Aftermath of Evil

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Aftermath of Evil is a historical crime thriller set in Pilsen, Western Czechoslovakia from May to November 1945.
Europe is recovering from the devastation, caused by the Second World War.
Czechoslovakia is in a state of transition. The Western half is governed by the Americans, while the Eastern half, including the capital Prague is under Soviet control.
The population is made up of three million ethnic Germans and seven million Czechs. There is unrest amongst the Czech population, as the Germans have been in power since 1939. When the Nazi regime ended in 1945, the Czech people saw the liberation as an opportunity to seek vengeance on their German oppressors.
In Western Czechoslovakia the Americans were charged with maintaining peace and rebuilding the infrastructure. The target was for a new Czech government to assume the reins of power on December 1st 1945.
The protagonist of the story of the story is a half Czech, half German Police Detective called Heinz Lucasz, who is coming to terms with the new world he finds himself in. It is proving difficult because of his ethnicity. He has overwhelming feelings of isolation and not belonging. During the war he was a Police Detective for the now disbanded Kripo. He also served in a Police Battalion with Einsatzgruppe ‘B’ on the Eastern Front. He is in a constant state of fear and paranoia, as the knowledge of his service in an Einsatzgruppe, would mean torture and death at the hands of the Russians. Having trained with the FBI as a young man as part of the International Police Officers Academy and being able to speak German, Czech and English, he is the perfect candidate to assist the Americans in their hunt for Nazi war criminals at large in Czechoslovakia.
Having lost his entire family at the hands of the Nazis, as part of a reprisal for the assassination of Reichprotector Heydrich, he is fixated on exacting revenge on those responsible.
The story spans a six month period, during which time our protagonist faces various challenges that engulf him in this pursuit. He develops several personal relationships. One with his partner Raymond Anderson an American Intelligence Officer and Angela Beck, a military nurse. He begins to face an internal conflict between his pursuit of vengeance and his burgeoning feelings for Angela Beck. He also becomes embroiled in a sinister plot to aid a Jewish Revenge Squad, which forces him to betray the Americans. He and Anderson lead an investigation into a horrific crime, which sees a young girl brutally attacked and left for dead. The prime suspect is a Czech ex-police officer who was involved in Heydrich’s reprisal killings.
During the investigations of Nazi war criminals and the hunt for the attempted murderer of the young girl, Lucasz’s relationship with both Anderson and Beck grows more intense due to the emotional impact of the circumstances they face.
Meanwhile unknown to Lucasz and the Americans, the Russians uncover Lucasz’s secret and demand he be handed over for questioning. This leads to the book’s climax where the three central characters are faced with their own Shibboleths.