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The Scientist of Berlin

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The Scientist of Berlin

By: Daniel Pembrey
Narrated by: George Blagden, Stephan Grothgar
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About this listen

From LA to Berlin, from present day to the 1940s, journey from glamorous Santa Monica to the deepest darkest corners of Nazi Germany.

David Collins, a British private investigator living in LA, is hired by Geoff Hoffman, a billionaire tech magnate running for the US Senate in California. As his campaign is threatened by rumours of a past scandal, Hoffman tasks David with discovering the truth. And soon David uncovers troubling facts - ones that lead back as far as Hoffman’s Jewish grandfather during World War II.

An alternating narrative contrasts the dark, depraved world of Nazi Germany with the corporate, sun-scorched landscapes of Los Angeles in 2019.

As these two stories come together, we become engulfed in a gripping combination of contemporary thriller and historical novel.

Daniel masterfully weaves themes of identity, belonging, and heritage into a historical thriller peppered with revelations.

©2018 Daniel Pembrey (P)2019 Audible, Ltd. Political Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Exciting Scary

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I found the early chapters confusing and couldn't at first get into the story so I went back to the beginning and listened to the first four chapters again and then got the hang of what the book was about. I had to concentrate to keep track of when the narrative was set in the present and when it went back to the years of the second world war: having narrators with different accents helped. In the end it turned out to be a intriguing story and I enjoyed the unexpected ending.

After a slow start became more interesting

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I have admired Pembrey’s work in ebooks previously and have followed him to Audible. I am always surprised by his versatility as a writer, from crime in Amsterdam, horror in Carolina, mystery in Luxembourg, adventure in Africa and now California and war time Germany. He is in some ways an old fashioned writer, relying on thorough research for his settings and grafting on to the background believable characters and an exciting plot. The Scientist of Berlin is his most ambitious book yet, and in my view quite the best. Recommended.




A gripping tale

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I thought this would be a time travel detective story but was not disappointed when it became a dual timeline narrative. Nicely told and quite thought provoking. I would have liked more of the war period stuff but I'm not going to quibble. Nicely read too. 5 star

A very nice surprise.

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I liked this book and would recommend it. Was not so keen on the German narrator though. His characterisation for me was a bit stereotypical, particularly the nazis, wherein the portrayal was of people sly and somewhat slimy. The nazis were like other people ordinary men capable of extraordinary cruelty and evil. I think it may have been more impactful to portray them us such.

Good Read

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The context of this was really interesting but I felt let down by the ending which was rushed.

Disappointing

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A terrific cast, an excellent script. This draws you in from the opening moments and never lets you go until the end. Marvelous.

CAPTIVATING

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I really enjoy this topic but found the characters too similar and poorly defined so there was nothing memorable about them for instant recall (important in an audiobook) and they lacked depth. I had to keep stopping and reminding myself who was JJ, Albrecht, Trudi, Oliver...?
A good plot and idea but it could have been better with character depth...the finale was low key and could have been extraordinary if there had been more of a crescendo other than other a description of a news story by a drone.
Bland.
Sorry.

Confusing

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Good in parts. Became becalmed a bit in the middle. Without author's interview at the end I would have been left guessing.

Too many loose ends

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I wanted to know the story that is why I continued listening even though the narrator for the part playing in the past (Stephan Grothgar) is truly awful. He has this sing-song kind of voice and even the mostly male characteres get this really high-pitched voice.

Partially poor narration

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A good easy listen story. Left me guessing to the end.
No real action events, a good old fashioned thriller/ drama.

An easy Listen

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