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Michael Russell's The City of God - Review

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A captivating Second World War crime thriller.
Dispatched to Rome to undertake a mission on behalf of the Irish Ambassador, Inspector Stefan Gillespie finds himself immersed in the unease and paranoia enveloping the city.
When a young priest is brutally murdered within Vatican City, Stefan finds himself assisting the Gendarmerie in their pursuit of the killer.
In the shadows of Rome’s unique architecture and the physical heart of the Catholic faith, Stefan’s investigation takes him on a perilous journey.
‘The City of God’ is the eighth novel in the Stefan Gillespie series by Michael Russell, set in the autumn of 1943. We begin at the end, with Stefan’s journey into Switzerland following his time in Italy, and a confrontation with an SS officer which leaves him hospitalised. Told through a flashback narrative from Stefan’s first person perspective, a first for the series, we return to the beginning of Stefan’s diplomatic mission, travelling through war-torn Europe to Rome, currently occupied by the Nazis as the Allies march ever-closer, the wind of change in the air. While a standalone narrative, there are references to earlier entries in the series and returning characters from the first, ‘The City of Shadows’, plus the fourth ‘The City of Lies’, while we delve a little deeper into Stefan’s loneliness and his feelings about all that he witnesses around him.
As we travel with Stefan, we get a sense of the tension and distrust, the monumental evil the Nazis represented and the fear and suspicion they inspire. Stefan discovers his mission to be an unconventional one – to obtain documents a former ambassador has retained as they may prove embarrassing to Ireland should they come to light were Germany to lose the war. Finding himself under observation, Stefan conducts his own surveillance, uncovering covert agendas and hidden allegiances, before being confronted by murder. The victim, a Catholic priest, was part of a group aiding Jews and others to escape the Nazis, offering them sanctuary within the Vatican before travelling elsewhere under a false identity. Alongside his own mission, Stefan becomes embroiled in the aftermath of this brutal crime and the war of rebellion conducted in secrecy.
Entwined within the narrative are real people and events, revealing some of the political machinations that occurred during this time, both those corrupt and efforts to protect those persecuted and aid them in reaching a place of safety. It’s also interesting to delve a little deeper into the positions of the neutral states of Ireland, Switzerland, and, significantly, Vatican City, exploring the moral questions this throws up in the face of atrocity. This is a significant point in time in the history of WWII – the Allies are gaining ground against the Axis powers, now in disarray following Italy’s surrender and splintering; while the Nazis continue to escalate their Final Solution, the true extent of this sheer horror still largely unknown.
Blending politics, espionage and intrigue with detective fiction, this is a sublime historical thriller, with a multi-faceted, intricate plot and complex characters shaping an atmospheric and evocative narrative; mystery and tragedy wrapped in this stark look at the political tapestry of Europe at its most perilous and desperate, perfectly capturing the hostility and paranoia, the threat of betrayal, but also the resonating power of hope and faith that offers a glimmer of light in these incredibly dark times; a vivid depiction of place and time told through rich, bleak prose. Most disturbing of all is how we recognise the hatred and segregation, the persecution and intolerance, that continues to be present in our own modern society.
Absorbing and chilling, ‘The City of God’ continues a superlative and consistently fascinating historical crime series. Stefan will return in the ninth novel ‘The Dead City’, as we move forward into 1944 and return to Berlin.
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Published on August 07, 2024 08:58
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Tags:
espionage, historical-fiction, michael-russell, police-procedural, political-thriller, second-world-war, stefan-gillespie