The Chemist’s Shop by Richard Brumer

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Pharmacology professor Michael Ross retires from the world of academia in 1970 and opens a community pharmacy in a peaceful upstate New York town. He puts the horrific tragedies of his past behind him and finds serenity in his new life. That is, until he recognizes a customer as former Nazi SS officer, Hans Stern. Michael looks into Stern’s cold, steel-blue eyes, clenches his fists, and boils inside, remembering how his three young daughters were taken from him and gassed, and his wife, Ilona, was tortured, raped, and stripped of all dignity by Stern twenty-five years earlier in Auschwitz. Face to face with this evil being, Michael forces himself to stay calm. In that moment, he experiences two opposing but related feelings. One is anger, the other exhilaration. He could not protect his family then, but he can avenge their deaths now. It isn’t just about killing Stern. That would be too easy. His death has to be slow, painful, and diabolical, and it begins with a game of chess…