctors around she'll shock and it's treatment. I found the book extremely hard going and had to give after 30% when I realised I didn't care about the outcome. I wouldn't read anything else by this author, this type of writing is not for me.

Having enjoyed all the previous books, this one is quite different and more difficult to read with so many confusing strands that has our young hero baffled and the reader too. As a naive callow young lieutenant in the German army posted to the western front towards the end of WWI, one of his men is involved with the surrender of Russian troops sent to aid the French and subsequently is made a scapegoat and executed for an explosion at a meeting of senior officers meeting with many killed. Being convinced of his man’s innocence he pursues enquires to find the truth against superiors wishes and those secretly determined to maintain the status quo. With a background of Germany at the point of collapse, the investigations leads into the treatment of shell shock, hidden gold, the secret of and identities of who attended the ill-fated meeting, political plots which results in hair raise attempts to silence him that he escapes, barely with his life.

A sort of origin story set in the dying months of WW1., we meet the authors hero Gregor Reinhardt as a young Lieutenant in the German army living in the hell of the front line trenches with all the associated horrors that entails.
when one of his men is blamed for the murder of a number of officers followed by attempted suicide he is suspicious of the haste many of his superiors wish to bring to the case and treat it as open and shut he determines to investigate the matter himself.

He soon finds himself caught up in a highly convoluted case that encompases the hospital for those suffering from 'shell shock','officers only' the other ranks being put through a much harsher form of treatment, The higher reaches of the officer corp to the socially elevated civilians back in Berlin.. It seems to be here that Reinhardt learnt that corruption greed contempt for those lower down the social order and a sense that the rules did not apply to them were at such odds with the creeds of honour duty and patriotism they preached.
With a dogged and resilient attitude and an acknowledgment of his duty of care to his men Reinhardt finally gets to the truth of the conspiracy and the roles of those behind it..
This is a gripping thriller full of twists and turns set against a background of horrific conditions and amidst such slaughter that the murders of a number of people concerned seems almost irrelevant but thats not how he sees it ,a difference between a casualty of war and a deliberate act by an individual to conceal his guilt.
I will look forward to reading those further cases of Gregor Reinhardt that I have not yet read with a greater understanding of the man he became,Superb book by a terrific writer.

This new Gregor Reinhardt tale (#4) is an astonishing new literary feat, a darkly evocative & meticulously well researched work of historical fiction and the compelling portrait of a German society on the brink of collapse. Build with enough twists and turns to keep the readers on the edge of their seats and blessed with a vast cast of unforgettable characters, this wonderful fictional tapestry was an absolute joy to read from start to finish!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Oldcastle Books for this terrific ARC

I’ve been a fan of this series ever since I read the The Man From Berlin in 2016. I then read, in quick succession, the next two in the series, The Pale House and The Ashes of Berlin. And that’s where, much to my disappointment, it seemed the adventures of Gregor Reinhardt might end. (I’ll admit to having developed a bit of a crush on Reinhardt by that time.) So you can imagine how thrilled I was to learn there was a new book on the way and that it was a prequel as I love a good prequel.

A prequel obviously presents both opportunities and challenges for an author. The main challenge is that the author can’t change what will happen in later, already written, books. So it’s no spoiler to say the reader knows that, however dangerous the situations in which he finds himself – and they are often extremely dangerous – Reinhardt isn’t going to die in Where God Does Not Walk. But, of course, he doesn’t know that and thanks to the skilful writing of the author, Reinhardt’s many dices with death don’t lose any of their impact, tension or excitement.

On the other hand, the main opportunity presented by a prequel is the ability to delve more deeply into the past of the main character, to explain the background to decisions or actions they may take in later books, and to fill in more of their back story. Where God Does Not Walk does that in spades, taking the reader back to the First World War and introducing us to a young Gregor Reinhardt, only nineteen years old but already battle-hardened. From the off, he shows early signs of the intelligence, curiosity and, let’s face it, rather dismissive attitude to authority he displays in later books. However, what he also shows is a fierce loyalty towards the soldiers he commands, a strong sense of justice as well as a remarkable ability to survive the most perilous of situations. I also loved the first appearance of small details, such as a watch, that readers who’ve read the previous books may recognise.

If you’ve ever wondered what it must have been like to serve in the frontline in the First World War then this book will leave you under no illusion that it was hell on earth. The descriptions of the result of artillery and machine gun fire on human bodies leave little to the imagination. In one memorable scene an appalled Reinhardt, looking around at the severely injured soldiers in a casualty clearing station, wonders at ‘such a butchery of men’. However, if anything, the most shocking thing is the seemingly casual attitude of those who put soldiers into situations where they know few will survive intact, if at all. ‘Men die in all kinds of ways, for all kinds of reasons. Some of them are avoidable. Some of them are accidental. Many of them are stupid. Many are unthinkable’. The book also explores the psychological effects of war, exposing some of the crude treatments inflicted on those suffering from what we would today recognise as post-traumatic stress.

It’s clear a massive amount of amount of research has gone into the book and from time to time I did find I needed to refer back to the list of characters at the beginning of the book to remind myself who was who and what position they occupied in the military hierarchy.

Of course, Where God Does Not Walk also incorporates an astonishingly complex mystery that had me perplexed for most of the time – as was Reinhardt too for a large proportion of the book. As he becomes involved in the investigation of a series of gruesome murders, Reinhardt lurches from one violent confrontation to another as he attempts, in any way he can, to tease the truth from those reluctant, or too afraid, to reveal it. As hints of a conspiracy emerge that may involve some in the highest level of the country’s institutions, there are also signs of a nascent anti-Semitism.

If you’re new to the series, Where God Does Not Walk is the perfect place to start, although I warn you you’ll probably be adding the other books to your wishlist by the time you finish it. And it gets better because the author promises us this is just the start of a new cycle of books taking Reinhardt from where we leave him in this book up to the point we meet him in The Man From Berlin.

Where God Does Not Walk is both a complex thriller and a stark and, at times, unflinching exposition of what it was like in the frontline during the First World War. As one character observes, ‘No man survives a war and is the same man he was at its beginning’. Welcome back, Reinhardt.

If you love thrillers and war time, then this has the perfect concoction of components for you. Twisty, surprising and packed with plenty of action.
I read as a standalone and really enjoyed.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Oldcastle Books for an advance copy of Where God Does Not Walk, the fourth novel to feature German Army Officer Gregor Reinhardt.

July 1918. Reinhardt is a 19 year old lieutenant in a stormtrooper regiment when one of his men is accused of bombing a high level officers’s meeting and then committing suicide. Not believing a word of it he sets out to investigate and finds more than he bargained for.

I thoroughly enjoyed Where God Does Not Walk, which is a mammoth undertaking for both reader and writer. It is a long, complicated novel with an emotional resonance that surprised me.

I found the novel slow to catch fire and I wasn’t initially sure if I would keep going with it, but after a few chapters I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. There is so much going on in it and it’s all good I hardly know where to start, perhaps the setting because that gives the plot context and a unique relevance. Reinhardt is a front line officer, so much of the novel is set in the trenches and the surrounding front line. The descriptions are realistic enough to be horrendous with much emphasis on lice, fear and shell shock. I felt, at points, I was living the danger and then there is the almost casual bravery and sense of camaraderie of the storm troopers in the face of senior politics and callousness.

Then there is the plot. The reader follows Reinhardt as he uncovers serious wrongdoing and so many murders. I swallowed everything he reasoned and had to say, but there are more twists than he could comprehend. It’s tense, exciting and puzzling and the only thing stopping me from getting too nervous was the knowledge that he survives (the three previous novels to feature him are set in WWII). I was impressed by how the author builds his storyline and manages to throw in some strong action scenes and serious misdirection.

The novel portrays a young Reinhardt who has had to grow up fast. He seems so much older than 19 in many ways, but sometimes reverts to being a teenager. He is obviously smart and has a strong survival instinct, so this can also be looked at as a coming of age novel. As a bonus he has a clear voice and a logical thought process.

Where God Does Not Walk is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

*A big thank-you to Luke McCallin, Oldcastle Books, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
Atmospheric novel set during the last months of WW1 with a mystery that starts slowly but engaged me fully after several chapters.
This is my first encounter with Gregor Reinhardt despite wanting to read other books in the series for quite some time. And now I am going to read the other books as Mr McCallin's main character is the man I found intriguing and presented convincingly, especially his attitude to war and to his subordinates. The WW1 trenches, the attacks, the villages, the hospital and even the POW camp are all realistically depicted and so is the mentality of soldiers and their tiredness of war.
At times the novel is brutal in its depiction of the war, but no war is ever clean. The plot itself is set againt the general situation in Germany at the war approaches its end and the military and political charade that engulfs Germany.

Luke McCallin takes us back to his detective Gregor Reinhardt's traumatic earlier years in this coming of age prequel set in the final year of the Great War. The young Lieutenant Reinhardt is a stormtrooper on the Western Front, having served on the Eastern Front, when Willy Sattler, one of his men is accused of blowing up a group of important men in a secret meeting. Amidst the horrors and nightmares that is trench warfare, all too vividly evoked, Gregor has seen too much, too many men with tombstones in their eyes, and he is about to learn too much that is to put his life on the line. He is on the path to becoming disenchanted with those at the helm of this godforsaken war in Berlin and Germany, the corruption and mendacity, as he glimpses the shadowed motivations and machinations of those in power, the absence of any humanity, leaving him with no faith in what he and his men are supposed to be fighting for, the abstract nature of god, king and country. Gregor fights for his men, as they fight for him, there is nothing else.

Sattler is assumed to have committed suicide, but when discovered to be alive is ordered to be shot dead as a traitor by General Hessler amidst brave and widespread opposition, including that of Colonel Meisner, who tasks Gregor with conducting a below the radar investigation. Gregor does not believe that Sattler is guilty, but Gregor is young and naive, and about to become acquainted with the hard to decipher bigger picture, the conspiracy of those who know the war is lost and are planning to dictate the future state of post-war Germany in which defeat and problems are laid at the feet of troublesome socialists, communists, and Jews. They will then be squashed so that the existing power stratas will be left untouched by the growing seeds of turbulence and discord, of the change in the air, revolution, collaboration, solidarity and workers' rights. There is the psychiatric battles in approach to shell shocked men, a little understood phenomena, some are humane in their treatments but there are those who line up behind the hard stance that these men are malingering and need to be taught a lesson, men are tortured and given electric shocks as their 'cure' and sent back to the front to fight again.

Gregor hones his investigation skills in the bleakest, demanding and most complex of environments in which the body count grows and grows, he is surrounded by numerous suspicious deaths, whilst simultaneously serving as a soldier in the hardest fought of battles of WW1. McCallin's research is impeccable, and his portrayal of the war is atmospheric, gut wrenching and hard to bear. There were times when the situations that Gregor found himself in were so horrifying that the only thing I could hold on to was the fact that I knew he would survive, given the earlier novels set in WW2 and after. This is a superb historical novel, with many surprising twists and turns, it will appeal to those interested in this time period and those who are already fans of the outstanding Reinhardt series, it works extremely well as a standalone as it covers Gregor's earlier life for new readers. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

What a book. Very long but so well written you just keep turning the page to see what happens next. Does a great job of telling Reinhardt's story. A really good book

Having really enjoyed The Man from Berlin (2013) (Gregor Reinhardt #1), The Pale House (2014) (Gregor Reinhardt #2), and The Ashes of Berlin (2016) (Gregor Reinhardt #3), I was keen to continue the series.

Where God Does Not Walk (2021) (Gregor Reinhardt #4) takes us back to World War 1 and so predates the previous three books which all take place towards the end of World War 2. Gregor's time on the Western Front in 1918 is another convuluted tale which, amongst other things, tells the story of how Gregor gets the Englishman's watch.

The second half of the book becomes quite gripping after a slowish start and builds up to a wonderful finale.

There is no need to have read the previous books to enjoy and appreciate this one. It works perfectly as a stand alone novel. Indeed it might now make most sense for newcomers to read this book prior to the original trilogy.

In common with previous books, the reader is given a wonderfully credible and convincing sense of historical atmosphere with a vivid sense of place, time and those important everday issues. The characters are all fully fleshed and convincing too not least Gregor himself who, even in these early days as a somewhat gauche teenager, has so much to contend with.

Gregor Reinhardt is a superb character and I hope this series will continue.

In the final months of the First World War, 19 year old Gregor Reinhardt is a lieutenant in the German Army on the Western Front. A group of German officers are killed in a bomb explosion at a French chateau and one of Reinhardt's men is accused of planting booby traps at the chateau before trying to commit suicide. Although the soldier survives his suicide attempt, he is subsequently executed for his alleged crime. Reinhardt isn't convinced that the man was responsible for the murders and begins to investigate.

He uncovers a secret cabal within the German Army, with senior officers allying themselves with industrialists, politicians and others in high places back home in Berlin, planning to ensure that Germany's failure to win the war will be blamed on socialists, liberals and Jews. As the story moves between the horrors of trench warfare and a hospital in Berlin, where two doctors are treating soldiers with shell shock - "Men suffering wounds that left no mark" - Gregor finds himself in increasing danger.

Although set during The First World War, this is not just a war story but a mix of complex murder mystery and Reinhardt's coming of age as a young man desperately seeking the truth.

I have to admit that I found the plot very confusing as various characters appeared and disappeared while Gregor is diverted countless times in his bid to discover who is responsible for the murders and as, the more he investigates, the higher the body count rises. That said, it is beautifully written book, despite the horrific descriptions of fighting on the Western Front.
This is the 4th book in a series about Gregor Reinhardt but can be read as a stand alone as the previous books are set during World War II.

My thanks to the publisher No Exit Press and to Netgalley for a copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.