The Berlin Cross

Down and out New York PI John Docker has a past he'd rather forget. So when he finds himself in Berlin in 1948, just after the Russians blockade the city in a move that ultimately sparks the Cold War, it's against his better judgment. Docker is there to track down some stolen treasure - the Cross of Christ, a legendary religious relic that was last in the hands of the Nazis and is now missing. Reluctantly he collaborates with British Military Policeman Captain Beauchamp, who is on the trail of the murderers of Nazi atomic scientist Friedrich Kessler, found tortured and dead in a bombed-out Berlin hotel. Jailed Nazi architect Albert Speer has agreed to give Beauchamp some information on Kessler's killers - and the atomic secrets they may have been after - in return for intelligence on the Cross. Against the backdrop of the Berlin airlift, Docker and Beauchamp race against the clock in a bid to recover the atomic secrets and the Cross.

THE BERLIN CROSS is an extraordinary debut crime thriller by a gifted author with a great future. Dark, witty, full of rich, authentic detail and with a cast of memorable characters, many from the history books, it keeps you guessing until the end.