This title left me skeptical upon initial acquaintance, appearing to offer little new to an area of motor racing history around which a small industry has grown and thrived. But Stevenson’s book has a formidable trick up its sleeve. Not merely a stale account of forays of Mercedes-Benz and Auto-Union into GP racing on the ’30s, but history in terms of those who made, and were made by, it. Concentrating on the comparative fortunes of Rudolf Caracciola and Bernd Rosemeyer, the story contains a page-turning quality more commonly found in novels. Motor racing history rarely lends itself to gripping narrative; the Nazi involvement is an exception and Stevenson’s book brilliantly exploits it.
–IM