The New Detective

The book is about Detective Willi Geismeier who, for the most part, investigates a separate cases of fraud and missing drugs that appear to be inextricably linked and hint at a wider conspiracy. All of this is happening post WW1 and includes the early beginnings of the Nazi Party.

I really enjoyed how the case he's investigating links to what was happening in real-life Germany following the war: the rise of nationalism, an interest in eugenics and the "purification" of the German people. The author uses this well to create an interesting and engaging mystery that had me hooked.

My only criticism of the book is that I didn't feel like it had the satisfying conclusion I expect in a detective story, though this is probably because of the historical context of the book.

Overall, I thought it was well written and developed at a nice pace. I really like the protagonist who is willing to stand up for justice no matter the cost to himself. I would definitely recommend to all, even those with a minor interest in history.

Thank you NetGalley and Severn House for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Peter Steiner's The New Detective is a fascinating read. It's published by Severn House, which specializes in mysteries, and, yes, there is some mystery to it, but more than a mystery, it's a piece of well-crafted historical fiction exploring life in Germany before, during, and after WWI.

In this review, I'm not intending to discuss the mystery aspect of the novel. I want to discuss the matter-of-fact way that Steiner and Willi Geismeier, his central character, show us how easily we can convince ourselves that wrongs are right and that inhumanity can be a humanitarian act.

At the novel's start, Willi is beginning his employment as a police officer. Not long after that, he's drafted into the German Army in WWI, is gassed, is temporarily blinded and left with a long-term significant loss of vision. He returns to Germany as a civilian gradually making his way back to working as a police detective.

Willi is an even-tempered, matter-of-fact man with deep beliefs about justice—but he never evinces these beliefs through acts of temper or violence. He just calmly makes his way through the world, pursuing justice and sticking with cases that more politicized members of the police and government want swept under the rug. During his second stint in the police force he sticks with a case that he's been ordered to drop more than once for political reasons. The potential guilty individuals are not just powerful, but public heroes who also convinced of their own rightness—and determined to differentiate between "true" Germans and other inferior "races."

The writing style, like Willi himself, is straight-forward and simple. The book moves along quickly because one doesn't have to wrestle with difficult or flowery prose. One just wrestles with the growing insanity of public opinion—which Willi finds senseless and calmly ignores.

There's no magic denouement at the end of the novel. Some good things happen. Some terrible things happen. Most importantly, Willi remains who he is, an individual who never gets blinded by the zeitgeist of the world he lives in, who walks his own path, even to his own detriment.

In a time when political discourse is more and more at odds with certain basic values like honesty, generosity, and kindness, Willi is a heroic non-hero. A man whose ordinariness turns him into a quiet response to a world becoming louder and louder in its compromises, justifications, and unfairnesses.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

Peter Steiner’s historical crime series centred around Munich detectice Willi Geismeier has taken an interesting course. The first book in the series The Good Cop was set in the early 1920s and dealt with the rise of Nazism. The next two books, The Constant Man and The Inconvenient German are set after Geismeiser’s parting ways with the Munich police force, the latter in the final years of World War 2. In The New Detective, Steiner gives readers Geismeier’s origin story. The book opens with Geismeier’s first day on the job as a policeman and charts his way into becoming a detective, including the impact of World War I and its aftermath on his life and his career.
The first section of The New Detective is set in 1914. Willi Geismeier has joined the police force and is paired with a corrupt officer who seeks to have him embarrassed, beaten up or corrupted. None of these eventuate and instead Geismeier finds himself investigating a suspicious death. When no one seems to want him to investigate he goes off and becomes a detective. He discovers the killer and the victim’s connection to corruption, just as the First World War breaks out and he is called up to fight. Geismeier returns from the War injured and is then confronted at home by the Spanish Flu which is tearing through German society. After many personal travails, Geismeier returns to the police force where he starts to investigate both an insurance fraud and the theft of medical supplies, two cases connected through a man currently in prison.
The New Detective is as much a thriller as a historical procedural. Steiner reveals the killer and his motives reasonably early so that he can delve into them and reveal their powerful connections. The tension then comes from Geismeier pushing against political forces as he slowly makes his way to the truth. And those forces, even as far back as 2019, were obsessed with German racial purity. Through this story, Steiner explores the ideology that underpinned the formation of the Nazi party. While there are plenty of theories about the rise of German nationalism connected to its loss in the First World War, Steiner is interested in this existing thread of genetic supremacism.
Steiner uses the crime and thriller tropes effectively to illuminate a time and place and to explore the development of a murderous ideology that drove the world to war. While readers of the other books might find the genesis of a character that they are already familiar with, The New Detective’s place in Geismeier’s timeline makes it easy to read as a standalone, and may well encourage those who haven’t read them to seek out the rest.

Since my introduction to Willi Geismeier, a police detective in WWII Germany, I have been a fan of the character. In Peter Steiner’s latest series entry, he takes you back to 1913 and Willi’s beginnings with the police. Graduating from Munich’s police academy at the top of his class he is still a teenager, resented by his partner and thrown into the worst areas. After solving his first murder, his time with the police is cut short by the start of WWI. Blinded by a gas attack, he is sent home where he joins his father’s company as he recovers. He is dealt another blow when he loses his parents and fiancée to the Spanish Influenza. Returning to police work brings him back from the brink of despair.

The political situation in Germany after WWI brought changes to the police. Willi was assigned a case dealing with insurance fraud, but ties it to a case of missing drugs from several hospitals. The thefts were small and the hospital blames a former employee. When he is questioned by Willi he opens his eyes to the growing threat of eugenics.

Willi is persistent. Ordered by his superiors to drop the investigation, he continues on his own. He has a reputation as a brilliant investigator, but his quest for information and justice puts him at odds with his superiors as the Nazis begin their rise to power. The growing belief in aryan superiority and the cleansing of inferiors from society is disturbing. Willi’s reactions to his discoveries and his subsequent actions show his development to the man that he becomes in Steiner’s series. This is perfect for fans of the late Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series. I would like to thank NetGalley and Severn House for providing this book for my review.

“The New Detective” by Peter Steiner is the fourth book to feature Munich detective Willi Geismeier, who in his previous novels had to deal with the rise and fall of Nazism before, during, and after the Second World War. This time we meet Willi at the start of his career in 1914, where he becomes the titular new detective in Munich.

From his first day on the job, Willi definitely has his own moral compass, his personal strong sense of right and wrong which doesn’t always line up or endear him to other policemen. We see how Willi starts out as a policeman, decides that he needs to be a detective in order to follow his sense of justice, so he becomes one, following up on a suspicious death with ties to political corruption, a murder that no one is interested in solving.

As that case comes to a close the First World War is starting, Willi on his way to the army. Coming back a shattered man, he has to recover, working for his father while getting back to a new reality, which includes the Spanish Flu epidemic. As he loses loved ones, he starts to get back to what he’s good at – being a detective. Once again, two cases that no one really wants solved, involving insurance fraud and missing drugs, interest Willi enough to pursue them against orders, leading to a shocking conclusion.

I have really enjoyed all of the Willi Geismeier books, and this one is no exception. There is something about Mr. Steiner’s writing style in these books that make it seem as if each chapter was a snapshot, a little self-contained bit of story that fits perfectly between the bits on each side. I don’t know if that makes sense, even I am not sure how to explain it but it just works.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Severn House via NetGalley. Thank you!

Dark days!

Meeting Willie Geismeier as a young man pre WW1 when he has topped his exams, doing everything to be a police constable, is sobering. It goes along way to explain who he is and his actions. He’s like a dog with a bone, he comes at investigations through a unique prism, and seems to solve all his cases
So when he becomes interested in the murder of a journalist he’s given the go ahead to investigate. Willi solves the murder but he thinks there’s more. That more is interrupted by WWI.
Willi comes back a different person to a very different Germany. The Spanish Flu is advancing, the average soldier is worn down. Communism battles with fascism. The place is a whirlwind of double speak and lies. He becomes interested in the avoidance of his enquires by higher authorities about the death of a prisoner Ladislaw Gabek in Stadelheim Prison.
He’s looking for stolen everyday drugs and medical equipment.
His tracks lead to a pathological doctor, Ottmar Von Fischer, whose experiments in disease on prisoners disguise his real passion, the gathering of data to show Jews, criminals, and the disabled are sub-human and need to be exterminated to keep the race pure.
A shocking look at Germany going into 1939.
The novel’s ending is dark and prophetic. Despite this Willie Geismeier is an appealing character, a man of integrity, whose witnessed much and sees to the roots of some of his society’s problems.
Very much a noir thriller with unpleasant showers of reality.

A Severn House ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

I think it's the first mystery I read set in post WWI Germany and set in Munich. It's a fascinating and solid mystery but it's also a well researched historical fiction that talks about the birth of nazi party.
Well written and good storytelling
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The "New Detective" was a highly entertaining and gripping historical mystery. . Set in 1913, it follows the progress of a new recruit to the German Police. As a new detective our protagonist is sent to all the rough areas and he learns from the experience. In 1914, the first World War starts and our policeman is sent off to fight but is wounded and after recovering he stays in the Police. This is a short book at 192 pages but it covers a lot of ground and I was impressed with the story and I hope that there are more books in the series.

Thank you NetGalley and Severn House for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own

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The New Detective by Peter Steiner takes place after World War I, when Willi Geismeier joins the German police force. Mr. Steiner is a novelist and award-winning cartoonist.

Rookie detective Willi Geismeier barley survives World War I, and is back in the Munich police force. Willi finds himself investigating the rapid insurance fraud industry, drugs theft, and strange occurrences at the local jail which he thinks are all connected.

This is another exciting entry into the Willie Geismeier historical fiction crime series. The books revolve around the question of how people justify the bad things they do, or not even realize they’re wrong. Something that is very relevant in today’s world.

Even though this book takes place before the previous novels, The New Detective by Peter Steiner gives a new perspective on its protagonist. Willi is almost too good to be believed, and is never blinded by the prevailing winds of the society he lives in.

During the time the novel takes place, after World War I, before World War II, eugenics becomes an established science. This is the precursor to the Nazi regime’s excuse for genocide and the author shows how men of logic and science get trapped in false narratives.

The cases the “new detective” takes on link directly to the rise of nationalism, and the attempt of purification of German blood. The author makes use of police procedural and crime to explore the times and ideology which had lasting affects on the world and humanity.

Geismeier pushes against the grain, believing he’s right. We already know, however, that his attempts are futile. This was, for me, the interesting aspect of this book is that we root for Willi, knowing full well he’s going to fail. The German theory of the genetic superiority will prevail for a short time and the forces he’s up against are not interested in being challenged.

The New Detective by Peter Steiner is the origin story of Willi Geismeier, a young German who decides he wants to join the police force and does so in the months leading up to the beginning of World War One. He even manages to attain the rank of detective and gain some local notice for his work. But then he and most other young German men are called up to war. He fought until he became blinded by gas during a battle then, after lengthy hospitalization, returned home hoping to eventually see well enough to work at his former job.

Finally, the war ended, with Germany left in turmoil politically, financially and socially. It was torn by the communists from the left, the national socialists on the right and the vestiges of the old government still in power. The head of the police followed the will of whoever was in power. Willi wanted the truth which often made him unpopular.

In The New Detective, through Willi’s investigations, we learn of some of the beginnings of what would become the new Germany, with its focus on German superiority, master and inferior races, and other concepts that were to be further developed in the coming years. This is a very compelling use of the mystery novel. There are occasional information “dumps” especially near the end of the book that offer good insights but are awkwardly presented. I recommend this book and plan to read the others in the series which take place after the time of this book.

Thank you to Severn House and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book. The review is my own.

In a way, it feels like there are two different stories here.
I really enjoyed the first part of the novel. The historical setting was fantastic, and the description of how WWI disrupted everyone's lives, how it unfolded, and the aftermath, paired with the influenza pandemic, was really good. I've seldom seen the 1918-19 influenza pandemic used paired to WWI in a historical faction, but I suppose we are becoming more sensitive towards that experience.
It was a bit confusing at the beginning because all events felt disconnected, but slowly, after the war, everything seemed to come together.
I was really intrigued - until the author revealed everything from a POV different from that of the protagonist.

Now, I know this is a thriller, not a mystery, but it was conducted as a mystery up to that point, so I was a bit disappointed.
It smashed my involvement. After that, it was harder for me to stay interested.
Also, I found that the way the German social situation evolved toward Nationalism after WWI was portrayed in a too simplistic way. There was nothing semplicistic about that situation, and I was a bit put off by this.

I understand the author is employing historical facts and characters, but since I'm not familiar with them (as, I suppose, most readers), I would have appreciated some notes at the end to explain how much is fiction and how much is history. I know I can google it, yet I would have appreciated some pointers.

But apart from this, I found the plot very strong, although I didn't like the ending. I was just wondering how such an intricate story could end in the next 10 pages... when something independent from the protagonist's action happened and 'sorted out' the ending. I didn't really appreciate that, and I found ending with that twist, after a plot build so solidly, was disappointing.

The style is very journalistic (I understand the author is a journalist), which I found particularly suited for the story, and yet gave some surprisingly heartfelt moments.

Overall, it was a good story. I just liked the first part a lot better than the second.