It’s been five months since Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor, Army Criminal Investigation Agents, completed a complicated and hazardous mission in Venezuela. (Read the review of The Desserter.) When they uncovered things that the powers that be wanted to keep buried, they returned with their careers upended. Scott found himself assigned to low level drug busts, with an incompetent partner to boot, while Maggie was transferred to a backwater office in Kentucky. 

Things are about to change. Colonel Stanley Dombroski never lost faith in Scott’s abilities or dedication to the army and the U.S. Faced with what could be another impossible situation, Dombrowski is quick to recruit Scott. The carrot? The chance to get his career back on track and to once again work with Maggie. 

Special Agent Harry Vance, based in Kaiserslautern with the Fifth MP Battalion, was found murdered in Berlin. Vance was one of Brodie’s instructors at the U.S. Army Military Police School in 2005 where he taught a course on counterterrorism. Brodie remembers being impressed by the special agent. That connection only increases Brodie’s incentive to find the killer.

While postings in Germany are considered plum assignments, dealing with German law enforcement, whose officers are controlling and by the book, presents challenges for someone like Scott who often doesn’t play by the rules. Also in the loop is the U.S. embassy’s legal attaché Sharon Whitmore, as strait-laced as they come, who is responsible for coordinating with local law enforcement on any investigation concerning both countries. Unfortunately for Scott, Whitmore, hoping to preserve her working relationship with the Germans, becomes a formidable obstacle to him and Maggie. 

The others involved in the investigation soon make it clear they are not on Team Brodie. The Americans, besides Whitmore, include: Jason Butler, assistant legal attaché; General Frank Kieran, defense attaché; David Kim, FBI special agent; and State Department rep Howard Fensterman. The Germans are Police Captain Omar Solomon and Chief Inspector Erlich Schröder. 

The entire team meets for introductions and to view photos from the crime scene. Vance’s body was found in a dangerous part of Berlin, Neukôlin, where the population consists of refugees from Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Photos show that Vance was laying on his back, wearing a camel-hair topcoat, dark socks, and brown Oxford shoes. He died from a single shot to his temple. His left eye had been removed. A message?

Whitmore instructs Scott and Maggie that they are to walk a fine line. Scott soon realizes that the Germans, as well as Whitmore, are looking for quick closure, even if that means arresting the wrong person. What was Vance doing, late at night, in a dangerous area of town? Because Vance’s work focused on terrorism, there are plenty of suspects living near the crime scene. Many witnesses, including some from a nearby mosque, who might have seen something, were never interviewed by the German police. Scott and Maggie begin by sharing information, but when they learn their efforts are being discounted, their initiative used against them, they change their strategies.

Although Vance was married, he had asked his wife for a divorce and was having an affair. Scott and Maggie  manage to find his lover, Anna Albrecht, and learn that Vance was trying to find the person responsible for the death of Anna’s father. Manfred Albrecht was a records analyst for the Stasi, the notorious state security agency responsible for the arrests of 250,000 Germans determined to be hostile to East Germany. Manfred, who had been feeding information to the U.S., was turned in by an informant and executed. Vance suspected the informant was still alive and, hoping to help Anna find closure, was determined to out him. 

Anna’s information takes Scott and Maggie down another investigative route, but they are preempted by the Germans. Four Muslims are found dead after an IED explodes in their apartment. When Vance’s eyeball is found in the freezer, the case is declared closed. Scott and Maggie are now on their own without any backup from either the Americans or the Germans. 

Nelson DeMille and his son, Alex, keep up the momentum they established in The Desserter. The plot keep the pages turning and there are surprises galore. Scott and Maggie are the perfect team. He’s the rogue operator with a wry sense of humor, while she tries, often without success, to keep her partner in line. This is a duo that should go on to have many more adventures.

Blood Lines
Nelson DeMille
Alex DeMille

Top photo: Bigstock