The Barnes & Noble Review
Award-winning British author Robert Wilson has crafted another intricate, powerful thriller -- a captivating blend of historical fiction, political intrigue, espionage, and passion. This tale begins early in the 1940s -- the world is at war, secrets are more valuable than currency, and love seems almost as impossible as peace. Physicist Karl Voss is a trusted, if junior, intelligence officer for the German army, facing the knowledge that the Nazi war machine is self-destructing. As the personal and political costs of the war soar, Voss becomes a double agent -- an enemy of the Nazi state, yet still a loyal defender of the German nation -- a role that necessitates lying to colleagues and enemies alike. His superiors place him in Lisbon, to facilitate secret communications with the Allies. Oxford-educated British mathematician Andrea Aspinall admires the simple elegance of numbers and the complexity of what they can express. Her brilliance and her loveliness, combined with fluency in German and Portuguese, make this young woman perfect for the spy game. Soon after leaving school, she's offered a job abroad...and a new identity. Officially, "Anne Ashworth" will be working for Shell Oil in Lisbon, a clandestine existence to cover Andrea's real work for the Company, untangling threads that could connect to German atomic research. Amid power plays and betrayals that blur the lines between friend and foe, Andrea and Karl make an unexpected and unsanctioned connection, learn that too little trust can kill as quickly as too much...and share secrets that still have power decades later. Sue Stone