Harriet Klausner's Review Archive
By June of 1940 France has fallen to the Nazi blitzkrieg, which makes much of the continent unsafe as people flee the German war machine. Former Berlin resident turned Hollywood superstar actress Lili Sterne asks stuntman Jack Teller to accompany her on a voyage to Lisbon as she feels he might keep her safe, but more important to her he might be able to learn the whereabouts of her missing childhood friend Eva Lange, who she fears is in trouble with the Nazis; Eva was last reported seen on the Iberian Peninsular. He agrees to this act of kindness as he eludes the hit man hired by studio chief Charlie Wexler for making love with the man's wife.
Lili previously hired private investigator Eddie Grimes, who was making steady progress in brining the two friends together, but he suddenly died in what Lili believes is a murder. Jack quickly concludes that Grimes was shot before he and his car was dumped into the Atlantic; however, he also speculates that a missing military officer thought to have gone AWOL, was shot and placed in Grimes' car. The link between the two homicides besides the vehicle watery grave is Eva seen with both just before they died. As he digs deeper, Jack begins to believe that Eva is a card carrying Nazi working a plot involving the abdicated Duke of Windsor that will hand England over to Hitler.
The second Teller historical thriller (see THE BERLIN CONSPIRACY which occurs in 1963) is an exhilarating action-packed WWII tale that pumps up the adrenaline to stratospheric levels from start to finish. Teller assumes his mission is a simple missing person's case, but soon finds himself saving England from Nazi sympathetic conspirators while also dodging a killer. Though the nonstop action fails to bring out a sense of place as Portugal during WWII just is never developed, fans of action to the nth degree will enjoy Tom Gabbay thrilling tale.