Bora is ordered to investigate the murder of Walter Niemeyer, a dazzling clairvoyant, a star since the days of the Weimar Republic. For years he has mystified Germany with his astounding prophecies. Bora's inquiry, supported by former S.A member Florian Grimm, resurrects memories of the excessive and brilliant world of Jazz Age cabarets and locales. Around them, in the oppressive summer heat, constant allied bombing, war-weary Berlin teems with refugees and nearly a million foreign labourers. Soon Bora realizes that there is much more at stake than murder in a paranoid city where everyone suspects everyone, and where persistent rumours whisper about a conspiracy aimed at the very heart of the Nazi hierarchy. Could the charming Emmy Pletsch, who works for Claus von Stauffenberg, be a key to understanding what is going on? Bora eventually meets with Stauffenberg, facing an anguishing moral dilemma, as a German soldier and as a man. The 20 July plot and its dramatic implications as never told before.
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The solemn state funeral of Dr. Prof. Alfred Johnson Reinhardt-Thoma, who passed away suddenly in his residence on Friday, 7 July will take place tomorrow at the Keiser Willhelm Institute in Dahlem. PREFACE - BERLIN, SUNDAY, 9 JULY 1944, DEUTCHE ALLEGEMEINE ZIETUNG
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(@@bitterlemonpub 2 July 2020, 371 pages, ebook, copy from the publisher and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 21 August)
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I haven't read any other books in the series so I had no idea what to expect. I've started to enjoy historical fiction especially crime a lot more recently and this sounded like something I'd enjoy. Martin Bora is an unusual protagonist - an anti-hero. This made The Night of Shooting Stars a bit different. I felt the chapters were a bit too long but otherwise I really enjoyed this book. Martin is a well-written, intriguing and fascinating character. I want to know more about him and will probably read at least some of the other books in the series. I know this book is set during the July 'Valkyrie' attempt on Hitler's life but I know very little about this period so I learned a lot. I felt like I couldn't fully connect with the book because I have very limited knowledge of WW2 and the book assumes the reader has a lot of knowledge about the war. This could be because this is book seven. Still, I did enjoy The Night of Shooting Stars for the most part.
