A big thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me with an electronic copy of this book and for inviting me to be a host on this tour.

Historical Fiction
Released April, 2014
322 Pages
Bottom Line: Skip it.
Affiliate Link: Amazon
Source: Complimentary from TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review

Plot Summary of The Summer of Long Knives:

Komissar Rolf Wundt and his wife’s plans to leave Nazi Germany in 1936 are disrupted when Rolf is forced to stay in the country to solve the murder of a young member of the League of German Girls, pitting him against the Third Reich establishment.

My Thoughts on The Summer of Long Knives:

The Summer of Long Knives combines two of my favorite genres (historical fiction and thrillers) with one of my favorite times in history to read about, so I thought I would love this book. While it was a good story “on paper”, The Summer of Long Knives just didn’t come alive for me.

The story itself was interesting…you’ve got politics, murder, scandal, and corruption. The plot was fairly intricate and I was surprised when the killer was revealed. I also enjoyed learning about the dynamics of the Nazi organization. Snowden did a great job portraying the Third Reich as essentially an organization of professional back-stabbers and brown-nosers. There are two ways to further one’s career: curry favor with someone powerful (even if that means learning tennis because that’s what one of the top party men plays) and take out your rivals. There is no meritocracy, loyalty, or sense of fair play whatsoever. This culture comes into play when Rolf tries to bring the killer to justice “in a country without justice”.

So, with all this intrigue going on, why didn’t the story come alive for me? 

First, there was a lack of character development, especially with the key Nazi party men. I’ve read about Goring, Himmler, and Heydrich before, but only had vague recollections of each of their roles and personalities. I remembered one of them was considered “the Butcher” (or something along those lines), but couldn’t remember which one. And, after reading this book, I still had to hit Google to confirm that it was Heydrich. These men had big personalities and that did not come through in this story. 

Second, I didn’t have an emotional connection to the central murder victim. You never learn much about her as a person, which made her seem very abstract to me and resulted in me not being particularly emotionally invested in seeing her killer brought to justice.

Finally, the writing felt bland and flat. The fear that Rolf is no doubt feeling as he takes on the all-powerful Third Reich while also trying to get out of the country didn’t come across like it should have.

Though I wanted to like this book and did appreciate the story itself, it just didn’t come alive for me.