The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld

Synopsis From Back Cover:

The bomb that devastated Wall Street in 1920 explodes in the opening pages of The Death Instinct, Jed Rubenfeld’s provocative and mesmerizing new novel. War veteran Dr. Stratham Younger and his friend Captain James Littlemore of the New York Police Department are caught on Wall Street on the fateful day of the blast. With them is the beautiful Colette Rousseau, a French radiochemist whom Younger meets while fighting in the world war. A series of inexplicable attacks on Rousseau, a secret buried in her past, and a mysterious trail of evidence lead Young, Littlemore, and Rousseau on a thrilling international and psychological journey-from Paris to Prague, from the Vienna home of Dr. Sigmund Freud to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C., and ultimately to the hidden depths of our most savage instincts. As the seemingly disjointed pieces of what Younger and Littlemore learn come together, the two uncover the shocking truth behind the bombing.

I went into this book knowing very little about the events that kicked the action off.  I vaguely remember learning about the bombing of Wall Street in an American History class in college, but I couldn't tell you any of the details.  All I knew then was that it had never been solved and that's all I know about it now after reading this book. 

This book is the product of the ingenious imagination of the author (I will now have to read his other book) as he comes up with his own unique solution to that horrific event.  The bombing opens the book but the characters are what drives this story through the entire series of events that takes the characters from New York to Vienna and back.  From start to end this was a whirlwind of action: kidnappings, car chases, Nazi encounters, and glow in the dark women.  I promise it's not as cheesy as it sounds, it all makes sense in the story.

I'm pretty sure I can't tell you anything about this book without spoiling too much of the plot but I do want to mention that the author does a a pretty seamless job of mixing the historical and the fiction.  The book takes real figures and events from history and blends them into a thrilling mixture of mystery and romance.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book.  To read other opinions of this one please visit the tour page.

Challenges: M&S, A-Z,