The Engraver from Munich

Summary

The thrust of the story is that a retired engraver from Munich struggles to save the Bundesbank from a brazen California billionaire's scheme to counterfeit discontinued deutsche marks.... Carl Fremdling is a 19th-century romantic living a 21st-century life. His consulting practice evaporating, he faces a bleak old age when a friend finds him a new gig: fly to San Diego to tutor a reclusive businessman on the history of money. He is soon the man's prisoner, threatened with death unless he forges old D-marks bearing Clara Schumann's image. Each night, locked in his room, the engraver confides in the pianist as he plans a daring escape from a captor, whose twisted motives are buried in the wounds of childhood.  The novel has elements of a thriller and a generous dollop of humor, but at its deepest level it is a character study of the engraver and the billionaire who entraps him.

©2020 Michael Lieberman (P)2020 Michael Lieberman