The Human Pool by Christopher Petit
An epic thriller, spanning six decades and three continents, tracing a history of secret deals dating back to WWII. In the war, Willi Schmidt was a Swiss shoesalesman with a desire to get involved. He dealt blackmarket leather for Nazi boots and information for US intelligence. When Joe Hoover saw him fall into a freezing river in 1945, no-one asked any questions. Almost sixty years later, Hoover receives a call and a package. The call is from an old SS contact convinced Willi is alive. The package is from someone who wants to scare him. Falling in with a journalist investigating contemporary Neo-Nazis, Hoover is drawn back into the past - to his days as a bagman for corrupt American spymaster Alan Dulles, drinking and dealing with Nazi officers in the supposedly neutral cities of Zurich, Istanbul, and Budapest. At each step, he finds the shadow of Willi Schmidt and the spectre WWII's most grotesque and enduring legacy - a trade in people. Chris Petit's masterly new thriller unpicks history to show what really goes on in its darkest corners.
The latest offering from the author of The Psalm Killer, a 1996 bestseller, is for those who like their thrillers exceedingly intricateAn octogenarian who worked for a corrupt American spymaster in World War II receives a package that is supposed to scare him and thrusts him back into the shady European world of long ago, where he joins other past players involved in secret deals dating back to the Third Reich, making money out of commercial assets and supposedly saving Jews even as Eichmann extended his extermination to Budapest. While this is no Fatherland, it has plenty of intrigue and dirty dealings evolving down to the present day, but the author has strained too hard and lost narrative drive in the patchwork of information dripped to the reader.
Chris Petit is the author of the critically and commercially successful THE PSALM KILLER and BACK FROM THE DEAD. The former film editor of TIME OUT, he is currently the thriller reviewer for the GUARDIAN. His film directing credits include RADIO ON; FLIGHT TO BERLIN; AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN and CHINESE BOXES. He lives in London.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780743209441 |
| ISBN 10 | 0743209443 |
| Title | The Human Pool |
| Author | Christopher Petit |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster Ltd |
| Year published | 2002-09-02 |
| Number of pages | 400 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |