Book Review: Brunner in the Black

Reviewed by Tomi Alo

A gritty, globe-spanning thriller with brains, bite, and a heroine whose resolve to expose the truth threatens the world’s most powerful institutions

If money is the root of all evil, Will Nichols’s debut, Brunner in the Black, proves the forest is thriving.

In this high-tension and high-stakes thriller, Nichols exposes the machinery of global corruption with unnerving precision. What begins as a private investigation into a family-owned Austrian lumber empire quickly spirals into a far-reaching web of conspiracies that touches on one of Europe’s oldest institutions and spreads across the Western world. Through this maze of offshore accounts, shell companies, and blood-stained secrets, Nichols builds a world that feels frighteningly plausible and presents a reflection of how power truly operates behind closed doors in today’s economic and political system.

“The power to shape world affairs requires secrecy and the ability to raise money in secret.”

At the center of this story is Lenya Fischer, a 63-year-old former East German Stasi agent turned investigator. Fresh out of prison for bribing a police chief, she takes on a job from Ilsa Brunner to dig up dirt on her cousin’s illicit activities in the family business. Lenya reaches out to her longtime ally (and on-and-off lover) Orell Schneider for help. As they start to unravel Brunner Group’s opaque inner structure, it triggers a violent response that leaves both Orell and Fritz (Lenya’s beloved cat) gruesomely dead.

Now things are personal and Lenya wants vengeance just as much as she wants the truth exposed. Soon she uncovers evidence of embezzled state funds, money laundering, criminal proceeds, and Vatican-linked accounts that tie Europe’s most powerful figures.

Each revelation pulls Lenya deeper into the core of a criminal network and conspiracy so vast it blurs the line between church and state, justice and survival. And as the circle tightens, the question remains: will Lenya be able to expose the truth to the world…or will she be buried alongside it?

Lenya’s not your typical heroine. Nicknamed “Der Narwhal”—a nod to her rarity as one of the first female case officers in East German Stasi intelligence—she’s a woman who commands respect in a field built for men. She’s not chasing redemption; she enforces her own kind of justice, and she’s terrifyingly good at it. I loved how Nichols doesn’t let her age soften her character. Loyal, brave, relentless, and dangerously smart, she navigates the chaos with the agility of someone half her age, or at least in their 40s.

Brunner in the Black details a complex, fast-paced plot that explores themes and topics such as systematic corruption, political manipulation, and the moral decay that festers beneath power. Drawing from his own years of experience as a career private investigator, Nichols feeds into the novel an authentic understanding of how power and influence moves, how religion is exploited for profit, and how information itself has become the most valuable, and dangerous, currency in today’s modern world.

“…knowledge is power. It is human nature to hoard power…The information handed out so easily to all of us by major news outlets isn’t knowledge, wisdom, or truth. Instead, it is a narrative those more powerful than us want us to believe to keep us less powerful.”

Brunner in the Black is bold, cerebral, and unapologetically political. It’s an intriguing exploration of the system we live under. And in Lenya Fischer, Nichols gives us a heroine sharp and brave enough to face it.

Readers who enjoy conspiracy theories and political thrillers will certainly find Brunner in the Black a strong contribution to the conversation.

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