ROBERT KLARA is the author of FDR's Funeral Train and The Hidden White House. Hailed as "a major new contribution to U.S. history" by Douglas Brinkley, Klara's first book earned a starred review from Kirkus. Klara's articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, American Heritage, and The Guardian, among numerous other publications. Klara has also worked as a staff editor for magazines including Town & Country, Architecture, and Adweek. He lives in Brooklyn.
"Engaging and entertaining... For starters, it's a little jewel of investigative journalism that carefully traces the path traveled by two massive if utilitarian pieces of machinery over a span of seventy years. Most of all, it's a great story that features a cast of characters and plot twists even Hollywood wouldn't dare to invent." --Christian Science Monitor "[Robert Klara] does an admirable sleuthing job in debunking some of the myths surrounding this legendary car...An entertaining story of the irresistible cult of a creepy car."--Kirkus Reviews "Endlessly riveting...A thoroughly uncomfortable study of the high hopes, smashed dreams, and undying nightmares inherent in any troubling historical relic."--Booklist, starred review "Klara's fast-paced and lively book will satisfy automobile fans with sensual details of cast-en-bloc eight-cylinder motors, inlaid firewalls, and toolboxes lined in velvet. After forty years, an unlikeable Canadian librarian untangles the cars' ownership, rewarding both history and mystery buffs. The cars' disparate fates should satisfy both their devotees and detractors." --Historical Novel Society "The Devil's Mercedes is an engrossing mystery with thematic depth, a look at how cars, admittedly impressive ones, became symbols of Nazi horror, and what those symbols have meant for generations of Americans." --Shelf Awareness "The Mercedes-Benz Grosser 770K was one mean automobile: imposing, fast, and built like a fortress. Klara brings readers along for an entertaining--and on occasion, outlandishly surreal--ride through its history. Enjoy!"--Neal Bascomb, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Mile and The Winter Fortress "Carefully researched and artfully written, Klara's story of history's most infamous Mercedes-Benz, and its impact on postwar American culture, is a compelling read. The Devil's Mercedes is highly recommended for car lovers and history buffs alike."--Kurt Ernst, Editor, Hemmings Daily, Hemmings Motor News "So Hitler's car, a monstrous five-ton Mercedes-Benz, comes to America, where huckster owners put it on tour. Except that it isn't Hitler's car. The real one languishes in a Canadian museum until a cantankerous librarian unravels the truth. Robert Klara weaves the characters, the cars, the greed, the gullibility and the history into a riveting, revealing detective story."--Paul Ingrassia, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, author, and editor of the Revs Institute for Automotive Research "What a fun ride. The Mercedes is such a loaded icon of Hitler and Nazi Germany, and Klara did a great job unpacking everything and exploring the car's journey through the years. I really enjoyed it."--Suzi Hough, Hicklebees (San Jose, CA) "The author's telling of the stories of how the cars came to North America is excellent. If you can separate the cars from the owners you have technological marvels that were years ahead of their time. A must read for any gear-head."--Robert Angell, Spring Street Bookstore (Newport, RI) "This is a must read for any historian or classic car enthusiast."--Nicola's Books (Ann Arbor, MI) "Car buffs and history sleuths alike will want to devour Robert Klara's impeccably researched work in a single sitting." -Bill Reilly, The River's End Bookstore (Oswego, NY) "The story involves the U.S. army, opportunistic millionaires, ravenous crowds, and even the sleuthing of an old-school Canadian librarian who helps reveal the cars' origins in a way that Google never could." --Chassy Media
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