Rating: 
Summary: So much potential
Review: This was a great book...up until about page 230. John Altman is a masterful storyteller, but the ending of this book was just terrible. The story revolves around Katarina Heinrich, a beautiful Nazi super spy inserted into the US by the Nazis in the decade preceding the war. Her talents were largely unused while spying in a small plant until she found her big break: Her scientist husband was being transferred to Los Alamos. It is there she learned the horrifying secret that the US was developing the atomic bomb. Once discovered, she knew she had to let her supervisor know in Germany. A simple enough idea if she weren't out in the desert in the middle of nowhere. Even if she could contact Germany, it is likely they wouldn't listen to her as she had been hard undercover for eight years. Still, she must try to contact the Nazis! For the Homeland! Meanwhile, in England, Professor Winterbotham, an outspoken pacifist and Churchill critic, is approached by the MI5, the British spy agency, with an unusual request. A request so secret they will not present it too him unless he agrees to do it first. It seems as if all the Nazi agents in England had been captured. Given the choice of turning or the gallows, many became double agents. MI5, seeking to further their deception regarding the upcoming invasion of France, try to present Winterbotham to the Germans as a double agent. Little do they know "the wildcat," whose wife was captured in Germany, has plans of his own. All of World War II hangs in the balance as the fates of Katarina and Winterbotham play out together. As previously stated, this book started great. It had so much promise. I could hardly put it down. If he could have changed the ending, or stopped it about page 230, it would have been wonderful. I did have some problems with the character of Katarina. I think he did a great job of portraying her as a lethal, well-trained Nazi agent. Think Artemis Entreri from Salvatore with no conscious. In other words, it was a little over the top. She must have killed about thirty innocent people. After about fifteen, I got the point: she was willing to do whatever it takes for Germany. At first I liked the character, but by the end I sincerely wanted her to die a slow painful death. I think Altman did a poor job of presenting consequences for actions, unlike his second book "A Game of Spies." Beyond those two minor complaints, it was still a good book.
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