The German Suitcase
Greg Dinallo ( New York: Open Road Media, 2014)
"The German Suitcase," is a predictable mystery that focuses on the identity of a Holocaust survivor. Akin to the style of William Martin, Dinallo shifts between the past and the present in brief, full chapters. The chapters set in the present provide the questions as to the identity of a respected member of the community who survived Auschwitz while the answers are gradually revealed in the chapters describing the past. The author's present day characters are somewhat banal and predictable whereas his account of Nazi Germany(and the characters contained therein) is thoroughly engrossing.
The reader will likely uncover the plot by the midway point yet that does not make the story any less compelling. This book also poses the question of what morals one is willing to compromise for the sake of survival. For a factual and scholastic account of the challenges with which German citizens were faced, I recommend Christopher R. Browning's, "Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland," (Harper Perennial:New York, 1998). "The German Suitcase," however, does present questions of morality and sacrifice in a forum more palatable to lovers of historic fiction.
The reader will likely uncover the plot by the midway point yet that does not make the story any less compelling. This book also poses the question of what morals one is willing to compromise for the sake of survival. For a factual and scholastic account of the challenges with which German citizens were faced, I recommend Christopher R. Browning's, "Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland," (Harper Perennial:New York, 1998). "The German Suitcase," however, does present questions of morality and sacrifice in a forum more palatable to lovers of historic fiction.
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