David Agranoff’s outstanding new novel begins on April 30, 1945, the night Adolf Hitler kills himself in an underground bunker below the streets of Berlin. 

With the Führer dead, the end of WWII is imminent. Germany’s surrender is just days away, but there’s still a couple of loose ends to tie up. A radical OSS agent named Noah Samvovich is determined to chase down and execute 150 high-level Nazi Party members on their way to Manchuria via the Berchtesgaden Alps. 

This group includes members of Hitler’s inner circle, plus an assortment of military officers. The most infamous of these goons is Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel. “No one short of Hitler is more responsible for the crimes of the Final Solution than Himmler,” says Samvovich who’s seen firsthand the horrors of the concentration camps. Like Batman and other emotionally damaged vigilantes, he wears his rage like armor and carries it like a weapon. 

The clock is ticking for the avenging OSS agent and his suicide squad. Once Germany surrenders and the Nuremberg trials begin, they won’t be able to get close to their Nazi prey. They have one chance to get it right. It is, as the novel’s title makes clear, the last night to kill Nazis. 

Samvovich knows that Himmler and his retinue are resting warmly and comfortably inside Hitler’s reclusive alpine chalet. All he needs to do is drop his secret hellspawn weapon into the middle of the Eagle’s Nest. He figures it’ll take a monster to kill a bunch of monsters. He’s right. 

Count Reiter is a 400-year-old vampire with a personal grudge against Germany. Because his ancestral home sits on the highest peak in Romania, the Nazis consider it a key to protecting or taking the most valuable regions of Europe. Reiter isn’t happy about the Wehrmacht knocking down his doors. In truth, he’s pissed off about it. He enters the war the moment he hears German boots echoing inside his castle atop the Carpathian Mountains. 

Reiter is a monster imbued with powers from Hell. He understands that he’s evil, but he has a little bit of self-control. He’s not a heartless creature after all. Here in the twilight of WWII, Reiter is more than willing to help the Allies permanently squash the Third Reich. “I assure you, I hate the Nazis too,” he says. “I consume to survive, but the things they do, the way they wield misery, is an insult to monstrosity.”

As promised, Count Reiter is an excellent Nazi smasher. He’s also a great tool for exposition. Because vampires absorb the memories of their prey, the author uses Reiter to illuminate the sins of his victims. “The souls of those he consumes, and their memories, joys and fears are like a universe to which he is God,” writes Agranoff. No one escapes judgment day.  

[ The Last Night to Kill Nazis / By David Agranoff / First Printing: September 2023 / ISBN: 9781955904728 ]