From Publishers Weekly
Millar is a veteran English journalist, and his first novel, a highly complicated political thriller spanning 50 years, has the virtues and faults common to journalists' fiction: lots of authentic details, a gripping "what if" thesis, but a certain woodenness of characterization, and dialogue that is no more than basically serviceable. Eamonn Burke is a cynical, hard-drinking London journalist whose interest is piqued when Sabine, a beautiful young German magazine writer, seeks his experienced help on what looks like a fascinating assignment: was the atom spy Klaus Fuchs really murdered in his exile in East Germany, and if so, why? What exactly were the secrets he purloined from Los Alamos? And what happened to an American bomber reported missing long after WWII hostilities had ceased? Millar has created out of these elements a tale of monumental duplicity that involves the highest levels of the British and U.S. governments, elements of the SS and even Albert Einstein, in the closing days of the war and during the uneasy peace that followed. The action zips around in a variety of exotic and well-rendered locations, including Iceland, as it becomes apparent that someone dangerous is out to prevent Eamonn and Sabine from getting at the truth. There is too much confusing movement back and forth in time and, toward the breakneck finish at a Munich monastery, too many bombshells exploding too close together for the reader to hang on to more than the general gist of the plot. The novel isn't dull, but a more experienced author might have given the story more variety of pace, more moments of relaxation?and a more credible windup.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
British newcomer Millar turns in an alternative history of the Cold War. John Burke is a middle-aged journalist whose specialty is writing on that war. Newly divorced, he's especially vulnerable when Sabine Kotschke, an attractive German journalist, enlists his aid to ferret out the mystery of Klaus Fuchs's death. During wartime, Fuchs was the physicist who smuggled secrets to Russia, enabling the Soviets to build the bomb ten years sooner than they otherwise could have. Fuchs did not regard himself as a spy, but concluded (along with other physicists at Los Alamos) that the secret of the atom was too great a responsibility for any one power to handle. Regardlessas Millar shows in his scenes set in 1944he was branded a spy, only to fall into obscurity again in East Germany. Was he murdered and, if so, for what secret? Burke and Kotschke trace the story from England to New Mexico to Russia. Someones chasing them, and several times they are nearly killed. Burke suspects that Kotschke is not what she seems, but his lust for her, which she toys with, dulls his judgment. He fancies he's James Bond. Meanwhile, events rush ahead of his understanding, until he finds himself searching for a mysterious document called the ``Sunshine Plan''a provisional agreement between the Allies and the Third Reich intended to thwart Soviet ambitions to seize Berlin and stake their claims to postwar Europe. Fuchs, in short, was a red herring, and Burke is the dupe of East German intelligence, itself in competition with right-wing Soviet nationalists to shake up the West with the truth: namely, that the righteous Allies, in forming a pact with a nearly defeated Germany, were as opportunistic as Stalin himself when he made his pact with Hitler. A solid piece of work, less suspenseful than absorbing and intelligent. --
Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
