Berlin burns! The merciless Red Army advances! Twisted SS officers do twisted SS things! Just what you might expect from a standard World War II thriller, and in ‘The Nero Decree’ by London-based author Greg Lee, all this happens as a desperate Nazi state on the edge of destruction plans one last infernal trick. But this is anything but a standard World War II thriller – it’s a coruscating yet deeply involving read in which Lee turns the genre on its head, not least by emphasising what civilians go through in a time of war. This Berlin is a collapsing tomb, a wrecked monument to crazed vanity where women and children live on the hope of a piece of bread during the day while waiting to be killed by Allied bombers by night. Against this, Lee plays out a good-brother-bad-brother drama that sees one sibling dash to stop the Nazis’ final act of maddened destruction and the other cling on to the creed that has given his life shape and purpose. Well-plotted, intelligent and with moral purpose, this is a great thriller.
Gregory Lee's novel 'The Nero Decree is out now. Buy a copy of 'The Nero Decree' here.
