It’s
early 1945. Hitler’s Germany is teetering; the eastern and western fronts are
drawing close to German borders. But the Nazis are making one last-gasp effort
with a rain of V-1 and V-2 rocket bombs on London, and German scientists may
yet pull a rabbit out of a hat with a new jet fighter plane.
Ed
Scanlon, an American army captain, is dropped behind enemy lines, to help local
partisans in Leipzig disrupt German war efforts. The partisans are led by Hanni
Steiner, a young communist who also happens to by an agent for Stalin’s NKVD. They
work together, have a passionate affair and fall in love, roughly in that
order. Scanlon is captured and taken to Gestapo headquarters, where he’s
brutally tortured. Hanni organizes a daring rescue raid on Gestapo
headquarters, and Ed is finally transported to safety in England.
But
the Americans and the Soviets want those German jet fighter scientists. Scanlon,
still recovering from his ordeal, is sent back to Leipzig. His primary motive
for returning is to find Hanni, who’s been arrested by the Gestapo. He’s also
to work with a German army officer to find and get the scientists to the
American army in Bavaria. The head of the Leipzig Gestapo is working with the Soviets
to get those same scientists to Russia. And the British would prefer that neither
side get what they want.
Scanlon
finds treachery everywhere he turns.
In
Winner
Lose All, William Brown has written another crackerjack novel of World
War II, following last year’s Amongst My Enemies. The
descriptions of the events, the people (including Stalin, Beria and Churchill)
and the geography re so detailed and vivid that the reader is right there,
carried along for one wild, breathtaking ride.
And
in the process, Brown explores the themes of courage and treachery, love and
fear, playing them through the characters in ways both real and often
surprising. Who “wins” the triangulated race to get the scientists – and perhaps
supreme power in the post-war world – may also be the one who loses the most.
Winner Lose All is an exciting,
riveting read.
Related: My reviews of
William Brown’s previous books:
Illustration (top): Leipzig Town Hall prior to World War II.
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