The Second Son: A Novel (Detective Inspector Nikolai Hoffner Book 3)

Chief Inspector Nikolai Hoffner, a half-Jewish detective, has been forced out of the Kriminalpolizei on the eve of Hitler's Olympics. His attention turns to Spain, where his younger son Georg has gone missing amid the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Hoffner has already lost his elder son Sascha, who is deeply involved with the Nazi regime. When Hoffner learns that Georg is not what he seems, he becomes determined to save the one son he still can. Set in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, this novel concludes Jonathan Rabb's Berlin trilogy, which spans the period between the two world wars. Nearly a decade after the events of the previous book, Hoffner is drawn into the turmoil of Spain, where he encounters anarchists, Soviet and British secret agents, and a female doctor named Mila Pera as he pursues clues connected to Georg's disappearance. The narrative combines historical detail with atmospheric storytelling.