Product Description
A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY IS TRAPPED IN THE BIGGESTDOUBLE CROSS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR.

Lady Catherine Rushmore’s life is shattered on the night of her concert performance in Berlin, when she witnesses SS thugs trash Jewish homes and brutally murder a baby on Kristal Nacht—the Night of Broken Glass. With her is hard-boiled journalist, Marla Franklin, who sketches rather than photographs the horrors surrounding them. Catherine is ashamed that they don’t do anything to stop the cruelty they witness and joins Churchill’s secret group, formed to prevent Hitler from producing the first atomic bomb.

While Catherine can’t forget the golden SS officer she has left behind in Berlin, Marla falls in love with the agent training to sabotage the heavy water supply the Nazis are producing in Norway for their nuclear labs in Denmark and Germany. Though the heavy water supply is blown up, someone on the team betrays the agent Marla loves, and the SS executes him in Norway.

But Hitler can still beat the Allies because Dr. Holbak in Denmark can show the Nazis how to unlock the atom’s chain reaction in time to produce the first atomic bomb. To get the physicist to defect to London, Churchill and King George VI decide to send in the one person the nuclear scientist trusts most—Catherine, the king’s cousin. Both leaders believe she is the only one who can convince Holbak to hand over his atomic formulas to the Allies. When Marla discovers Catherine’s mission has also been betrayed, she impersonates her and is captured instead.

Once the Gestapo realizes it has been tricked, however, the hunt tofind the king’s cousin begins. With the traitor still at large, thebiggest double cross of the war continues, while the fate of Catherineand Marla hangs on two men who are sworn enemies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (42)

Greater love than this no man hath,
...that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

This is a suspenseful espionage thriller that has lots of edgy moments. The historical content is very carefully researched and the characters well developed.

Two woman with different backgrounds work out tactical plans with the British war department to prevent Hitler from a deadly mission...the creation of the atom bomb. The "L" Pill is installed in Catherine's tooth making her mission one of possible suicide, but did she have to go through with it?

Both women witness the horrific events of the Holocaust. Both women lost people they loved and each one is ready to die for the other.

What resonated with me so well was the romance and friendship as well as strong family ties kept the horrific facts from being too sordid to hear. It is a heavy reminder of what could have been if not for the men and women from England and the United States willing to risk their lives for the sake of so many.

The exposition of the story from chapter to chapter is filled with beautiful prose and history using news headlines and radio flashes as dramatic accents throughout the story. All in all, this is a well done espionage with lots of perspective from the aristocracy of England.

There are some excellent reviews that give a great synopsis and more than one edition of this book.I read the first one.

I doubt that anything will be taken away from the narrative to hear it bring WWII to life in my home through text to speech on a Kindle!

Self-Published Soap Opera of WWII
In chapter two Winston Churchill talks about "the atomic bomb" in 1937 and the book runs downhill from there.

The book is instructive to fiction writers because it contains multiple examples of clumsy and obvious exposition that books of writing instruction suggest you avoid. That no publisher was willing to buy this ms. is a caveat worth heeding.

An extremely well-crafted story.
An extremely well-crafted story that takes the reader into the heart of darkness--the Nazi mind and the subsequent practiced evils.The pages speak for themselves and the author's impressive amount of research.Many of the passages are quite beautiful, for instance that of Marla, and the description of her imprisonment, which was chilling, her own thoughts that one can imagine when confronted with death.The latter brought to mind Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge Of Courage", those passages in the story where the boy questions courage under the confrontation of death.

Interesting story
The story started out a bit slow, but once it got going, it really got going! This story will definitely take you on a ride of wide-ranging emotions. The descriptions of life in war-torn Europe are very good; it's clear that Toews has done extensive research. In addition to the wonderful descriptions and emotions there is a well crafted mystery - there are plenty of twists and surprises. This novel will stay with you long after you've finished it.

Why is this rated so highly? Are only teens reviewing it?
I admit that I'm only about 80 pages into the book so far, but it reminds me of a Harlequin Bodice Ripper, at least it's written with simpering metaphors like one (I read those when I was 9, but then I grew up).

I've found two glaring spelling and punctuation errors so far, terrible in so few pages. (rings a sparkling on his hands?) a sparkling?? Geez.

I'm tempted to just put it down and go on to another book, but the reviews have been so glowing that I'm wondering if this writer improves later in the book.

I've read many great novels about the Holocaust/WWI era..this definitely isn't going to be one of them. ... Read more