Shadow and Light A Novel [Paperback]

Berlin, 1927. When a studio executive at Ufa -- the home of German Cinema -- is found dead in his office bathtub, Herr Kriminal-Oberkommissar Nikolai Hoffner is determined to uncover the truth behind what he firmly believes is murder. With the help of Fritz Lang and Alby Pimm, the leader of the most powerful crime syndicate in Berlin, Hoffner finds his case taking him beyond the world of film and into the far more treacherous landscape of Berlin's sex and drug trade, the rise of Hitler's Brownshirts, and the even more astonishing attempts by onetime monarchists to rearm a post-Versailles Germany. Jonathan Rabb'sShadow and Lightis an electrifying thriller set in a darkly beautiful Berlin poised on the edge of destruction.

Rabb's sinister and seductive evocation of Weimer Republic Berlin serves as the backdrop for this superb literary crime novel.

A darkly gripping, intellectually sophisticated new mystery. The Boston Globe

Rabb has a gift for capturing the intoxicating -- and toxic -- atmosphere of post-World War I Berlin. . . . His gallery of real-life characters, scattered across the fictional landscape, lends a touch of Ragtime-like fun. The New York Times Book Review

An innovative historical detective mystery . . . gives a haunting, dark portrait of Berlin society in the Weimar Republic. The Denver Post

Rabb's brilliantly plotted narrative leads his detective past dead ends and red herrings to the discovery that much more is at stake. . . . We can expect some spectacular explosions when next we meet his wounded detective in his beloved, battered city. The Washington Post

An ambitious historical mystery novel that beautifully blends escapist adventure with a surprisingly compelling underpinning of spiritual and moral ambiguity . . . terrific reading. The Boston Globe

Atmosphere is all in Jonathan Rabb's brooding new mystery . . . brilliantly plotted narrative . . . RabblÃ)