The Devil Aspect

The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell  414 pp.

The setting is Prague in 1935. The Nazis are beginning their encroachment into surrounding countries.  Viktor Kosárek, a psychiatrist who studied with Carl Jung, comes to the creepy mountain castle that houses the Hrad Orlu Asylum for the criminally insane. The country's six most notorious  killers are housed there. The six, known as the Woodcutter, the Clown, the Vegetarian, the Sciomancer, and the Demon, are going to be subjects Viktor will study in an effort to find what he calls "The Devil Aspect", an archetype shared by all that caused them to commit their horrific crimes. He also begins a romance with a secretary working at the asylum. However, the police in Prague are dealing with a brutal serial killer called "Leather Apron" by the press. Police investigator Lukas Smolak enlists the help of the doctors at the asylum in his investigation. Then Viktor begins to suspect that an old friend may be the killer. The story is appropriately dark and somewhat gory and even though I predicted the ending twist before it happened, it is a page-turner of a story. I listened to the audiobook which was nicely performed by Julian Rhind-Tutt.

Prague Winter

Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 by Madeleine Albright  467 pp.

Former U.S. Secretary of State was two years old when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia. Her family moved to England where her diplomat father worked for the Czech government in exile and the BBC. Albright was nearly 60 years old when she learned that her family was really Jewish and that many of her relatives had been victims of the Nazi death camps. In this book she chronicles the fight of the Czech people, their resistance, the successful assassination of occupation leader, Reinhard Heydrich--"The Butcher of Prague," and the horrors of the Terezin ghetto. The story continues on into the post war years as the Czech government tries to reestablish itself only to find itself up against Stalin. During that time Albright's father, Joseph Körbel, became the Czech ambassador to Yugoslavia and the family spent a brief time there. When Czechoslovakia once again became a battleground, this time against the Communists, Körbel's life was in danger and the family left the country for good, settling in the U.S. This is an extremely interesting and well written book. By including her family connections along with the factual material, Albright has produced a very readable account of a part of the war I knew very little about.

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer, 405 pages, fiction.
I read this novel for the upcoming July book group discussion, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The glass room is the most prominent feature of the architectural marvel that is the Landauer House. The house was built by architect Rainer von Abt, who follows the Loos motto that ornament is evil, for newlyweds Liesl and Vicktor Landauer, in the late 1920s. Set in Mesto, Czechoslovakia, the book follows it characters, including the house, through the coming war and then behind the iron curtain. The characters are all very passionate, about art, about politics and about each other. Everyone in the book strays from their monogamous path, with results that surprise them. Shortlisted for last year's Mann-Booker prize. this is a wonderful read. A novel full of feeling, history and life.