The Sleepwalkers

May 21, 2013 Deanna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, top-all-time-books, mystery

You must read this book. It starts slow. Do not give up. This is one of those precious books that completely surrounds the reader. One cries, shouts and mourns, yet one has hope. The hero is flawed but has a deep moral compass. He tries to save others. He fails some. He succeeds some. He carries on. I have read many stories and histories of this time. One knows these monsters' story. What made this book touch the reader so deeply is that the characters were just trying to live their lives. They...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Eccentrika rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, my-favorites, thriller, adult

Fin dalle primissime pagine appare evidente che "I sonnambuli" è un thriller storico di altissimo livello, che non potrà lasciare indifferente il lettore.
Ambientato a Berlino, nell'inverno del 1932-1933, si evince un clima di estrema tensione e incertezza. Sono gli anni che fanno da spartiacque tra la prima e la seconda guerra mondiale, Hitler è già un personaggio di spicco ma non è ancora salito al potere, le discriminazioni agli ebrei sono già iniziate. Alcuni esasperati hanno già preso la de...more Fin dalle primissime pagine appare evidente che "I sonnambuli" è un thriller storico di altissimo livello, che non potrà lasciare indifferente il lettore.
Ambientato a Berlino, nell'inverno del 1932-1933, si evince un clima di estrema tensione e incertezza. Sono gli anni che fanno da spartiacque tra la prima e la seconda guerra mondiale, Hitler è già un personaggio di spicco ma non è ancora salito al potere, le discriminazioni agli ebrei sono già iniziate. Alcuni esasperati hanno già preso la decisione di trasferirsi altrove, altri continuano a sperare che la situazione si risolverà. Il protagonista del romanzo è Willi Kraus, un celebre e rinomato detective berlinese, benvoluto da tutti per avere risolto alcuni casi criminali di grandissima importanza, ha combattuto durante la prima guerra mondiale per la sua nazione, la Germania, e si sente tedesco proprio come tutti gli altri. Ma è di origine ebrea, anche se in realtà non ci ha mai davvero pensato, ma è costretto a prenderne consapevolezza solo con l'inizio delle persecuzioni antisemite. Non crede veramente che questo potrà essere un vero problema per lui e continua il suo lavoro con il senso di dovere verso la sua nazione, come ha sempre fatto. Un caso insolito desta completamente la sua attenzione. Un cadavere di una donna trovata con la parte bassa delle gambe girata al contrario da un complesso intervento chirurgico. Un intervento assolutamente sperimentale e non necessario, che le ha menomato le gambe perfettamente sane. Chi l'ha eseguito è un pazzo! Ma anche un chirurgo bravissimo, dato che i trapianti ossei non erano ancora una realtà in quegli anni. Da questa scoperta Willi Kraus si sente in dovere di addentrarsi sempre di più nel fitto mistero, perché ha la certezza che quello non sia affatto un caso isolato, ma che da qualche parte vengano effettuati atroci esperimenti umani. Tra sospette sparizioni di ragazze sonnambule, la crescente apprensione per la situazione tedesca, e le sempre più terribili scoperte che verranno a galla, Willi Kraus si troverà invischiato in un'indagine che metterà a serio rischio anche la sua vita privata, un'indagine che lui vorrà assolutamente portare a termine per salvare la Germania e l'intera umanità, un'indagine che si rivelerà non solo più grande di lui, ma più grande della stesse forze di polizia tedesche.
La lettura di questo libro, oltre a essersi dimostrata fortemente interessante e adrenalinica, mi ha lasciata attonita come mai prima d'ora mi era accaduto leggendo un thriller. Non tanto per le scoperte riguardo ai delitti perpetrati, o per la risoluzione del mistero, che sono state sì scoperte forti, ma che in un certo senso avvengono gradualmente, il lettore fin dai primi capitoli riesce a farsi un'idea di ciò che accade e man mano che la storia va avanti viene preparato a cosa lo aspetta. Il fattore che mi ha impressionata maggiormente è il concatenarsi tra l'elemento thriller e l'elemento storico, in maniera del tutto indispensabile, come se i crimini agghiaccianti traessero una linfa vitale dalle vicende storiche accadute e che tutti noi nel ventunesimo secolo già conosciamo. E' come un destino ineluttabile per il protagonista del libro e per i personaggi che gli orbitano attorno. Mi sono ritrovata a leggere il libro (specialmente la seconda parte) in maniera febbrile, e più di una volta sarei voluta entrare all'interno delle pagine per gridare al protagonista di scappare, di andare il più lontano possibile, perché non può esistere nessun tipo di giustizia nel periodo storico da lui vissuto. "I sonnambuli" è un romanzo che trasuda indignazione, sofferenza e disperazione. Tutte queste sensazioni si riversano nel lettore come un fiume in piena, scuotendolo fortemente dal suo torpore, rendendolo spettatore impotente di una catastrofe annunciata. Il titolo del libro è poi bivalente, nel senso che oltre alla presenza di sonnambuli all'interno della storia, vi è anche una celata metafora con il comportamento del tutto irrazionale del popolo tedesco negli anni dell'ascesa al potere di Hitler, come se fossero state vittime di un'ipnosi di massa. Nonostante (come spiegato a fine libro) la storia sia stata romanzata, il periodo storico descritto è assolutamente realistico e gli avvenimenti del libro, anche se in circostanze e periodi diversi, sono realmente accaduti durante il governo nazista. L'autore è riuscito a raccontare tutto ciò visto da una prospettiva ancora nuova, originale e intensa.(less)

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Jan 26, 2012 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book, set in late 1932 Weimar Germany, is one scary book. One reason I like dystopias so much is that the horrible people in them are just pretend. But the Nazis who came to power in early 1933 were not pretend, and they committed atrocious crimes. And this close-up look at Berlin just as the brownshirts were taking it over is frightening both for what is described and for what you know will be coming later.

Inspektor-Detektiv Willi Kraus, 35, is a respected Berlin homicide cop who received...more This book, set in late 1932 Weimar Germany, is one scary book. One reason I like dystopias so much is that the horrible people in them are just pretend. But the Nazis who came to power in early 1933 were not pretend, and they committed atrocious crimes. And this close-up look at Berlin just as the brownshirts were taking it over is frightening both for what is described and for what you know will be coming later.

Inspektor-Detektiv Willi Kraus, 35, is a respected Berlin homicide cop who received the Iron Cross for his heroism in World War I, and additionally is a local hero for solving a child-killer crime not long ago. His wife Vicki died two years earlier in a freak accident, and her sister now raises his two young sons, Stefan and Erich.

Now Kraus has two new cases. Washed up in the river on the west side of Berlin near Spandau, the body of a woman has been found with mutilated legs – her fibulae have been surgically removed and replanted in the opposite direction. Kraus also is charged with finding a missing Bulgarian princess. While missing persons are not within his ordinary purview, this situation could cause a diplomatic crisis. Both cases turn out to be connected, however. In fact, a number of women have gone missing over the past nine months, all of whom were thought to be under a hypnotic trance when they abruptly left their homes and took the train out to Spandau, from which they never returned.

What Kraus discovers is a horrific preview of barbarity to come. And yet he, like so many other Jews at that time, still thinks that reason will prevail, and resists the idea of leaving Germany. But increasingly, his ability to do his job is stymied by anti-Semitism. As more and more non-Jews are hypnotized by facism, more and more Jews sleepwalk to their deaths. At the end of the book, you find yourself racing through to see if Kraus will escape in time.

Discussion: For me, there were some problems with the book. The intermittent insertion of German phrases is bizarre – the characters presumably all speak German, not English. It just didn’t make sense. The tropes of hypnotism and sleepwalking are clever but at the same time too obviously trying to convey a message about pre-War Germany. And while I accept that the author messed around with the dates of some historical events for plot reasons (which he explains in the afterward), the addition of dialogue from some of the many historical figures of the era just felt like unnecessary “name-dropping.”

Evaluation: This is a definite page-turner with an interesting premise – a Jewish cop trying to solve a crime in the early days of the Nazis. There is an eclectic, interesting cast of characters, and by the end, you can’t put it down until you know what will happen.

Rating: 3.5/5
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Dec 29, 2011 Jacqie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

This book starts off with a mystery- a dead girl is found in the river. But what it's really about is the rise of the Nazi party to power and the horrors that happened because of it.

We have a Jewish detective protagonist. He is highly placed in his department because he solved a horrific child murder case (the Kinderfresser). Willi has faith in his department and his position. The Nazis are having money problems and are struggling for power. Willi doesn't see how they could ever get power, or b...more This book starts off with a mystery- a dead girl is found in the river. But what it's really about is the rise of the Nazi party to power and the horrors that happened because of it.

We have a Jewish detective protagonist. He is highly placed in his department because he solved a horrific child murder case (the Kinderfresser). Willi has faith in his department and his position. The Nazis are having money problems and are struggling for power. Willi doesn't see how they could ever get power, or be as horrible as they say if they do achieve power. This tragic flaw in his perceptions is the point of the novel. Willi keeps on thinking he can make a difference, but he's just a small cog in the giant political machine. But he's not alone- many of his friends and co-workers also underestimate the ruthlessness of the Nazis and are blindsided by the rise to power.

Berlin is really a main character in the book. We see the shiny rainswept neon streets, the mascaraed young street toughs, the landmarks, the new trains, the prostitution and racy cabaret life. We also get out into the thick German forests and rivers as we search for a secret Nazi hospital. I loved the author's ability to set the stage- it was one of the strongest points in this book, and he'd clearly done his research on political history.

Willi is a man of his times, and suffers some of the limitations and flaws of such a man. He falls in with a prostitute named Paula (there's a fair amount of sex in this book) but has a hard time accepting her as she is. Paula is a dominatrix and needs pain. Willi can't handle this well and does judge her for her past. At one point, he slaps her after she's flirted with a friend of his. This treatment of women made me a bit uncomfortable, but I was willing to keep reading because the horror of the kidnapping victims and the tragedy of the Nazi rise to power was engrossing.

I'm not sure where the author can go with this character after this, but I know his next book, "Children of Wrath", is a prequel that talks about the Kinderfresser (Child-Eater for those who don't speak German). I will definitely read it.(less)

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Dec 26, 2011 Jane rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Where I got the book: LibraryThing Early Reviewers program

Inspektor-Detektiv Willi Kraus's new case involves a corpse whose leg bones are the wrong way round. And a sleepwalking princess. Stringing together the clues drags him into contact with history; in Berlin in 1933, Hitler's National Socialists are gaining more power, more rapidly than anyone could have imagined. And they seem to be implicated in the mysterious disappearances.

Kraus starts out thinking that he's looking for an ordinary seri...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Steve Smits rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"The Sleepwalkers" is a blend of historical telling of the Nazi's assumption of power in 1933 and a captivating police mystery. Although the author takes a few liberties with the sequence of events (he admits these), his depiction is largely accurate and is coupled with a compelling story of the protagonist's efforts to expose the Nazi's horrific racially motivated crimes. Willi is an acclaimed police detective, widely famous for a crime he has solved, who is also a Jew. As the Nazi's get closer...more

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Oct 01, 2011 Tim Knier rated it 4 of 5 stars

Set in pre-Nazi Germany, this novel is a captivating caper to capture a mad surgeon who reconfigures humans. What creeps forward as an instance of the stage hypnosis of one audience member grows into a parade of missing nervous sleepers and eventually populates a crazed, spellbound world of Germans mesmerized by Adolph Hitler.

Inspector Detective Willi Kraus investigates an odd drowning victim and later is harnessed with locating a missing princess. Beyond the problematic police work that confron...more Set in pre-Nazi Germany, this novel is a captivating caper to capture a mad surgeon who reconfigures humans. What creeps forward as an instance of the stage hypnosis of one audience member grows into a parade of missing nervous sleepers and eventually populates a crazed, spellbound world of Germans mesmerized by Adolph Hitler.

Inspector Detective Willi Kraus investigates an odd drowning victim and later is harnessed with locating a missing princess. Beyond the problematic police work that confronts him, Kraus faces a critical dilemma about his Jewish family in a culture roiling and raging with racism. One problem I have with Willi as protagonist is that he has scant physical descriptions initially and by the end of the novel my mental image of him has faded and nearly vanished. Perhaps that is hypnotic suggestion by the author.

An unpleasant introduction in the story is that of Paula, the hooker with a heart of gold. The use of this stock character—the tart with a heart—is unconvincing. She seems too shallow to be able to relate to widower Kraus and lacks the motivation to volunteer to do undercover work for him. Even more disappointing is the lack of confirmation as to what actually does happen to her.

I love historical fiction that, even if bending a few facts, seems plausible enough to have occurred. Nevertheless, this genre is open to scrutiny about any inaccuracies or anachronisms. During the 1932-33 year-end holiday season, Willi Kraus visits several hospitality sites where he hobnobs with Albert Einstein (living in the United States before 1933); he bumps into (Hedwig) Vicki Baum, the author of Menschen im Hotel (said to be in America rewriting the script for the 1932 release of the film Grand Hotel); and he nods to Erich Maria Remarque, the author of All’s Quiet on the Western Front (living in Switzerland at the time).

I do wonder about one sly insertion, whether it is intentional because of its implication or if it were merely a happy accident. One female character is described as heavily doused in Chanel No. 5, a Coco Chanel perfume in vogue in 1932. What is intriguing about this brand is the fact that the Parisian couturier had been only a part owner with the fragrance manufacturer, Pierre and Paul Wertheimer, for many years. Once the Nazis started seizing Jewish businesses, Chanel leveraged her Aryan status to legalize her sole ownership of the Jewish brothers’ manufacture of the “Parfums Chanel.” If intentional, this minor detail is a clever use of historical innuendo.

Paul Grossman has created a masterful view of decadent German life during a politically turbulent time, when a heroic minority solves a major case of grotesque proportions only to see its justice to go up in smoke. Play the sound track of Cabaretfor complete ambience.(less)

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Sep 27, 2011 Barbara Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was interested in reading this novel because it is set in 1932-3 Germany, the end of the Weimar Republic and beginning of Hitler's Third Reich. This period and on through World War II in Germany's history is endlessly fascinating to me. How could Hitler and his Nazi Party seduce a whole country and commit such horrors as the attempt to annilate all Jews, gypsies, communists, handicapped people, and anyone else they didn't like? All this in an effort to form an unsullied blue-eyed, blond, stron...more I was interested in reading this novel because it is set in 1932-3 Germany, the end of the Weimar Republic and beginning of Hitler's Third Reich. This period and on through World War II in Germany's history is endlessly fascinating to me. How could Hitler and his Nazi Party seduce a whole country and commit such horrors as the attempt to annilate all Jews, gypsies, communists, handicapped people, and anyone else they didn't like? All this in an effort to form an unsullied blue-eyed, blond, strong Aryan nation, which of course if taken to the extreme would have taken out Hitler himself with his dark hair and eyes, and his Austrian childhood.

So, perhaps because I have read so much about Germany's history, this novel scared me half to death from beginning to breathless end. Grossman has taken some actual events from later in the 1930s and incorporated them into the story, but most of this actually happened during the 1930s.

The hero is Willi Kraus, a police detective in Berlin, who has achieved something of a celebrity status because his investigation had run down a serial child killer. That status opens doors and protects him in the first part of the book. Unfortunately in this time and place, though, Kraus is a Jew, a widower with two young sons which make him vulnerable. He also has ties to the government which put a target on his back with the growing Nazi Party.

One morning he is called to a crime scene by the river. The body of a pretty young woman has washed up on shore. Everyone is standing around horrified because her lower leg bones have been surgically reversed. This case will lead Kraus on a trip to Hell, and the story will include an evil man who really did medical "experiments" on people, Dr. Josef Mengele.

I couldn't read this book fast enough and yet occasionally I had to get away from it. I found myself warning characters under my breath as I read or breathing a sigh of relief when imminent danger was averted. I was so caught up in the story that I was nervous until the end. If that's the mark of a good novel, this one is very good. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

I won this book from LibraryThing and the recently released paperback version is available at Amazon.com or your bookstore. (less)

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Sep 13, 2011 C.W. rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of my favorite periods in 20th century history is pre-Nazi Berlin; a fragile time before the rise of an era of unspeakable darkness, when the city was a fabled cosmopolitan smorgasbord full of vibrancy- an international magnet for artists, bohemians, eccentrics, and the curious. The Berlin we know today is very different from the Berlin of before World War II and Paul Grossman’s THE SLEEPWALKERS offers us a superb evocation of that city’s pathos and tragic hedonism in the weeks leading up to...more One of my favorite periods in 20th century history is pre-Nazi Berlin; a fragile time before the rise of an era of unspeakable darkness, when the city was a fabled cosmopolitan smorgasbord full of vibrancy- an international magnet for artists, bohemians, eccentrics, and the curious. The Berlin we know today is very different from the Berlin of before World War II and Paul Grossman’s THE SLEEPWALKERS offers us a superb evocation of that city’s pathos and tragic hedonism in the weeks leading up to Hitler’s ascendancy, even as a resolute Jewish detective hunts for a killer.

As the title suggests, this is more than a novel about a series of bizarre murders that Grossman’s hero, Detective Willi Krauss, is trying to solve. All of Berlin appears to be sleep-walking, seemingly oblivious to the endemic violence lurking under the surface, epitomized by Nazi thugs and opportunistic politicians scheming to rescue Germany from decades of penury and shame. Krauss, however, senses these fearsome undercurrents, even as he is swept up in a labyrinthine quest to discover why a young woman pulled from the river was subjected to horrific medical experiments. Revered for his recent capture of an infamous serial killer yet haunted by personal loss, Krauss is now beginning to experience a subtle but pervasive fraying of his impermeability. His keen observations of the shifting world around him anchor the novel’s dark, fascinating trajectory into both the high-ranking offices of a crumbling government and Berlin's seamy underworld.

The supporting cast of characters includes an enigmatic prostitute, an extravagant hypnotist, an earnest cadet, a jaded aristocrat, and a street hustler. While some of the characters conform to established clichés, Grossman handles them with sensitivity and style, while his villains— including a terrifying, buck-toothed Josef Mengele—display the sociopathic tendencies which became a Nazi blueprint and are all the more unsettling because they are not fictional. Fast-paced action sequences interspersed with Krauss’s uneasy awareness that the life he’s always believed in is turning to quicksand under his feet give the novel a brooding, unstoppable feel that kept me reading far into the night. Though Krauss fights with every part of his being to halt the shadow sweeping over him, and everyone he loves, we know the inevitable outcome; it is a testament to Mr. Grossman's talent that despite this, we still find ourselves rooting for his idealistic, damaged hero, caught up in circumstances far beyond his control, like so many thousands of Germany's inhabitants.(less)

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Jan 27, 2011 Paul Pessolano rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Paul Grossman has put together a mystery/thriller that is based largely on historical fact. The story takes place in Berlin on the verge of the Nazi takeover. Grossman depicts a Berlin that is not only alive with cultural brillance but also the home of unheard of decadence.

Inspector-Detektiv Willi Krauss, a Jew and decorated war veteran, finds himself investigating a series of missing person cases. The cases all involve beautiful women with beautiful legs. Those who have seen them just before th...more

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Nov 24, 2011 Lisa Romero rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

I got this book in a giveaway from another book website. Not really the type of mystery book I'd buy but it was good. At the end of the Weimar Republic police detective Willi Kraus is given a case that's linked to grotesque medical experiments.
The book is more about Willi than it is about the actual crimes, I thought. You can guess where the story is going about 1/3 of the way through.
There's mention of historical figures in German and world history as Willi searches for a killer. What he find...more

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Apr 01, 2012 I love books rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Willi Kraus è l'Inspektor Detektiv della Kripo (Kriminal Polizei) più famoso della Germania; questo e le sue amicizie ai piani alti gli permettono di continuare a svolgere il suo lavoro anche in un periodo molto difficile per gli ebrei tedeschi. Siamo alla fine del 1932, le elezioni sono alle porte e il partito di Hitler comincia a raccogliere seguaci; le SA e specialmente le SS sono sempre più spesso protagoniste di disordini e inneggiano ad una Germania depurata dai "non ariani". In questo cli...more Willi Kraus è l'Inspektor Detektiv della Kripo (Kriminal Polizei) più famoso della Germania; questo e le sue amicizie ai piani alti gli permettono di continuare a svolgere il suo lavoro anche in un periodo molto difficile per gli ebrei tedeschi. Siamo alla fine del 1932, le elezioni sono alle porte e il partito di Hitler comincia a raccogliere seguaci; le SA e specialmente le SS sono sempre più spesso protagoniste di disordini e inneggiano ad una Germania depurata dai "non ariani". In questo clima di tensione crescente il ritrovamento del cadavere di una giovane americana potrebbe rientrare nell'ordinaria amministrazione, se non fosse per le orribili condizioni in cui versano le sue gambe: entrambi i peroni sono stati asportati e reinseriti nel verso opposto, rendendo la ragazza molto simile ad una sirena. Gli indizi che Willi e il suo giovane assistente Gunther raccolgono conducono i due ad una serie di scoperte a dir poco raccapriccianti, mentre la Germania si avvicina al suo momento più buio il detektiv sarà più volte costretto a fronteggiare la morte per portare alla luce una verità inconfessabile..

Oh my God.. Questo libro è a dir poco fantastico: l'attenzione per i dettagli, l'accuratezza nel descrivere i fatti storicamente accaduti, la presenza di personaggi noti lo rendono non solo un ottimo thriller ma anche un esempio perfetto di romanzo storico da cui trarre spunti. Incontrare personaggi del calibro di Marlene Dietrich, Einstein e Thomas Mann e vederli interagire con il protagonista è stato davvero curioso, è una cosa cui non siamo abituati :)
Come dicevo, l'autore è riuscito a rendere molto chiara e vivida nella mia mente l'immagine della Berlino di quell'epoca: il degrado in cui versava la popolazione più disagiata, l'inizio della diffidenza nei confronti degli ebrei e la necessità per questi ultimi di passare inosservati, la corruzione politica sono raccontati in questo libro con la maestria di uno storico, senza comunque rendere la lettura più faticosa o rallentata.
I personaggi sono molto ben caratterizzati e non potrebbero essere più diversi, si passa dal protagonista, ebreo garante della legge e disposto a tutto pur di fare giustizia, alla dissoluta (e disperata) Paula, dall'instancabile e sempre pronto ad imparare Gunther allo scaltro ma affidabile Kai, e potrei andare avanti per un bel po' :)
Trovo molto interessante l'idea dell'autore di raccontare non tanto le conseguenze del nazismo quanto ciò che è accaduto prima, effettivamente non riesco a ricordare un altro romanzo ambientato in quel periodo; è stato davvero istruttivo, bisogna sempre ricordare come anche le piccole cose e i comportamenti dei singoli possano influenzare il futuro. La passività con cui è stata accompagnata la scalata al potere del nazismo è solo uno dei tanti esempi..
Aggiungete a tutto ciò un ritmo incalzante, un susseguirsi di eventi e rivelazioni, e avrete ottenuto un mix perfetto.
Dire che sono soddisfatta di questo libro è troppo poco, non vedo l'ora di poter leggere gli altri due libri con protagonista Willi Kraus *o*

Super consigliato sia come thriller sia come romanzo storico!(less)

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Feb 13, 2012 Alan Bates rated it 2 of 5 stars

The Sleepwalkers is a crime/suspense novel set in Berlin in the early 1930's when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party were preparing to take over Germany. Berlin detective Willi Kraus is assigned to investigate the death of a drowned young woman who was pulled out of a river with bizarrely surgically altered legs. As Kraus pursues the investigation he starts to uncover a vast and deep conspiracy of evil.

Willi Kraus is a sympathetic character and that is what kept me going. I didn't find the book ver...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars

Different, but a quite satisfying blending of historical fiction and fast-paced detective action thriller. Had not heard of it, but it came highly recommended by the local book shop, and it proved a surprisingly quick read. The detective and action sequences were sufficiently convincing that they did not detract from the highly nuanced and intriguing insider's view of Berlin during the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich, as Germany cascaded towards war and ruin. Having spent time in Berlin (ages...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

PB/Historical Thriller: First, let me say that I won this book in Goodreads. The first half of the book was really good & you wanted to figure out the mystery. The book takes place Pre-WWII Germany. A woman's body is found with her legs on backwards; her head is shaven. Then a Prussian princess leaves her hotel room in the middle of the night. She is never seen again, but looked like she was sleepwalking.
The inspector Willi Kraus is Jewish and the antisemitism of that day hinders his investi...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Bill Thibadeau rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found this story to be well written and interesting. The storyline was, in fact, historical albeit about 10 years prior to the actual events. I think the story actually makes better history that the real timeline we all know from history.

The author chose to write a story with an implausible plot - the stopping of the Nazi Party prior to them even coming into power. We all know that, unfortunately, the Nazi Party did come into power. That reality kept me from getting "into" the story. Perhaps a...more

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Sep 28, 2011 S.C. Langgle added it · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

Willi Kraus is a top detective in Berlin, 1932--and he's Jewish. That would be enough drama for a novel right there, but add in some strange incidents of women sleepwalking and disappearing throughout the city, as well as a woman's body washing up on the shores of the Havel River with her legs gruesomely deformed, and you have a compelling, nonstop thrill ride of a book.
The dark, decadent atmosphere of Berlin in the 1930s is the perfect atmosphere for a noir thriller, and author Paul Grossman ta...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Abigail rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, historical-fiction, thriller

I liked this book, but didn't love it. The setting and history involved was fascinating. Berlin on the eve of the Nazi take-over is like watching a train wreck, you just can't look away. I often found myself yelling at the main character in my head, "GET OUT!! GET OUT NOW!!!" Which is probably the point.

The mystery itself seemed like just a method to talk about 1932-33 Berlin. It just wasn't that much of a mystery; not strong enough for what seemed to be the supposed glue of the book. The charac...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Jeff Hanson rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Sleepwalkers is an entertaining piece of historical detective fiction, much like Tom Rob Smith's Child 44. Set at the end of the Weimar Republic, just before the Nazi's rise to power, this book aims to capture the atmosphere and dread that Child 44 does of Stalinist Russia. Willi, a renowned Jewish detective and decorated war hero, is beginning to realize that the Berlin he grew up in is no longer a safe place for him or his family to live. And when he comes across a bunch of mad Nazi doctor...more

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Jun 07, 2011 Felicia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fitting title to describe not only the victims of hypnosis who were led to their abduction and death, but also to describe the whole German people...........sleepwalking on the eve of the Third Reich..........they never recognized the evil that lay ahead for their country amd all of Europe, or at least they said they didn't.
Grossman writes very well......using historical research and graphic description to the reader's benefit. But, this book is not for the squeamish. The debauchery and wickedne...more

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Nov 17, 2010 Glenj rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was sent this book as a Goodreads "first-reads" giveaway. There is certainly a lot to make this debut novel from Paul Grossman worth reading. In 1932 Berlin, as the Nazi's are about to rise to power, a mysterious body washes up on shore as Germany's most famous detective is on the case of a dead woman whose legs have been somehow "re-attached" backwards. The backdrop of a collapsing Weimar Republic is the highlight of this debut novel as Willi, a Jewish Detective is pulled in all sorts of diff...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Kai rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

The Sleepwalker is set before Hilter became Prime Minister in Germany. The story started when a beautiful woman was found dead with deformed legs. The famous German Inspector-Detective Willi Kraus was assigned to investigate the case of the murdered woman. His investigation took him to discover that there are others victims that have similar MO of the murdered victim. Young, beautiful, foreign women were disappearing in the streets of Berlin. Somehow the disappearances of these women and the mur...more

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Oct 27, 2011 Susan Kavanagh rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, mystery

This paging turning debut mystery by Paul Grossman is set in the last days of the Weimar Republic. A World War I veteran and the only Jew in the Homicide Commission, Willi Krause, has become Berlin’s most famous Inspector General for capturing a notorious child killer. The discovery of a floater with deformed legs leads Krause into much more than a straightforward murder investigation. The author did a great job describing Berlin before the Nazi takeover and captures the atmosphere of decadence...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Gaby rated it 5 of 5 stars

I won this book through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program. I particularly enjoy detective novels set in unusual places and was thoroughly engrossed in Paul Grossman's The Sleepwalkers. Set in Berlin after World War I just as Hitler is gaining power. The lead character, Detective Willi Kraus, is one of the most respected detectives and war heroes from the Great War - but he's also a Jew. Our hero detective uncovers a grisly corpse of a beautiful young woman who was used for a grotesque medic...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the first novel by freelance journalist Paul Grossman. I listened to the audio version which was read by Christian Contreras and he did a wonderful job performing German accents and place names. For me at least, I think this is one of those books which you might appreciate more by listening to the audio version.
It was placed on the Kirkus best debut fiction list of 2010
This book is full of period atmosphere and dramatic characters both real and imagined. Historical figures making appeara...more

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Sep 22, 2011 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Paul Grossman's novel "The Sleepwalkers" does not read like a first novel. The characters were engaging, the story intricately plotted, and the ending is somewhat unexpected.

Set in Germany in the fall of 1932, the story features Berlin police detective Willi Krauss. Krauss became known in Germany for cracking a famous case, known as the Child Eater case and is a World War I hero. As the Nazis plot to gain control of the country, Krauss looks into the death of a young American woman found floati...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I received this book from the Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

SPOILERS below . . . (only if you weren't paying attention in history class, or life, and don't know who the Nazis were or what they did to Germany)

The Sleepwalkers follows inspector Willi Kraus, a Jewish detective in Berlin's police department, as the Nazis rise to power in 1932 and 1933. The story begins with Willi investigating the disappearances of seemingly hypnotized women across the city. Willi ends up uncovering much more than...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Liesel Hill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical

Okay, let me start out by saying this book is awesome! I actually really liked it! But, that said, let's back-peddle a bit.

While I was reading it, it was kind of meh. I really liked the character of detective/inspector Willi Kraus. I thought he was interesting, down-to-earth and very human--in a good way. I loved that he was great at his job, that he had a history (and from it some fame) of bringing down really base criminals, including a child killer.

That said, the writing could have been bet...more Okay, let me start out by saying this book is awesome! I actually really liked it! But, that said, let's back-peddle a bit.

While I was reading it, it was kind of meh. I really liked the character of detective/inspector Willi Kraus. I thought he was interesting, down-to-earth and very human--in a good way. I loved that he was great at his job, that he had a history (and from it some fame) of bringing down really base criminals, including a child killer.

That said, the writing could have been better in places. It was very readable, but there were a few spots where the amateur nature of the writing pulled me out of the story.

Though the mystery was pretty good--I especially liked that Grossman didn't try to sugarcoat it; he wasn't afraid to get into the true horrors of human experimentation and nazi war crimes--it still didn't blow my socks off.

As I was reading, I kept thinking that the most interesting aspect of the book was the historical setting. The fact that it takes place just before Hitler took power prior to WWII was the thing that made it the most intriguing. Even saying that, I still would have found the novel to be only mediocre if it hadn't been for the ending. This was one of those stories where the ending made the entire novel!

Not only was the end heart-wrenching and chillingly prophetic, but the author used a great deal of historical fact and worked it into the story. That allowed him to write an afterward that just gave me chills when he explained what different characters (especially the evil ones) went on to do during the war and how things turned out in the annals of history.

It was that (because I'm such a history geek) that made me love this book. The end sort of blew my mind.

Overall, I liked it a lot. I thought it was a unique perspective to have a character living in Berlin, trying to solve a crime just prior to the time when the nazis took power. He goes into the state of things in the city, the political clime, what people were thinking that led to them handing power (legally) to Hitler, etc. It's a unique story and one that I would highly recommend to anyone curious about this time period and this particular sequence of events.

It's fascinating, enlightening, and also a lot of fun. :D(less)

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Oct 11, 2011 Antonio rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've read a lot of thriller/detective novels. Lately I've been searching out ones set in other countries, during recent pivotal times. The Sleepwalkers is set in Berlin 1932-33, shortly before the Nazi's gained full political control. You can read plot summaries elsewhere, but I wanted to focus on the quality of this book.

Other historical fiction can fail due to the author's investment in his/her own research: they get lost in describing a detailed world and forget to write a good story or to cr...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I received this book as part of a first-reads giveaway.

Paul Grossman's The Sleepwalkers mixes a compelling mystery with historical fiction. The setting of the novel is in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. Some of the characters and events are based on fact, although some facts have been changed to fit the story.
Inspektor-Dectektiv Willi Kraus is called in to investigate a bizarre murder of a young woman washed up on the riverbank. Her legs are grossly misshapen, and she is dressed in a pl...more I received this book as part of a first-reads giveaway.

Paul Grossman's The Sleepwalkers mixes a compelling mystery with historical fiction. The setting of the novel is in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. Some of the characters and events are based on fact, although some facts have been changed to fit the story.
Inspektor-Dectektiv Willi Kraus is called in to investigate a bizarre murder of a young woman washed up on the riverbank. Her legs are grossly misshapen, and she is dressed in a plain gray smock with her hair shaved. As Willi gets closer to the horrific truth of what happened to her, the reader is enfolded with a sense of forboding and impending catastrophe. One of the first suspects Willi investigates is a mysterious hypnotist who seems to be making women disappear. He finds out; however, that the murder he's investigating could be connected to much bigger events.
Willi is a Jew, and through his eyes we see Germany becoming a more and more dangerous place to live. Although he recognizes this enough to want his family safe, he is so focused on getting to the bottom of what is going on that he stays in the middle of this turmoil.
There is quite a bit of action in this novel, especially toward the end. I would have expected it to be more dry given the genre and there are a few places where this is so, but overall the plot and the pacing move the story along well. There is a brief romantic interest for Willi, but I would say the focus of the novel is definitely on the historical context. It is also a chilling thriller. The most chilling part is not just the original murder Willi investigates but Hitler and the SS gaining more power and Germany becoming a terrifying place for anyone not a member of the Nazi party. Willi races against time to stop more atrocities from happening, but what can one man do against such odds?
Overall I would recommend this to anyone who likes historical fiction. It's definitely not light reading given the subject matter, but it held my attention well and kept me interested in the outcome of the story. Also, I thought the quality of writing was good. A decent effort for a debut novel.

(less)

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The Sleepwalkers (Willi Kraus #1)

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