Historical thriller set in 1936 BAVARIA

1st August 2025

Evil in High Places by Rory Clements, historical thriller set in 1936 Bavaria.

Captain of Police, Seb Wolff is someone who just likes to get on with his job, minding his Ps and Qs and he generally does not like to ruffle feathers. His job is not “..to take political sides, but to try to maintain some semblance of justice in trying times.” He lives with his mother and son, Jürgen, who is about to turn 18 – Jürgen’s mother bolted when he was only a year old. Now Seb is dating Hexie, who is a bubbly and gregarious young woman, a counter to his steadiness. He works well with his sidekick, Hans Winter.

The story is set against the backdrop of the Winter Olympics 1936 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

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Up in the Alps, an English director has been given permission to film, and his leading lady is superstar Elena Lang. It appears, though, that she has gone missing. Seb’s girlfriend alerts him to the fact that Elena is Goebbels’ mistress, which adds a whole new dimension to his investigations. He is loath to allow himself to be pulled into the machinations of the political dragon breathing fire both over everyday life and over the Olympics, but when an SS officer is found murdered, he knows his investigations are in deep trouble. No bad publicity can be allowed to mar the games as they get underway. Meanwhile his partner Hans Winter is having an existential crisis about his provenance, which he must shield at all costs from prying eyes; he then finds himself slotted into life at Dachau in an undercover investigative capacity, and maybe something more personal. He now starts to fully understand the horrors which so many people are having to face, but then struggles to extricate himself from the hell-hole that is Dachau.

An Advance Reader Copy in a Bavarian restaurant

Seb has to infiltrate the aristocracy, discovering a ring of racketeers dealing in stolen artworks, including – it would seem – a Gustav Klimt. Unity Mitford is hanging out with them, “..the most dangerous woman in Munich..” and if he wants to link all the cases he has on his desk (because clearly something is going on), he will have to charm as much information as he can out of her and her friends. He is also on a path to making a great enemy of a deadly SS general, who has already set his sights on the Captain. Danger is coming at him from every direction

This is a well-penned and easy to follow story, set against a strong and colourfully constructed political backdrop. It evokes well the fine line of maintaining a professional front together with moral integrity, whilst working the system against all odds.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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