The Plots of Men by William Honrath
'The Plots of Men' by William Honrath
Novels have been set in Milwaukee before, but The Plots of Men is uniquely MKE-centric. Local writer William Honrath, a first-time novelist, has produced a remarkably imaginative and well-crafted historical fiction set in 1934 Paris, Chicago, Munich, even Manitowish Waters, Wis.—but with all roads leading to Milwaukee.
The plot of The Plots of Men? In the Upper Midwest, gangster John Dillinger is hired to provide security for a secret meeting; in Germany, the SS’ number two man, Reinhardt Heydrich, coerces a reluctant ex-judge to purchase a painting in Milwaukee by noted German American Carl von Marr; in Paris, Allan Dulles, the future CIA director, tests his spook skills with the femme fatale he dispatches to Milwaukee. The Jesuits and the Illuminati, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, all take their place in a sprawling but coherent tale.
When he retired as a Milwaukee County assistant family court commissioner, Honrath had an idea of combining the rise of the Nazis in Germany and Hitler’s appreciation for certain painters with Milwaukee’s deep-dyed Teutonic heritage. His father grew up on the West Side by the Times Cinema. He “would recall going to the theater and members of the audience jumping to their feet to give the Nazi salute when Hitler was on the newsreels. My father would often have to speak German to the customers he waited on,” Honrath says.
While vacationing at Maintowish’s Little Bohemia, a gangster hideout in the roaring '20 and ‘30s, Honrath thought, “Why not incorporate Dillinger's 1934 Wisconsin shootout in the book. What's better than gangsters and Nazis. And why not incorporate the Night of the Long Knives—the SS triumph over the SA—while I was at it.”
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The speculations and fictionalizations in The Plots of Men grow from solid historical research, even as Honrath has a little fun with his subject. The plot thickened when Honrath and his wife Beth “went to the Wisconsin Museum of Art in West Bend and discovered Carl von Marr. After seeing his painting, The Flagellants, I knew it had to be added to my plot. When I learned that Hitler was an admirer of Milwaukee-born von Marr, I decided to create Paul Khunrath as a failed jurist” who finds himself in a lethal rivalry between two of the last century’s most dangerous art collectors, Hitler and Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring.
The Plots of Men is a fun read for anyone interested in Milwaukee, the Third Reich and Depression-era America. The Plots of Men is published by Three Towers Press. Keep an eye out for author appearances/signings in the near future.
