GARDEN OF BEASTS: A NOVEL OF BERLIN 1936

New York City, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2004. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 405 pages. The author's 19th novel. One of Jeffery Deaver's finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Jeffery Deaver's "Garden of Beasts: A Novel of Berlin 1936". A delicious, unputdownable tale set in Nazi Berlin. The book's hero is a mob hit man, Paul Schumann, who is nabbed in the act in New York City, but given an alternative to the electric chair: Go to Berlin undercover, as a journalist writing about the upcoming Olympics, in order to assassinate Colonel Reinhard Ernst, the chief architect of Hitler's militarization. "Deaver weaves three manhunts, Paul after his target, Kohl after Paul, and the Nazi hierarchy after Paul, with a deft hand, bringing to frightening life the Berlin of 1936, a city on the brink of madness. Top Nazis, including Hitler, Himmler, and Goring, make colorful cameos, but it's the smart, shaded-gray characterizations of the principals that anchor the exciting plot. An affecting love affair between Paul and his German landlady goes in surprising directions, as do the main plot lines, which move outside Berlin as heroes become villains and vice versa. This is prime Deaver, which means prime entertainment" (Publishers Weekly). An absolute "must-have" title for Jeffery Deaver collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Jeffery Deaver. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce signed copy thus. One of the most brilliant thriller/novelists of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER JEFFERY DEAVER TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0743222016.