This is part II of “A Difficult Reconciliation.”

When the protagonist Thomas receives an unexpected letter from a close friend, he finds himself struggling to process its contents and unable to reconcile what he reads with what he thought he knew. 

“A Difficult Reconciliation" is based on actual historical events. It is inspired by the close friendship between German writer Thomas Mann (1875-1955) and American journalist Agnes Meyer (1887-1970). Spanning two decades, the two shared numerous letters between the 1930s and 1950s.

When the protagonist Thomas receives an unexpected letter from a close friend, he finds himself struggling to process its contents and unable to reconcile what he reads with what he thought he knew. 

“A Difficult Reconciliation" is based on actual historical events. It is inspired by the close friendship between German writer Thomas Mann (1875-1955) and American journalist Agnes Meyer (1887-1970). Spanning two decades, the two shared numerous letters between the 1930s and 1950s.

During a recent visit to Ithaca, I ran into an old friend, the retired director of Cornell University’s Johnson Museum. When I mentioned a visit to the Gardner Museum in Boston, our conversation drifted into the topic of international art theft. He reminded me of the famous 1990 robbery of several very valuable paintings, which were never retrieved. I asked him whether he had experienced a serious theft while he was in charge of the Johnson collection. This was not the case, but he had to deal with a severe robbery while he was the director of another museum. As he put it, it was a truly disturbing experience…

Thinking about my next book, I am pretty certain that the private detective Frank Harris will have to go to Berlin, where a major challenge will be waiting for him. What kind of challenge it will be, I have not yet decided since my ideas about the plot line are still in their infancy. Why Berlin? In the imaginary landscape of crime fiction Berlin has played a prominent role. Just think of John LeCarre’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. His Berlin is…