3 March 2016

Review #358: Spoils of Victory (Mason Collins, #2) by John A. Connell



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.”

----Thomas Paine



John A. Connell, an American author, pens his new crime fiction, Spoils of Victory which is the second book in the Mason Collins mystery series. This book features CID criminal investigator Mason Collins in post WWII Germany, where he is investigating the local German gangs, there upon stumbling upon an old friend from his days in the military that opens the door to an unknown world of extortion and other crimes that ties the higher designation officials in the U.S Military.



Synopsis:

When the Third Reich collapsed, the small town Garmisch-Partenkirchen became the home of fleeing war criminals, making it the final depository for the Nazis’ stolen riches. There are fortunes to be made on the black market. Murder, extortion, and corruption have become the norm.

It’s a perfect storm for a criminal investigator like Mason Collins, especially when his friend, CIC Agent John Winstone, claims that a group of powerful men are taking over the lucrative trade. But before he can fully explain, Winstone—and his girlfriend— are brutally murdered.

Determined to uncover the truth, Mason plunges into a shadowy labyrinth of co-conspirators including former SS and Gestapo officers, U.S. Army OSS officers, and liberated Polish POWs.

As both witnesses and evidence begin disappearing, it becomes obvious that someone on high is pulling strings to stifle the investigation—and that Mason must feel his way in the darkness if he is going to find out who in town has the most to gain—and the most to lose…



Mason Collins is a former Chicago homicide detective, U.S. soldier, and prisoner of war- turned-U.S. Army CID. He is back in Germany and this time he is tailing behind a German gang in the small town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which has become the heart of black marketing and home to notorious criminals right after the World War II. That is when he meets his old friend, John Winstone, who is now a Counter Intelligence Corps Agent, who reveals that American officials are too joining their hands in the dirty trade of money extortion and corruption. In fact Winstone has jotted down the evidence, collected over the years, against some of the officials, but before he could hand over his evidence to Mason, he is brutally murdered along with his girlfriend. Mason is then sucked into the underbelly of Garmisch that turns out to be both life-threatening as well as risky when more dead bodies start piling up, and more cases of corruption surface up. Mason has to soon decide whom to trust and whom not to trust in a dark, dingy post WWII city of Germany.

The book's setting simply bowled me over and really caught me off-guard as the author has vividly painted that picturesque town in the Bavarian Alps in it's ruins after the war. Garmisch- home to notorious Nazi criminals, is projected with proper darkness thus capturing the perfect atmosphere of that dark corrupted town. The author's portrayal of post war era in Germany is vibrant, striking and and even an eye-opener for many. The author not only takes the readers on a roller-coaster ride through the streets of Garmisch, but also takes them back in time.

I was taken aback by the author's eloquent and pristine writing style that is layered with suspense at every turn of the page. With the progress of the story, the mystery thickened with brain-twisting twists ans turns and adrenaline-rushing actions. The narrative is extremely arresting and within few pages into the story, I was drawn deeper into the depths of the chaos in Garmisch and not even for once I could force myself to look away from it. And each and every scene is written with such great in-depth and vivid detailing, that it comes alive with the author's words. The story is thoroughly captivating till the very end, keeping me on my edges until it's very climax which is equally shocking and hard to anticipate it.

The characters are brilliant, especially the main character, mason, who is developed with lots of flaws and intelligence and given the fact that he served in the Army previously, it makes him even more brave and fearless, who can jump into anything without giving a second thought. His impulsive actions kept me glued and made me rooted for him till the very last page. The supporting characters are also quite well-developed and with whom I could easily connect with.

The mystery is layered with many dimensions and are filled with confusion which made it even more difficult on my part to anticipate that veiled faces of the criminals. The suspense in the air is evident all through out the story. In a nutshell, this is by far one of the most enthralling historical crime fiction that I read in a long time.

Verdict: Mystery fans do not miss out this intriguing book.

Courtesy: Thanks to the author, John A. Connell, for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
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Author Info:
John was born in Atlanta, where he earned a BA in Anthropology, and has been a jazz pianist, a stock boy in a brassiere factory, a machinist, repairer of newspaper racks, and a printing-press operator. He is currently a motion picture camera operator by trade and a writer by passion. He lives and writes in Madrid, Spain, where he is currently working on the third book in the Mason Collins series.
Visit him here


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