A beautiful baroness spirits downed Allied fighter pilots out of Nazi-occupied Austria. Her first love, whom she presumes dead, is a successful American movie producer who's on his way to Europe to film her life story. Meanwhile, her treacherous husband, an Austrian nobleman, collaborates with Hitler to torture concentration camp inmates. Katkov, a veteran screenwriter and author of the popular novel Blood and Orchids ( LJ 8/83), based his novel on the reminiscences of Viennese refugees he met in Hollywood in the late Fifties. Although he's a skilled storyteller, his characters are static and the sex scenes overwritten. Nevertheless, his action-packed plot will attract and hold uncritical readers. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/91.--Ed.-- Joyce Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
This overblown epic by a Hollywood writer seems to have been crafted with an eye to the small screen. Katkov ( Blood and Orchids ) plucks his characters from their carefree lives in prewar Vienna and hurls them into the Anschluss. In 1937, Nick Gallanz, a young Jewish architect at the firm of Ernst Auerfeld, rescues beautiful, Aryan Carly Siefermann from a riot. They meet again at a party hosted by Ernst's glamorous Jewish wife, Magda. There Carly also captivates a handsome and jaded baron, Fritz Von Gottisberg. Nick's exploits at the Zwischentheatre (a forum for Cabaret -like satires of Hitler and the Nazis) thrill Carly, whose love for Nick obliges her to decline Fritz's proposal of marriage. But when Nazi thugs brutally attack Nick, Carly agrees to wed Fritz on condition that he use his Nazi connections to arrange safe passage for Nick and his family. Nick escapes, together with Magda and Magda's money, but his family is not so lucky. As Nick and Magda join Viennese refugees in Hollywood and Nick becomes an influential producer, Carly becomes a famous Resistance agent (a la the countess of Romanones). Vibrant Austrian and Hollywood scenery provide the perfect backdrop to this cinematic tale, right down to its melodramatic finale. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
