Kondor, Gregory Ward’s third novel, is a thriller set primarily in contemporary Germany and centres around business and political motifs. Ward is a polished stylist who hooks the reader in the first chapter and doesn’t resort to tired and worn conventions of the genre. His plot line is unhackneyed and his central characters are complex.

As the novel opens, Dorner Automobile, the largest car manufacturer in Germany, is set to launch the Kondor, a mini-van that is expected to save the company’s downward spiral by offering German engineering at Detroit prices – somewhere between a Chrysler and a Range Rover. Kristian Peiper, the car’s designer, and his father, a business partner of the firm’s founder Erich Dorner, have traveled to Frankfurt to prepare for the launch and to visit Dorner, who is dying. But before long Kristian’s computer is stolen, a mysterious film that Dorner gives to Kristian’s father disappears, and there’s a murder. People who know about the film begin to die violently, and in suspicious circumstances, and the CIA becomes involved.

Kondor is an entertaining read that is gripping right to the end. The subject matter of the mysterious film is easy to surmise, though, making the ending a tad predictable, and it’s obvious at times who the duplicitous characters are. As the novel weaves from Germany to the U.S. and Canada, the past rears its ugly head and unsolved mysteries of Germany’s past are revealed.