Wars and Winters

Adopted just after World War II in Nuremberg under mysterious circumstances, Brian Lockwood receives a Nazi ceremonial dagger in the mail, an event that prompts him to embark on a perilous quest in search of his origins. 35,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo.

When middle-aged journalist Brian Lockwood receives an anonymous threatening note and a ceremonial Nazi dagger in the mail, he realizes that his past is coming back to haunt him in Coppel's ( A Land of Mirrors ) engaging thriller that offers interesting insights on life in post-communist East Germany. Adopted under mysterious circumstances by an American officer ("the Colonel") at the end of WW II, Lockwood has long known that the Colonel's brother resented him--but could his uncle really have been sender of the ominous package? Lockwood takes advantage of an assignment for Der Zeit to return to eastern Germany in search of answers. He is aided by former members of the Stasi (the East German secret police), the Colonel's old friends and especially by the sexy young Anna Rykova, a woman of questionable motives who may be the granddaughter of Lockwood's childhood nurse, a member of the Stasi or a self-serving East German prostitute. After visiting the home of an elderly impoverished aristocratic couple, Lockwood learns two stunning secrets--about the dagger and also about his real father. Coppel spins a convincing intrigue, but the narrative is often sidetracked by his protagonist's lengthy philosophizing and reminiscences. Even so, this is a superior thriller by a master of the craft.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A Nazi dagger in the mail lures a middle-aged Californian back to Germany, where he was adopted and where his recurring nightmares seem to be set--in a chilly post-reunion thriller by the author of A Land of Mirrors (1988), etc. The dagger in question, a particularly rare bit of SS regalia, has been seen before. It was among the souvenirs belonging to journalist Brian Lockwood's late adopted father, a career officer who played a mysterious role in the Nuremberg trials. The knife disappeared on a visit to the Lockwood house by Brian's louche Uncle Dean, a sticky-fingered dealer in art objects and antiques. Now here it is back again. Lockwood, recuperating from a mild heart attack and a divorce, knows that the return of the dagger has something to do with Uncle Dean, but does it also have something to do with the shadowy figures lurking around Brian's Monterey peninsular home? And is there a link to Brian's journalistic investigation into the activities of the Stasi, ex-East Germany's horrid secret police? There is an unsigned note from Uncle Dean packed with the knife. It urges Brian to follow the lead of the name on the hilt. Unpleasant things begin to happen to the people around Lockwood before he can even leave the neighborhood to begin his investigation. But he is not put off. He expects to find out not only whose knife he has, but why his adopted mother loathed him, why his father's career went off the rails, why his father adopted him in the first place, and who it is he dreams about when his sleep is disturbed by childhood terrors having to do with his abandonment in a German wetland. Sedate and rather agreeably gloomy in the old mid-century spy fashion. If only it weren't quite so predictable. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Brian Lockwood always believed he was a German orphan adopted by an American soldier after World War II. Now middle-aged, Brian is plagued by nightmares that relate to his childhood. Prior to a trip to Europe, he receives a Nazi dagger in the mail. As Brian investigates his past, his sister Claire helps him come to terms with the father he wishes he knew. His trail leads him to a unified Germany, where he finds a link between his past and Stossen, a Nazi war criminal who stole art treasures and stashed them in a Swiss bank. Hungering for vengeance against Brian's father, Stossen lures Brian to a deadly showdown. Coppel ( A Land of Mirrors , Harcourt, 1988; Show Me a Hero , Harcourt, 1987) paints a fascinating picture of a post-Cold War Germany and the tension that still exists there. He spins a convoluted espionage yarn that could have used more suspense. Only for public libraries where there is a large demand for espionage stories.
- Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist. P.L., Metamora
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Brian Lockwood embarks on an odyssey that takes him from the resort city of Carmel, California, to the high-speed perils of the German Autobahn to a rickety house in the boondocks of Poland, where he confronts his past and the possibility that his own father was a Nazi. Along the way, a mid-life crisis throws him into the sensuous arms of Annaliese, a child-woman who satisfies his needs sexually even if not answering all his questions. Coppel does well here; despite a few glaringly obvious plot developments, it's tough to determine just where Lockwood is headed. Wars and Winters also aims its dagger at reunified Germany, where residents of both East and West lament the difficulty of autonomous rule from Bonn and former Nazis lurk ominously in the shadows waiting to take advantage of the chaos. Luckily, the political philosophizing takes a back seat to interesting characters like Lockwood and Annaliese in a typical but still enjoyable thriller. Joe Collins