A Small Death In Lisbon

This crime novel connects Nazi wartime dealings with the modern-day murder of a Portuguese teenager. In 1941, Klaus Felsen is conscripted from his Berlin factory into the SS and sent to Lisbon, where Nazis and Allies, refugees and entrepreneurs operate amid opportunism and despair. His assignment takes him to the bleak northern mountains, where a brutal struggle unfolds over an element vital to Hitler's blitzkrieg. There he encounters a man whose actions plant seeds of greed and revenge that will shape post-war Portugal for decades. In the late 1990s, Inspector Zé Coelho investigates the murder of a young girl with a disturbing sexual past. His investigation unearths connections to Portugal's fascist history. The small death in Lisbon proves to be compensation for an older crime, and Coelho's pursuit of the truth reveals a tragedy linking past and present. The novel won the Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel.