About the Author

Joe Kanon was a publisher for many years, but turned poacher by becoming a novelist with his first, bestselling thriller LOS ALAMOS, which was awarded the Edgar for the best first novel of 1997.Previous Books: The Good German , The Prodigal Spy , Los Alamos

Reviews

'Magnificent' Minette Walters'Kanon writes for grown-ups, not for day-dreamers. That's why he is so good.' Allan Massie, Scotsman'That rare thing - a thriller to stimulate heart & mind.' Mail'A phenomenal third novel a fantastic read.' S. Express'Intelligent, compelling & profoundly thought-provoking.' Herald

It's late 1945 at the start of this atmospheric historical thriller, and G.I. Adam Miller, officially assigned to ferret out Nazi war criminals in Germany, joins his widowed mother, Grace, who has recently arrived in Venice from New York to resume her life as a wealthy American expatriate. Together, they flow into the social eddies of the upper class, determined to pick up where they left off in 1939. Grace has met an old flame, Gianni Maglione, a distinguished doctor whom Adam suspects of gold-digging. Meanwhile, Adam himself meets Jewish Claudia Grassini, who survived the Nazi pogroms by becoming the mistress of a powerful Italian Fascist. The novel's languid pace picks up when Claudia meets Maglione, whom she accuses not only of being a Nazi collaborator but also of having condemned her own father to Auschwitz. Further complications arise with the appearance of Rosa, an Italian operative and former partisan. Kanon (The Good German, etc.) keeps his complex plot involving murder, elaborate alibis, false accusations and a web of secrets spinning back to the war on track, although the various entanglements aren't always neatly unraveled. Adam and Claudia's love affair provides the requisite romance, but there's no sense that they find much to like in one another. More interesting is Kanon's portrait of a pathetic and hopelessly naOve group of wealthy people out of touch with the postwar world's reality. Agent, Amanda Urban. Author tour. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.