Pale Horse Riding
by Chris Petit
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Pub Date Dec 01 2017 | Archive Date Sep 04 2017
Simon & Schuster (Australia) | Simon & Schuster UK
Description
From the author of the highly acclaimed The Butchers of Berlin comes a devastating, haunting and brilliant follow up. . .
By 1943 Auschwitz is the biggest black market in Europe. The garrison has grown epically corrupt on the back of the transportations and goods confiscated, and this is considered even more of a secret than the one surrounding the mass extermination.
Everything is done to resist penetration until August Schlegel and SS officer Morgen, after solving the case of the butchers of Berlin, are sent in disguised as post office officials to investigate an instance of stolen gold being sent through the mail. Their chances of getting out of Auschwitz alive are almost nil, unless Schlegel and Morgen accept that the nature of the beast they are fighting means they too must become as corrupt as the corruption they are desperate to expose.
Even if they survive, will it be at the cost of losing their souls?
Praise for Chris Petit:
'Powerful evocation of a city living in terror' Sunday Times Crime Club
'Ambitious, darkly atmospheric' The Times
'Hugely impressive and highly readable; in the tradition of Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs' Financial Times
'Ferocious invention marks this novel out as special' The Edge
'Ambitious and intelligent' Times
'Puts Petit in the first rank' Metro
'A zigzagging narrative as byzantine an blackly pessemistic as late James Ellroy' Independent on Sunday
'An example of the genre near its best. Gorky Park with something to spare; well worth anyone's weekend' Guardian for The Psalm Killer
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781471143458 |
| PRICE | A$29.99 (AUD) |
Featured Reviews
Jeff P, Media/Journalist
I would like to thank Netgallery and Simon @ Schuster for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Pale Horse Riding follows on from Petit’s well-received previous novel, The Butchers of Berlin. It once more features August Schlegel, a Berlin financial crimes detective, and SS Prosecuting Investigator Eiko Morgen. Set in late 1943, Schlegel and Morgen are sent to Auschwitz, disguised as post office officials, to apparently investigate an instance of stolen gold being sent through the post. More significantly they are charged with looking into the wide-spread corruption and black-market activity that has blossomed at Auschwitz on the back of the mass transportations and the confiscation of goods from those sent to the camp. Auschwitz is a horrible place and soon Morgen and Schlegel suspect that they are not meant to leave there alive.
This is a very dark and confronting novel that tackles an overlooked aspect of the horrors of the concentration camps. Petit effectively recreates the nightmare world of Auschwitz outside of the actual camps, and readers will look in vain for any engaging or appealing characters. Petit’s central premise seems to be about the corrupting influence of the concentration camps and his book takes the reader down some very gruesome and unpleasant paths.
Petit invests heavily in creating the historical detail and atmosphere of the time and the pacing of the book suffers as a result. Some readers will also be distracted by Petit’s dreamlike sequences and the book will not be to everyone’s taste. Nevertheless, it is a very well written and compelling novel with an intricate plot that builds to tense climax. It will once more cement Petit’s standing as one of the more original and daring writers currently gracing the realm of the crime novel.
