Ashes in the Snow by Oriana Ramunno (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @harperviabooks for the review copy of Ashes in the Snow by Oriana Ramunno.

What is the most unique setting of a book that you have read?  Ashes in the Snow is a mystery that is set at Auschwitz.  It is the investigation of one murder amongst so many murders.

Dr. Braun, an eminent Nazi doctor working in Auschwitz, has been murdered.  Young detective Hugo Fischer has been sent to investigate the murder.  His number one witness was a young boy, Gioele, that discovered the body.  Gioele is a twin that lives in a special part of camp as he and his twin are experimented on.  Hugo discovers all the horrors of the camp but has to hold his sanity together to finish solving this crime.  Who killed Dr. Braun?  Hugo also struggles with how he and his fellow Germans had ended up living in a world where Auschwitz existed.

Ashes in the Snow is a powerful book.  It was an intriguing mystery and kept me reading far too long into the night.  The horrors of the camp were often really hard to read.  There was a particularly graphic scene involving the death of a baby at the beginning that will disturb readers.  I really liked Hugo’s reflections as he tried to rationalize how his actions and those of his fellow citizens could have led to Auschwitz.  The characters were all intriguing and many were much more than they seemed at first.    I found the ending of the novel to be very satisfying with a glimmer a good amongst the horror.

This novel was inspired by the author’s great uncle’s experiences in a concentration camp.  As a young man, the author interviewed his uncle and learned the horrifying details of his experiences.  This is explained in an interesting author’s note at the start of the novel.

Overall, Ashes in the Snow is a dark, but riveting historical mystery novel.