Children of Wrath

Willi Kraus returns in this prequel story about how he became the most famous Jewish Detective in Germany during the Weimar RepublicIt is fall of 1929, the last days of prosperity in the Weimar Republic, and Berlin is in a giddy rush to forget its troubled past. But on the same day the New York stock market crashes, a dark underside of the German capital becomes revealed. A burlap sack spewed back by the floodwaters of the city sewer system contains the gnawed-on bones of children - with human teeth marks.Willi Kraus is in called to investigate the case of the Kinderfresser, the vicious Child-Eater of Berlin. Inside the sack, along with the children's bones, is a Bible with a single phrase circled in red - children of wrath - and Kraus fears he has run into something darker than he's ever known.Set two years before the events of The Sleepwalkers - a Kirkus Reviews Best Debut Fiction award winner and one of NPR's Top Five Mysteries of the Year - Children of Wrath details Willi Kraus's rise to fame as the most celebrated Jewish detective in Germany in this shocking, terrifying prequel installment.

Paul Grossman is a long time teacher of writing and literature at Hunter College.