The Constant Man

Set in Nazi Germany, Steiner’s taut sequel to 2019’s The Good Cop finds Willi Geismeier no longer a member of the Munich police force. Because he implicated a high-ranking Nazi official, one of Hitler’s favorites, in a string of killings and rapes, he’s on the run from his former colleagues, the SS, and the Gestapo. Willi takes refuge with an old school friend in the Bavarian Forest, but he comes out of hiding after his bar manager friend, Lola Zeff, is attacked and injured by a stranger on a Munich street. Despite his own fugitive status, Willi investigates, only to suspect that the assault is the work of a serial killer being hunted by his former partner on the force. Scenes from the murderer’s perspective ratchet up the tension. The plot is more of a cat-and-mouse game than a whodunit, but Steiner maintains suspense even after the identity of Lola’s assailant is revealed. Though the challenges of searching for the truth amid the brutality of the Nazi regime aren’t conveyed at the same level as Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther novels, this still satisfies. Agent: John Silbersack, Bent Agency. (June)