Erik Larson excels at narrative nonfiction (his previous books include "The Devil in the White City") and here he finds chilling material with which to work. "In the Garden of the Beasts" follows the story of William Dodd, America's first ambassador to Nazi Germany, and his daughter, Martha, to Berlin in 1933. Both Dodds – the mild-mannered father and his more reckless daughter – are dazzled by Nazism. Dodd cautiously urges Washington to appease Hitler while his daughter throws herself into multiple affairs with the Nazi elite. Eventually, however, the horror of what they are facing begins to dawn on both.
