The German - by Lee Thomas (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From the Lambda Literary Award and Bram Stoker Award-winning author Lee Thomas come a thrilling novel. 1944 - Barnard, Texas. At the height of World War II, a killer preys on the young men of a quiet Texas town. The murders are calculated, vicious, and they are just beginning. Sheriff Tom Rabbit and his men are baffled and the community he serves is terrified of the monster lurking their streets. The only clues the killer leaves behind are painted snuffboxes containing notes written in German. As the panic builds all eyes turn toward a quiet man with secrets of his own. Ernst Lang fled Germany in 1934. Once a brute, a soldier, a leader of the Nazi party, he has renounced aggression and embraces a peaceful obscurity. But Lang is haunted by an impossible past. He remembers his own execution and the extremes of sex and violence that led to it. He remembers the men he led into battle, the men he seduced, and the men who betrayed him. But are these the memories of a man given a second life, or the delusions of a lunatic?

Review Quotes

"A novel that builds slowly - with painstaking attention paid to character development and the establishment of mood - to an unexpectedly fierce, heartrending finale that's less an eyebrow-raising surprise and more a series of rapid-fire sucker punches that will leave you slack-jawed and breathless." - Lambda Literary

"Thomas's compelling imagery and disturbing portrait of humanity at its worse will haunt readers long after the last page is turned." - Publishers Weekly