Title: The Fuehrer’s Blood
Author: Shreyans Zaveri
Publisher: CreateSpace
Pages: 362
ISBN: 978-1533680204
Genre: Thriller
Reviewed by: Barbara Bamberger Scott

Read Book Review

An unusual thriller based on historical fact and some well-conceived fiction, Shreyans Zaveri’s debut novel The Fuehrer’s Blood approaches its subject – the death of Adolf Hitler from multiple viewpoints.

The time is 1945 at the end of World War II, where in Berlin a small resistance group calling themselves Blood Moon, is attempting to ensure that Adolf Hitler is dead. All three are intrepid fighters, equal to any challenge, but the dangers they will face now are unimaginable and unholy. One of them, Theodor, is first seen hunting for his lost love, Adelheid, in the smoke-filled ruins of Berlin. On his search he finds a book lying on the ground. Later, with his Blood Moon companions, he begins to read and realizes this may be Hitler’s personal diary. The three are pushing to find Han, who was committed to eliminating Hitler and who may have been captured by the Russian warlord Konstantin. Konstantin has been operating a concentration camp of unspeakable horrors for Himmler, who may in fact have been the brains behind Hitler’s career as a powerful dictator. Breaking into Konstantin’s camp, surviving the tortures perpetrated there, and securing a solid future for their homeland – here named Germania – will test Theodor, Han and the Blood Moon cabal to their limits.

Zaveri’s work, based on his personal interest in the history and the mystery of the Third Reich, is all action. There is hardly a moment for rest or reflection, yet embedded cleverly amidst the white-hot exploits of Blood Moon and the resistance raised by their foes is a rather tender look at Adolf Hitler. It begins with the death of his brother, which history records was a breaking point for the youngster, trapped between a good-hearted mother and a violent, sadistic father. The evergreen notion of Hitler’s possible Jewish ancestry is raised. Zaveri depicts Hitler as a depressed, dreamy young man controlled in childhood by his father, and in adulthood by Himmler, a mad monster with dreams of world domination. That back-story, the well-drawn characterizations, particularly that of Theodor, and the book’s surprising ending combine to demonstrate the author’s talent for constructing a complicated tale. Though Zaveri’s grasp of the subtleties of English language and syntax is weak at times, for most of his readers this will not detract from the grip of the plot.

Zaveri, by profession a video artist, has created a cinematic new take on the lore and speculation surrounding the death – or not – of Adolf Hitler that will enchant the many theorists who still have questions about the last days of the Third Reich.