Collision of Evil: A Novel

I am a reviewer for BookPleasures. The following is my review posted on that website. To one who has worked with, but not for, the Central Intelligence Agency and has been fortunate enough to visit Munich and southern Bavaria reading the book would have told me his former profession and where he had spent much time. The imaginative premise of Collision of Evil is self-described by the title. The decades-old evil that was the Third Reich has been fused with the modern evil of suicidal jihadist Muslim radicals. The book's protagonist, Robert Hirter, is awakened at four in the morning by a call from someone with a heavy German accent saying, "We have find your brother Charles who it is sorry for us to say now is dead." When the caller learns that Hirter speaks German, he provides more detail with a clear message. Hirter's brother was murdered. Le Beau effortlessly shifts point of view in telling of Collision of Evil from Hirter to the Bavarian Police Kommisar assigned to the case, Franz Waldbaer to the leader of the jihad group, Mohammed al-Assad. When Hirter arrives at the hotel where his brother had been staying, he is handed a note while checking in. The note is from one August Sedlmeyer who claims to have historical background information that may prove interesting to one investigating the circumstances of the murder. Intrigued, Hirter meets with Sedlmeyer and listens to a lengthy narrative of how a detachment of 50 Waffen SS soldiers from the Liebstandarte Adolf Hitler division had been assembled to escort an unknown, but extremely sensitive cargo, to its hiding place in a mountain cave below Munich, in southern Bavaria. The morning after the secret cargo is hidden; the unit is given a directive to surrender. Hitler is dead. The group is also told to forget their final mission as Waffen SS. The boxes were hidden in a cave just above the high meadow where Hirter's brother was murdered. Le Beau draws the characters of Robert Hirter and Police Kommisar Waldbaer clearly. The tensions and eventual friendship of the two forms a leitmotif for much of the story. Hirter is a CIA operative and, because of problems presented by internal German politics in the law enforcement community, calls upon his Agency for some technical help and backup. The backup comes in the form of Caroline O'Kendall; a lovely woman he'd known at CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA. Just what the Waffen SS hid in the cave at the end of WWII and how it threatens the Oktoberfest in Munich through a militant Islamist group, I'll let Le Beau tell you. He has constructed a vivid tale with believable characters and tense action, set in some of the most beautiful scenery on Earth. An exciting read.

I picked this up on a whim and wow!!! This is the first book I've read in a long time that I couldn't put down. It's quick-paced, well written and the material is something we can all relate to in this modern day and age. I highly recommend!!!

A real page-turner that links the evil of the past from the Third Reich to present day terrorists. What makes this book so terrifying and realistic is that author LeBeau is a retired clandestine operations officer in the CIA and is now a professor of National Security Studies at a college in Garmisch, Germany, so he is incredibly knowledgeable about the both subject matter and the area in which the story takes place.

Evil is evil, no matter how old or ancient. "Collision of Evil" is an international thriller following German detective Franz Waldbaer as he works with the brother of a murdered man to solve said murder. Shadows of past evils that the German people are ashamed of still hang over their heads as Waldbaer's investigation of the murder turns into something more than murder, he finds a larger conspiracy may be behind it all. "Collision of Evil" is an exciting thriller, sure to keep the pages turning.

As the reader one is steered through a believable plot with details that make the journey all the more conceivable and convincing. This legitimate and authentic feel is probably achieved by the author's intelligence background. "Collision of Evil" describes a feasible scenario -something that could indeed happen. A magnificent and accurate description of Germany and the Germans allows the reader to become truly immersed; this is something I can verify having lived there most of my life. This book would certainly make a great movie, as well! I can only hope that the author writes a follow-on novel with the Waldbaer and Hirter characters one grows to understand and become so fond of. A truly great read not to be put down!