Nacht der Ruinen

Cay Rademacher
NACHT DER RUINEN / NIGHT OF RUINS

A Crime Novel, 432 pages
Spring 2025

English sample available soon


Cologne 1945: following the lynching of an American pilot, a young soldier is forced to face up to his own past
 
Commemorating the 80-year anniversary of the end of World War Two on the 8th of May 2025: gripping, true-to-life, and deeply atmospheric
 
Brilliantly researched: the latest historical thriller from SPIEGEL bestselling author Cay Rademacher.


German History at its Most Thrilling

March 1945: US forces have reached Cologne. Despite exhortations from Berlin to hold out, resistance is minimal, and the city seems deserted. Barely 20,000 people remain, living among the rubble. Nevertheless, the Americans only succeed in capturing a portion of the bombed-out metropolis, with the Rhine serving as the frontline for weeks on end. The cathedral city has recently been the target of renewed heavy bombardment. Amid the chaos, a pilot is shot down and parachutes his way into the thick of it – before falling victim to a cowardly lynching.
The job of solving the case falls to a young American soldier, Joe Salmon – real name Joseph Salomon, a Jewish man and Cologne native who narrowly managed to emigrate to the US after Kristallnacht. Joe sets out to find the killer, but he’s also secretly on a mission to find two people he had to leave behind when he left: Jakub and Hilda, his best friend and the woman he was hopelessly in love with. Taking a roundabout path, Joe edges closer to cracking the case, as well as solving the puzzle of his own past, and meeting historical figures who lived and worked in Cologne in March of 1945: George Orwell, Konrad Adenauer, Hans Habe, and Irmgard Keun.

Rights to previous titles sold to: St. Martin’s Press (English World); Le Masque (French); Editura Lebada Neagra (Romanian); Ediciones Maeva (Spanish World);