Melbourne crime/thriller author Marshall Browne introduced Franz Schmidt to us a few books back (talk about a fecund imagination, Browne’s other heroes are an Italian detective with one leg and a Japanese policeman) in The Eye of the Abyss. Schmidt is as unusual a thriller hero as they come – a one-eyed auditor in preWWII Nazi Germany! After a fraught Dresden adventure in the first book, in The Iron Heart Schmidt finds himself in the heart of evil (mostly to come in the future but still seeping from every corner), Berlin itself. Manipulated in January 1939 for unknown reasons to be the new auditor of the Reichsbank itself, Schmidt becomes embroiled from day one in multiple challenges: an arch Nazi female manager, a Goering-lookalike SS man, a homosexual new director, a rebellious Prussian and a determined Jewish secretary. The plot rockets along with Browne’s usual mastery, the city is portrayed with great atmosphere, and the large cast of characters is rich and believable.
But what really distinguish this super thriller writer’s works, and The Iron Heart in particular, is his distinctive, slightly odd style. Much of Browne’s writing is clipped and succinct in true genre fashion, but he excels in creating atmosphere and in subtle shadings of writing that I find enthralling. Above all, the author shifts effortlessly around each scene, in and out of characters’ thoughts, in a way that is rare in thrillers.
I read The Iron Heart in one sitting, a happy rush. Thrillers rarely come so good.