Good Cop, The

A fascinating account of the rise of Nazism in the 1920's as seen through the eyes of a German police officer. Although labelled historical fiction, much of this story is based on fact, right down to quotes from speeches by Adolf Hitler. We learn how the Nazi leader, initially dismissed as a joke, gradually gathers popular support and finally gains power in the Reichstag (Germany's Parliament). Throughout the 1920's he grew from beer cellar rabble rouser to becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Throughout that time, the Nazis used violence and intimidation as background to their leader's stirring nationalist speeches detailing how he would return Germany to its former glories.
The story opens with Maximilian Wolf returning home to Munich at the end of World War One. A gifted artist, he is employed by a Munich newspaper where he meets a female reporter, Sophie and the two cover the politics of 1920's Munich, with Sophie's stories illustrated by Max's sketches.
The bombing of the editorial offices of the Munich Post leads Max and Sophie to encounter Munich Detective Willi Geismeier, who's no ordinary policeman. Willi is "the good cop" who realises that Germany's rule of law is now firmly enmeshed in the country's politics. Many of Willi's colleagues become Nazi party members, even joining the Sturmabteilung (SA) and Schutzstaffel (SS), the party's paramilitary wings, in order to further their careers.
In real life, the Munich Post was described by Hitler as "the poison kitchen",("Giftküche") as it repeatedly warned of the dangers of Nazism. Behind the scenes, Willi Geismeier gathers evidence of criminal acts carried out by the Nazis in a bid to halt their worst excesses.
The story is peopled by a variety of characters, many of them drawn from real life, which serves to heighten the drama as Willi's pursuit of truth and justice puts himself and those close to him in deadly danger.
The author, Peter Steiner, has turned a seemingly straightforward crime novel into a warning from history that, unless we learn from past mistakes, history has a nasty habit of repeating itself.

Peter Steiner has given us a work of Historical Fiction with a lot of truth in the mix. 

WWI has been lost. Germany is in chaos and the new government isn't anything to brag about. Everyone is in some way corrupted. Detective Willi Geismeier has a front-row seat to the rise of Adolph Hitler.

You have Fascism and Communism and violence everywhere. This is a country that needs a leader desperately. Unfortunately, that leader comes in the shape of Adolph Hitler. Everything is politicized and investigations of crimes become impossible. 

We also have the viewpoints of Maximillian and his wife, Sophie, a reporter. Together they will fight to stay alive, knowing that things are not going to end well for many.

This was a historical fiction story with a whole lot of truth behind it. It moved fast and I really enjoyed seeing Munich in the 1920s through the eyes of those who were there. Good plot, good characters, and a fast pace. Well Done!

NetGalley Reviews/ Severn House  September 3rd, 2019

The Good Cop begins in 1920 in Munich, Germany. After losing WWI the country is in turmoil. Corruption is rampant and people want a change. Adolph Hitler appears on the scene and he seems to be the answer, promising to make Germany great again.

Meanwhile, Willi Geismeier, a detective on the Munich police force, is trying to be a good cop, and Maximillian Wolf and Sophie Auerbach are trying to put their lives back together. Maximillian as an artist for a newspaper and Sophie as one of the paper’s reporters. They both find themselves in the middle of Germany’s political and social upheavals.

The Good Cop is a complex book. The writing is extraordinary and the characters are well-drawn and interesting. The story itself employs many historical facts and even dialogue from some of Hitler’s speeches, giving the reader a true sense of post-WWI Germany. Because of the historical background, it also gave me a chilling sense of a history that is repeating itself. The rise of a temperamental and fanatical leader, determined to gain complete control, can only remind the reader of today’s political situation and the dangers our democracies face.

Peter Steiner is a multi-talented author, with a true gift of storytelling. Even though The Good Cop hits uncomfortably close to home and reminds us that our freedoms should never be taken for granted, it is a timely book that we should all pay attention to.

This is the first book I have read by this author, but I don’t intend for it to be the last. Thank you, Mr Steiner, for writing a book that is compelling, thought-provoking and entertaining – a combination that is hard to find.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

The Good Cop is a book that holds up two things: meticulous detective work and painstaking journalism. Set in Munich between the wars, Steiner has written about the rise of Nazism from the point of view of the police force and the press. The book is just about 200 pages, but it is filled with so much. Great characters. Gripping Drama. A Call for Current Change.

Maximillian returns from The Great War without many marketable skills. He bounces around Munich doing what he can to make enough money to stave off hunger. Max finally shows some of his drawings to an editor of a paper and he is hired on to depict the lives of his fellow citizens… including the uprising of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. He finds Sophie, a young journalist who too has been affected by the war. They become close, but it all changes when their newsroom is bombed and Sophie suffers a catastrophic injury.

Detective Willi Geismeier is a cop who can see through to the bullshit. The political scheming of his colleagues and the backroom deals that are happening all over the city. He knows that his investigations will get him in trouble, but he can’t stay away from the truth even after getting thrown off almost every important case he’s assigned to. Yet, he continues to have the best clearance record of any cop in the city. Willi is the one who comes up with the idea of having Max draw a likeness of the perpetrator of the newsroom bombing from a witness’s account. They have a suspect, and now a reason for that suspect to want revenge.

Rife with twists and linked with historical accuracies, The Good Cop is an absolute thrill ride. A large cast of characters flash about the pages, but with short chapters it is not hard to keep track of them. As the tension rises, even after Hilter is jailed, Willi and the others try to expose the constant slide of the country. Steiner comments in his author’s note about the importance of a free press and that being one of the reasons he chose to write this story. It is a completion of the arc and a not-so-subtle lesson from the past.

A gripping historical thriller that follows several admirable characters through the streets of a changing Munich.

5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to Severn House and the author for an advanced copy for review.