His name is/was Werner Stolz and he died in a Potsdam nursing home at about the age of 102. Cause of death? Suicide via cyanide and a gunshot. Just like Hitler. But at 102?
Because he was an SS Captain who was close to Hitler, and because of some tenants of the post war treaties, a representative of each of the winning nations (US, UK, France, Russia) must be sent to investigate - Cambridge military history prof Myles Munro is whom the story revolves around.
They all meet at the nursing home and decided on a plan to find out why this old man would commit suicide. They adjourn to his former apartment and start digging into his collection of papers, which indicate Stolz was a critical player in Hitler's search for clues in the heavens - how the planets influence significant events in history.
Now anyone who has seen the first 20 minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark knows Hitler was obsessed with matter of the occult and astrology must've been part of that obsession. As the investigatory team moves from the Berlin area to Austria, Italy, France, and back to Berlin, it become apparent that someone else is watching their progress. Interested enough to kill one of the team and carry out some grizzly attacks on others on the team. What they learn is that Stolz's research indeed shows connections between planetary positions and the outcomes of significant events. So much so that Hitler would plan his conquest based on what the astrologers reported.
And the predictions were mostly accurate not only about outcome, but also about things like casualty counts, trade, governmental decisions, and reports dated in the 1940s predicting events of the 21st century. Pretty powerful stuff that would challenge modern concepts of science and religion if the predictive algorithm were to become public.
It was obvious that King had done some significant research into planetary effects on human behavior and offers copious references at the end of the book. The story moves along at a brisk pace with references to ancient history through 20th century examples from each of the countries represented in the investigation team. It's been offered as a good option for folks who like Dan Brown (that's not me. I don't care for Brown), but King presents his research in a much more plausible story. Like (mostly military) history and astrology whisked together in a modern thriller? This is right up your alley.
Available July 2015.
East Coast Don
East Coast Don gave this a favorable review that I could not do. If HItler's men had discovered the great secret of astrology that would allow them to make accurate predictions about the future, then why did he lose WWII. Even if you accept that the character Stolz was a hero who kept alive secrets about Hitler's cowardice, and by manipulating the astrology data that Hitler got, that German then lost the war, the plot, the character development, and the writing was less than impressive. I think I stayed with it until the end to see if the author could tie together such an implausible story, which didn't happen. This book does not get my recommendation.
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