For all you ‘First Page Browsers’
ANGEL AVENGER by Tim Wickenden
BOOK BEGINNINGS / FIRST LINES
Prologue
Berlin, Thursday, April 26 1945
In the early hours, there has been a great thunderstorm, the rain so heavy that it has put out fires burning around the city. The air hangs dense, smelling of acrid, damp, smoke; the stench so thick that it stings eyes, coating nose, and throat.
There’s banging on the barricaded door. “He’s been shot, for pity sake. Let us in! Let us in! Are you there Dr Mann? For God’s sake! Help; he’s dying!”
The people in the cellar look thin, drawn, dead tired and frightened, but they hardly react to the noise above.
“I must go look see,” says Dr Mann.
His wife, Gerda, pushes him forward. “Yes go, go quickly, before she attracts attention with all that shouting. Manfred use your bulk and go help Horst with the dresser.”
The two men go up the stairs and drag the furniture away from the door. They throw the bolts and remove the cross-planking, open the door a crack and peep out.
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Chapter One
‘The serpent’s egg’
In the early hours of Sunday, September 11, 1960, Manfried Bikart lurches out of his favourite Bierkeller on Gottschalkstrasse in the Wedding district of West Berlin and staggers off down the quiet street to walk the 1.5km home. Turning right into Wilhelm-Kuhr-Strasse and just before the bridge over the railway, he passes the warning sign: ‘ Achtung! Sie verlassen nach 40m West Berlin’. The East side of the footbridge marks the border between East and West, which is open and easily crossed. It’s a pleasant, mild night. He pauses for a few moments leaning on the bridge railings, lighting a cigarette. Taking a few deep drags, he looks out along the S-Bahn1 line then, belching loudly, stumbles off and rejoins Wilhelm-Kuhr-Strasse, where another sign reminds him that he is now in Das Demokratische Berlin. A little further along, the street skirts Burger State Park where Manfried turns off, heading along a footpath.
Even if he’d not been inebriated, it’s doubtful that he would have noticed the figure trailing him: …
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So you have taken a look, will you read the book?
Let me know what you think in the comments section below.
Just to give you an extra helping hand, and a short refresher, here is the book’s premise …
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ANGEL AVENGER (the premise)
September 1960. In the Spandauer forest Detectives Max Becker and Bastian Döhl, from the Berlin Kriminalpolizei, find a naked, tortured man tied to a tree.
A cryptic message hangs from his neck.
When another body appears, Max is sure it won’t be the last.
The press dub the killer, Der Waldscharfrichter (The Forest Executioner) and graphic tattoos on the bodies suggest that the victims are Russians with a criminal past.
As more bodies and messages appear, they lead Max and his team to a horrific past event, wounds that run deep in the Berlin psyche, plunging Max into a conflict between his sense of duty and justice.
AUTHOR – TIM WICKENDEN
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You might also like to visit Gilion, over at ‘Rose City Reader‘, where you can share links to the book beginnings from her own reading schedule and that of many of our fellow bloggers. There are always plenty of new authors and titles to be discovered.
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This one seems interesting. Enjoy your current read! 🙂
Hi Breana,
I am coming to the end of my current read, which is ‘Death At Eden’s End’, a crime / thriller by Jo Allen. This is an excellent English police procedural, however in comparison to the hard hitting violence indicated in the premise of ‘Angel Avenger’, which I am going to be reading next, it is quite tame. I need to get myself psyched up for Tim’s style of narrative and action!
Thanks for taking the time to visit this week ad I hope you have a great book lined up for the weekend 🙂
Loving the cover which I found fairly simplistic and yet totally menacing. Something I think is reflected in the prologue which, very atmospheric I thought, got the adrenalin pumping from the off.
Hi Felicity,
I agree that this cover art is particularly arresting, both for its image and its use of such strong colourways, easily recognisable in any bookshop display that’s for sure!
Did you also spot the strapline at the bottom of the cover …
“They took everything. Now she’s found them.”
In two extracts which seem so overwhelmingly masculine in context, I can’t wait to discover who this mysterious female is and what her endgame might be!
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and I hope that you have a good weekend 🙂
This does sound good. I think I’m most curious about the events in the prologue, though I know it will all tie together. It’s an interesting setting and time period.
Hi Kelly,
This is thriller / horror, with a great deal of well researched factual history mixed in, if the ratings and reviews on Goodreads are to be believed!
From almost the end of the second World War, to just before the building of the Berlin Wall, I wonder if the man who has been shot in the prologue, is the same Manfried Bikart of chapter one?
Looking forward to discovering Tim’s style of writing and sharing more of the story as it begins to unfold 🙂