The Human Pool

by Christopher Petit (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $3.25

  An epic thriller, spanning six decades and three continents, tracing a history of secret deals dating back to WWII. During the war, Joe Hoover worked for the American intelligence service. Karl-Heinz Strasse worked for the SS. The two should never have met, but they became the closest of associates, communicating in the supposedly neutral cities of Zurich, Istanbul and Budapest. In 1945, all the secrets were buried. But sixty years later, a man they thought was dead seems to have resurfaced. Willi Schmidt played both sides, dealing in intelligence, in black-market goods, in pharmaceuticals. When Hoover returns to Europe to try and track him down, he discovers that operations he thought had ended long ago are still being played out. At each step into his past, he if haunted by the shadow of Willi Schmidt and the spectre of WWII's most grotesque and enduring legacy - a trade in people. Chris Petit's masterly new novel turns the world inside out and traces its veins. THE HUMAN POOL interweaves fact and fiction to spellbinding effect, unpicking history and redefining our understanding of the way war and business merge.

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.25

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $4.19

  An epic thriller, spanning six decades and three continents, tracing a history of secret deals dating back to WWII. In the war, Willi Schmidt was a Swiss shoesalesman with a desire to get involved. He dealt blackmarket leather for Nazi boots and information for US intelligence. When Joe Hoover saw him fall into a freezing river in 1945, no-one asked any questions. Almost sixty years later, Hoover receives a call and a package. The call is from an old SS contact convinced Willi is alive. The package is from someone who wants to scare him. Falling in with a journalist investigating contemporary Neo-Nazis, Hoover is drawn back into the past - to his days as a bagman for corrupt American spymaster Alan Dulles, drinking and dealing with Nazi officers in the supposedly neutral cities of Zurich, Istanbul, and Budapest. At each step, he finds the shadow of Willi Schmidt and the spectre WWII's most grotesque and enduring legacy - a trade in people. Chris Petit's masterly new thriller unpicks history to show what really goes on in its darkest corners.