This is the second book featuring Franz Schmidt, set in Nazi Germany. The Eye of the Abyss is the first, which received considerable acclaim at the time it was published.
From the Blurb:
Franz Schmidt arrives in Berlin in January 1939 to take up the position of Chief Auditor at the Reichsbank, the financial heart of the Third Reich. He has been positioned there by the enigmatic von Streck, a high-ranking member of the Nazi Party, but one who has a different agenda to that of the Fuehrer.
Opening Lines:
At one minute to nine on a bitter morning, Franz Schmidt walked to Berlin's Wilhelmstrasse cocooned in a throng of phantom figures. The fog blanketing the city had cut visibility to just metres and, peering ahead, the auditor decided that the footfalls tapping eerily on the pavement were a percussion performance from a host of lost souls.
Franz Schmidt arrives in Berlin in January 1939 to take up the position of Chief Auditor at the Reichsbank, the financial heart of the Third Reich. He has been positioned there by the enigmatic von Streck, a high-ranking member of the Nazi party but one who has a different agenda to that of the Fuehrer. Schmidt realises he must tread very carefully to avoid the zealous and passionate Fraulein Brandt, who is determined to destroy anyone unfaithful to the Party. After the murder of a co-worker, Schmidt is driven, despite von Streck's orders to keep a low profile, to help the dead man's assistant, who is now in grave danger herself.
As the Gestapo's reach extends throughout the freezing city, Schmidt's brief becomes clear. He must steal a copy of the Reich's financing blueprint in an attempt to prevent the country's march to war. Iron Heart is the second novel featuring Franz Schmidt and confirms Marshall Browne's reputation as one of Australia's foremost crime writers.