Sandman (St-Cyr and Kohler)

The premise of J. Robert Janes's mystery Sandman is both audacious and intriguing: the heroes of this dark novel set during World War II are Jean Louis St-Cyr, a French inspector with the Sûreté National, and Hermann Kohler, a German Gestapo agent. Set in Paris under the Vichy government, this novel's unlikely pair of heroes are doing their level best to solve a murder spree by a serial killer who has claimed his latest victim: an 11-year-old girl who might know him. Played out against the backdrop of war, betrayal, and fear, Sandman presents an unblinking view of cruelty and two strangely sympathetic officers of a corrupt government.