Changes

It's a complex investigation which will take Grey back across more than half a century of history and over to Europe to talk to the people who knew of Martin Hahn, the young German with a mission, or Eric Hoest, a man with his own views about how the war was being fought and lost. Not everyone wants to talk to Grey – even about events which happened more than half a century before, but how much of this is down to the fact that he's black and talking to people who believe in the purity of the Aryan race? And how much is about their guilt, not about what happened then, but about what's happening now? Above all, how do you track down someone who came to the USA secretly, so long ago?

I liked Grey. He comes off the page well, with human frailties and too much to do to make time for a personal life. He leads the story, but doesn't overwhelm it. The Germans – Hahn and Hoest – are compelling, the one with Prussian stiffness and a belief in the Fatherland and the other knowing that the Third Reich has but limited time. They're an elegant contrast but a strong partnership.