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Few authors can write about terrorism with the authority of John Le Beau, author of COLLISION OF EVIL. As a former CIA case manager and current professor of national security studies in Germany, Le Beau has crafted a tale of terrorism that rings true. The story begins with what appears will be a police procedural. An American hiker on vacation in the Bavarian Alps outside Munich is brutally murdered. The small-town German detective tasked with investigating the murder has few clues about who committed the crime or why. When the hiker's brother comes to claim the body, it's clear that he has no intention of leaving Germany and returning to the States without some answers about his brother's brutal death. While Kommissar Franz Waldbaer at first sympathizes with the brother, Robert Hirter, it soon becomes clear that there's more here than meets the eye. It turns out that Hirter is a CIA operative, who can lend his skill to the task. The komissar and the operative soon join forces to solve the murder, and when Hirter is given information about an event dating back to the end of World War II from a local man, the pair may finally have gotten the first clue as to motive. What follows from there, however, is even more sinister. Hidden materiel from Nazi labs at the end of World War II have been transferred to the hands of Islamic Jihadists. When the hiker stumbled upon their cache, it forced the cell to become active, putting their terrorist plot into action. While using a Nazi chemical weapons stash may seem an artificial device in the storyline, in fact, there is basis in fact for the development of these weapons (although they were never used during World War II). The author has brought this level of knowledge and detail to enrich the story told here. Together with his knowledge of CIA operations and strategies (as well as a superior knowledge of the German area and culture around which the storyline is set), the story has a credibility not always found in modern thrillers. Similarly, the author does not use a neat tying up of events at story's end, an all too common device in the thriller genre. Indeed, the strength of this book comes from the recognition that life is messy, and things don't always go according to plan. In this regard, terrorists have the advantage, and perhaps that is the ultimate lesson of COLLISION OF EVIL.
Reviewed by Christine Zibas, August 2009
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