Frank Stave's Next Adventure is about to Begin

This is Cay Rademacher's Second novel in the Frank Stave Series. In this book, Stave has been asked to investigate the deaths of several children, the first was found in a storage shed at the Hamburg port having been stabbed, during the course of the book two other children were to die. The question is why? Set in the British Control Zone of Germany in 1947. There are children roaming the streets, having lost there parents during allied bombing raids. The Children, known as "Wolf Children" live rough in the ruins of the city, do what ever they can to make ends meet, usually involving some connection to the city's black market. Stave is keen to solve the case, particularly, after the death of one of the children, an under-age prostitute, who has become tangled up in the saga. Stave of course has much besides the case on his mind, his son, Karl has been missing since the end of the war, is he still alive? If he is, where is he? Stave has recently started a relationship and he worries about how Karl will react.

The Wolf Children, is a great second novel, a worthy follow up to his debut, Murderer in the Ruins. The book has many inter-woven strands which makes the Wolf Children an engaging read, It develops the characters from the first book, particularly James C McDonald, a British Army Officer who has been called upon again to assist Stave with his enquiries. I'm looking forward to Stave's next outing - hopefully, it won't be a long wait

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3 people found this helpful

Excellent storylinr

I enjoy the works of Cay Rademacher . They are gritty, different to similar storylines and we'll researched. I would recommend this book to anyone particularly to anyone who can remember UK bomb sites and damage caused by war or who is concerned about the gate of people trapped by more recent conflicts.

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Once more an absolutely great read from Rademacher

I thoroughly love Rademachers style. Exciting, realistic very well written. I warmly recommend this book.

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Dreary story not helped by bizarre narration

Why on earth does a story set in 1947 Hambourg have a cast of characters speaking in English regional accents? How bizarre is that?

The storyline is flimsy but is decidedly not helped by the German characters speaking in Lancashire or any other type of accent the narrator thinks might be relevant. It completely destroys the atmosphere of the not very well translated story set in a German speaking post-war environment.

Nobody wants to hear fake German accents, and I’m not suggesting the narrator should have taken that route, but to choose such a range of English accents completely destroyed any atmosphere that might have been created by the living conditions in Hambourg that were intrinsic to this story.

What a missed opportunity to bring a German writer to the attention of an English audience. I was relieved to reach the end and won’t be buying anything else from this author.

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