Leírás
'What would you say if I told you that the probable next President of France was a Gestapo informer during the war?' So says an Israeli agent to Paris-based TV newsman Andre Kohl, the all-too-obvious alter ego for co-author Salinger in this predictable, intermittently intriguing thriller. And, with such an irresistible tip to follow, Andre must give up his planned sabbatical of music and solitude. (A long-ago piano prodigy, Andre has just started practicing again.) He begins researching the WW II exploits of Camille Laurent, who was 'to the Resistance what de Gaulle had been to the Free French.' Is it possible that Laurent, now a top rightwing politico, really helped the Nazis? The evidence, it turns out, lies in the captured Gestapo files that now reside in Moscow's KGB archives. So Andre's off to the USSR, where an old chum helps him to locate the crucial Gestapo dossier, which does indeed implicate Laurent. But: could it be a fake document, planted as KGB disinformation? That seems to be a possibility - especially when Andre learns that his old chum was behind that original Israeli tip. (The Russians want the secret about Laurent's past to come from Andre: 'His word is accepted worldwide.') Determined to get absolute confirmation, then, Andre finally flies off to Bolivia - where the author of the dossier, Klaus Barbie-like Kurt Hoepner, has found sanctuary. Will Hoepner confirm that Lanrent was a traitor? Yes indeed. But Hoepner and his ex-CIA allies try to shut Andre up - by kidnapping his new girlfriend Meredith, daughter of a current CIA biggie. And so the clumsy finale involves the rescue of Meredith, the killing of the two major villains, Andre's big newsbreak about Nazi/CIA connections (some even during the war) - plus Andre's noble decision to keep mum about Laurent's Nazi past, secretly blackmailing the newly elected Prez to resign. Unfortunately, most readers will always be a step or two ahead of the KGB/CIA/Nazi-fugitive plotting here: much more fascinating stories (re Barbie and others) have emerged in recent journalism and nonfiction books. Moreover, the fair-to-middling suspense is padded out with self-indulgent musings by Andre Kohl/Pierre Salinger: about his French/American identity crisis, his famous friends, his celebrity, his past, and his unconvincing affair with noisily 'liberated' Meredith. In all: a so-so package at best, for undemanding thriller fans and those with some curiosity about TV-visible Salinger. (Kirkus Reviews)
Szerző - Pierre Salinger, Leonard Gross