Marshall Browne-Marshall Browne is the author of twelve published books of fiction. He is a sixth generation Australian and his forbear was a founder of Australia's first bank - The Bank of NSW. For 37 years, Browne was a banker - in Australia, Hong Kong, England and Bhutan. He also served as a commando in the Australian forces, and as a paratrooper in the British forces. Several of his books have been published in the US. The Eye of the Abyss was a Gumshoe Award finalist, a Publisher's Weekly Best Book, and one of the Australian newspaper's Books of the Year. Browne's Inspector Anders series is also published in the States. THE WOODEN LEG OF INSPECTOR ANDERS won a Ned Kelly Award and in 2001 was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominee and a US Library Journal Best Book. Marshall now lives in Melbourne with his wife Merell, an interior designer.
The Iron Heart-Berlin, January 1939
Franz Schmidt arrives in Berlin in January 1939 to take up the position of Chief Auditor at the Reichsbank, the financial heart of the Third Reich. He has been positioned there by the enigmatic von Streck, a high-ranking member of the Nazi party but one who has a different agenda to that of the Fuehrer. Schmidt realises he must tread very carefully to avoid the zealous and passionate Fraulein Brandt, who is determined to destroy anyone unfaithful to the Party. After the murder of a co-worker, Schmidt is driven, despite von Streck's orders to keep a low profile, to help the dead man's assistant, who is now in grave danger herself.0As the Gestapo's reach extends throughout the freezing city, Schmidt's brief becomes clear. He must steal a copy of the Reich's financing blueprint in an attempt to prevent the country's march to war. Iron Heart is the second novel featuring Franz Schmidt and confirms Marshall Browne's reputation as one of Australia's foremost crime writers.