The worst atrocities in battle... begin when war is won
Berlin. May 1945. A city without institutions in a continent that has become a wasteland.
Thousands of former Nazis have been killed in Allied purges, many more incarcerated in the very concentration camps they themselves established.
But the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, has a problem. One of those former Nazis is actually a British spy, Edward Kayne, who has intercepted a top-secret document that Churchill insists is vital to settling the peace.
Martin Geller is selected to journey into the heart of darkness and extract Kayne, but a carrot is dangled before him. His daughter, Zaya, had been abducted two years before as part of the Lebensborn programme – the kidnapping of children deemed to be ripe for ‘Germanisation’. Zaya is now in the same camp.
Geller sets off on a two-pronged mission – to extract Kayne and rescue Zaya. But Geller will discover that far from settling the peace, the document that Kayne has intercepted threatens the opposite.
Can Geller save his daughter from the gates of hell? And how does Geller reconcile the rescue of Kayne with his knowledge that he may be condemning the world to a new Armageddon?
What did I think?
Year Zero gripped me from the start with a shocking prologue that haunted me throughout the novel. Why are people willing to kill anyone in their path to discover the whereabouts of an old lady? Why is Zaya so important? Well, I couldn't even begin to imagine the answer to this question and even more shockingly is that it has a basis in fact.
It took me a little while to get into the rhythm of the book as it flicks back and forth between several locations from London to Tibet and several places in between, but each location is stated at the start of the chapter. Once I got a handle on all of the characters though, I was totally riveted by this breathtaking historical thriller.
Rob Gittins has a real talent for bringing his books to life and oh my word, I really felt as if I was there with the characters struggling to survive in the concentration camps. The more I read, the more I wondered how much was actually based on facts. I don't know a lot about the Nazi party, other than their horrific practice of genocide, and I have found myself researching some of their (bonkers) theories after reading Year Zero.
Haunting, vivid and riveting, Year Zero is a stunning historical thriller. It is quite intricately plotted so you need to keep your wits about you while reading and it is well worth a read.
I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
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