Collision of Evil by John J. Le Beau

An American tourist is murdered while hiking in the woods in Germany. It was his luck as he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The tourist, Charles Hirter had seeked shelter in a cave only to find some mysterious crates stored there. Before he could emerge out of the woods, he was savagely murdered by the person who’s been guarding the hidden crates in the cave.

Highly unfortunate for the murderer, Charles’ brother, Robert Hirter happens to be a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. He is determined to solve his brother’s murder case, together with German detective Kommissar Franz Waldbaer who is in charge of the case.

As they work hard in their investigations, they make a lot of discoveries which lead to more questions. Desperate for more clues, Robert accepted the invitation to meet up with a mysterious stranger who wished to tell him a story which can be a background for the murder situation. The stranger turned out to be a veteran soldier of the Third Reich and he tells Robert about how his and other soldiers’ final mission where they had to transport some crates with unknown contents.

It’s been awhile since I read a mystery novel or a thriller. I was hoping for this to be action-packed or at least be a quick read where I’ll be flipping through the pages to know what’s next. However, it was quite slow in the beginning and slower in the middle. The process of Robert unraveling the mystery of the murder case seemed never-ending. Only towards the end of the story did the real action begin.

Mysteries and thrillers usually have some romance going on between the main character, if male, and the leading female character. Well, there’s not much romantic relationships in the story but there is a hint of romance between Robert and a fellow CIA officer, Caroline, though they’ve only met a couple of times and mainly communicated via phone during the course of the investigation. He’s in Germany while she’s in the United States.

Judging from the cover of the book, one can guess what the story’s about. There’s the Swastika or the Hakenkreuz logo as used by Nazi Germany and an image of some Islamic writing. I guessed earlier that it has to be connected to Nazi Germany and terrorism. The title of the novel has been cleverly thought of too, since it’s about the idea of an evil past threatening to intersect with the evil present. Thus, it’s a collision of evil.

And oh my, there is a very gruesome murder scene in the novel, carried out by the villain. I have to applaud Mr Le Beau for describing it so well that I cringed when I read it. Actually, there is a lot of description in the novel which is why it is relatively wordy.

It’s a good story though only if it were written in a faster-paced manner. Collision of Evil is John J. Le Beau’s first novel, by the way. He served as a clandestine operations officer in the CIA for over 25 years.

***Thanks to Maryglenn McCombs for sending me an ARC of this novel to review.

Other reviews: Bookjourney, Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic

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