Escaping Berlin

by Brent Monahan

In the waning days of World War II, as Germany’s last fortress, the city of Berlin, prepares to fall, one man survives by following his father’s “Stick your neck out for no one. Depend on no one. To survive, you will think only of yourself. You must become absolutely ruthless!”

His self-serving quest takes an unexpectedly dangerous turn when his guise as a decorated – and very dead – soldier earns him a detective’s badge with the Kriminalpolizei , or Kripo , Germany’s police force.

While trying to mastermind his freedom to the West, he becomes ensnared in a murder investigation that’s one part cat-and-mouse and many parts chess game. It’s a game made more deadly and personal when he finds his most powerful piece in taking down the crime’s king – the queen – in the form of a Jewish woman hiding from the authorities – who just happens to be his childhood sweetheart.

As he steals and creates new identities to stay one step ahead of
capture and execution, the real mystery he must solve is his own.

He can escape Berlin – but can he escape himself?
OUTSTANDING REVIEWS FOR ESCAPING BERLIN

FIVE STARS! “Brent Monahan's ESCAPING BERLIN is a gripping, painful story about survival, courage, shame, and hope. [It’s] one of those books that starts simple and clean, with a hero seemingly possessed of a clear goal and a defined strategy, and then draws the reader deeper and deeper into a much more complex, morally ambiguous, and dramatic web full of painful choices and heartbreaking revelations.” IndieReader

“Monahan shapes his story with a great deal of skill and considerable, low-key eloquence…A smart and unexpectedly moving wartime drama.” Kirkus Reviews

“A gripping procedural from Monahan. His eye for the telling detail and the sobering truth ensures that this crime story never diminishes the historical crimes at the heart of the novel.” Booklife

427 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2022

About the author

Brent Monahan was born in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan in 1948, as a World War II occupation baby. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University in Music and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Indiana University, Bloomington. He has performed, stage directed and taught music and writing professionally. He has authored fourteen published novels and a number of short stories. Two of his novels have been made into motion pictures. Brent lives in Yardley, PA, with his wife, Bonnie.