Broken World

Rome, January 1944. As the Allied troops draw ever closer, the Italian capital experiences the most dramatic days of the German occupation: curfew, famine, arrests, deportations, mass murder... In this tense atmosphere, Wehrmacht officer Martin Bora is given the delicate task of solving three murders. The victims are a young employee of the German embassy who fell from the third floor under suspicious circumstances, a high-society woman who was found dead after an amorous encounter, and a cardinal of the Roman Curia who was active in the resistance against the Nazis. With the Italian inspector Sandor Guidi at his side, Martin Bora begins an investigation that puts them in great danger. Opposed by friend and foe, he has to deal with Field Marshal Kesselring and the future Pope Paul VI, and discovers a truth that will change his life and that of Guidi forever: human dignity is above all else. 'After the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July 1944, hundreds of 'rebellious' officers from the circle of the head of the conspiracy, Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, were arrested and executed. It was this Stauffenberg who served as my model for Martin Bora, the detective soldier and main character of Kaputt Mundi and my other crime novels: a Catholic from a noble family, who, soon disappointed, turns away from the ideas of the Nazis and is guided in his actions by his unwavering humanitarian attitude. Bora is stubborn and curious, his passions test his self-control and he runs the risk of losing his humanity every day. In Kaputt mundi he learns that you have to make great sacrifices to maintain your dignity.'