Rosa A Novel

November 1918: socialist revolution sweeps across Germany, transforming war-ravaged Berlin into a political battleground. Amid city's desolate slums, four women are found mysteriously murdered ? all with identical markings on their back. Detective Inspector Nicolai Hoffner and his assistant Hans Fichte are called to investigate, but when another body is discovered, the case takes a surprising turn for the worse. The fifth victim is none other than Rosa Luxemburg, a leader of the suppressed socialist uprising. Before long, Hoffner and Fichte have their backs against the wall, their efforts thwarted by the machinations of the political police. In this first installment of his brilliantly rendered Berlin trilogy, acclaimed author Jonathan Rabb "gives us the sound of boots, the smell of corpses, patterns of guilt as runic as lace gloves and city streetsO a ghostly noir that could have been inspired by Raymond Chandler and Andre Malraux." -John Leonard, Harper's

Jonathan Rabb is the author of five novels: The Second Son, Shadow and Light, Rosa, The Overseer, and The Book of Q. He lives in Savannah, Georgia, with his wife and twin children.

"Tantalizing . . . memorable . . . a tour de force." —The New York Times Book Review

"Rabb artfully delineates the city as it emerges from war, defeat, and revolution into the shadow of a nascent state of terror." —The Boston Globe

"Rabb wields a deft and chilling pen.." —Richmond Times-Dispatch

"So richly drawn, so dark, and so compelling." —Detroit Free Press

"Wonderfully evocative . . . this novel transcends the mystery genre by offering readers a glimpse into the economic and political chaos in Berlin after the war and then transcends politics by giving a pulsatingly detailed account of individual life at a particular moment in history." —Booklist (starred review)