The Accomplice

By: Joseph Kanon

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

One of AudioFile’s Best Audiobooks of 2019!

Named “The Book of the Year” by Lee Child in The Guardian

From "master of the genre" (The Washington Post) and author of Leaving Berlin, a heart-pounding and intelligent espionage novel about a Nazi war criminal who was supposed to be dead, the rogue CIA agent on his trail, and the beautiful woman connected to them both.

Seventeen years after the fall of the Third Reich, Max Weill has never forgotten the atrocities he saw as a prisoner at Auschwitz - nor the face of Dr. Otto Schramm. He was the camp doctor who worked with Mengele on appalling experiments and who sent Max’s family to the gas chambers. As the war came to a close, Schramm was one of the many high-ranking former-Nazi officers who managed to escape Germany for new lives in South America, where leaders like Argentina’s Juan Perón gave them safe harbor and new identities. With his life nearing its end, Max asks his nephew Aaron Wiley - an American CIA desk analyst - to complete the task Max never could: to track down Otto in Argentina, capture him, and bring him back to Germany to stand trial.

Unable to deny his uncle, Aaron travels to Buenos Aires and discovers a city where Nazis thrive in plain sight, mingling with Argentine high society. He ingratiates himself with Otto’s alluring but damaged daughter, whom he’s convinced is hiding her father. Enlisting the help of a German newspaper reporter, an Israeli agent, and the obliging CIA station chief in Buenos Aires, he hunts for Otto - a complicated monster, unexpectedly human but still capable of murder if cornered. Unable to distinguish allies from enemies, Aaron will ultimately have to discover just how far he is prepared to go to render justice.

"With his remarkable emotional precision and mastery of tone" (Kirkus Reviews starred review), Joseph Kanon crafts another “gripping and authentic” (The New York Times Book Review) thriller that you won’t be able to pause.

©2019 Joseph Kanon (P)2019 Simon & Schuster

Unique setting, good plot, excellent narrator

I generally like Joseph Kanon’s books, so I did not hesitate to use a credit for this one. As in his other books, he presents a rather convoluted (and in this instance, to me, somewhat over-complicated) plot in a unique setting — 1963 Buenos Aires, with fugitive bad guys of the worst sort, and a sympathetic and right-minded protagonist l. The narrator is non-intrusive, with a well -modulated and -paced voice.

Interesting Book

I thought the author did a good building drama and intrigue around a Nazi Hunter story which takes place primarily in South America. The writing was fast paced, there were a few twists and turns and the narrator did a good job catching the changing emotions of the characters. If you like Nazi Hunter type stories, give it a listen…this should be up your alley.

A story about justice and morality.

Well worth your time!! Give it a try, you'll get hooked. Don't be put off by what appears to be protagonist mistakes.

Top notch Kanon

I have read all of Kanon's books and I'm a fan of most of them. This one is very compelling. It's set in 1962 and it's kind of a classic "Nazi hunter" story, in the vein of classics like the Odessa File, the Holcraft Covenant or the Quiller Memorandum. But of course, it's Joseph Kanon, so it's a more literary and more powerful version of such tales. It's a great book and I recommend it. A bit melodramatic near the finish, but still excellent.

Cartoon characters

Potentially interesting setting and plot ruined by weak characterization. The cartoon like characters were never properly developed or explained except for the Nazi monster.

A Tale of the Hunters and Hunted

The Accomplice is a well-crafted tale of hunting Nazis and the hunt has on the children of the hunted and hunters. The story has a good pace and some places that are very well written. But other places the story drags a bit with unnecessary situations. Jonathan Davis’s narration is really quite masterful. Overall a very good story.

Nazi Hunters

The performance was good and the story was interesting enough to keep me listening. This novel did not go into so much graphic detail about life in Auschwitz, yet involved the reader enough with memories to know what was felt and experienced while there. The hunt for the Nazi and his inhumanity was a good reminder that some people do not change. I can recommend this book.

Fast-paced yarn about a Nazi hunter

Credible story with interesting characters; not particularly deep or insightful but believable. It did not drag. The narrator was excellent with the various accents.

Delicious Nazi-era thriller

The Accomplice is a fast ride in South America with believable characters that remind in your mind. Excellent.

Well Written, excellent narration.

I try to stay away from books about the Holocaust. I have lost my share of family members to the camps. But I stumbled into this book and before I could turn away I was hooked. I identified with the main character, the desk jockey pulled into action by his family. I loved the narration. I don’t know how I thought it would end, but it seemed right.