Tears of Innocence

Tears of Innocence (2015)

In the autumn of 1945 Karl Baier, a young American military officer, arrives in a devastated Berlin, the once mighty capital of the Third Reich. His assignment: to hunt down, debrief, and, in some cases, resettle German scientists who helped build the German war machine.

He is not alone, however, as America’s allies during the war have become competitors in the search for Germany’s scientific and industrial elite. Baier soon finds himself romantically involved with a local woman whose husband disappeared on the eastern front, a woman whose husband shares Baier’s name. The young American agrees to help find news of her husband’s fate, which she uses to draw him into a story of deceit, romance, and missing treasure. Soon Baier becomes the hunted as much as the hunter. Baier’s quest takes him from the ruins of Berlin to Greece, Bavaria, and Lisbon, the heart of European espionage and main escape route during the war, as he searches for answers to a mystery that stretches back into the German occupation, the chaotic final days of the war, and into an uncertain future. Baier will have to learn who his true friends are, whom he can trust, and whether it is safe to love a woman whose history he can only begin to understand.

Tears of Innocence is a fast-paced thriller set in a time when Karl Baier and his country must face up to the challenges of their new role in an uncertain postwar world.

Check out our new trade paperback edition of Tears of Innocence

Kirkus Review

TEARS OF INNOCENCE
Author: Bill Rapp

Review Issue Date: December 15, 2014
Online Publish Date: December 7, 2014

In postwar Europe, an American military officer tackles the difficult assignment of recruiting Germany’s scientific brain trust. Capt. Karl Baier arrives in Berlin in late 1945 with a complex and nebulous mandate. Installed in a modest office previously occupied by the Luftwaffe command, the young officer faces the uphill challenge of finding the brilliant Werner Heisenberg and his scientific colleagues and convincing them to join the American effort. Both the Brits and the Soviets are on the hunt as well, and those who have not already been enticed by other Allied nations are likely in hiding. Baier learns early on that he may be a target himself. A dead GI complicates the mission. So does Baier’s involvement with Sabine, a beautiful war widow whose husband, ironically, was also named Karl Baier. She tells him emotional stories of atrocities perpetrated by the Russians. Baier’s first major get is surprisingly easy. Gen. Ulrich Baumgartner, who prefers to be called “Doctor,” readily agrees to a new life in America. A trip to Greece, however, proves to be a bit of a disaster. Baier fears that he can’t trust Sabine or the members of his team. He’s further disturbed to find that someone has searched his lodgings in Berlin while he was gone. Because there’s been no effort to hide the search, Baier wonders whether he’s being sent a message. He follows a trail through the Bavarian Alps and Portugal before a surprising climax back in Berlin. Though the plotting is languid, Rapp’s novel offers many interesting historical tidbits and nicely imagined scenes.

Tears of Innocence is available online from these & other stores:

Amazon | Anderson’s Bookshops | Barnes & Noble

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And be sure to check your local library & bookstores!

Paperback: 246 pages
Publisher: Coffeetown Press (January 14, 2020)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1603818294
ISBN-13: 978-1603818292

Kirkus Review

Amazon | Anderson’s Bookshops | Barnes & Noble

Centuries & Sleuths | The Learned Owl | Mystery Loves Company

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