The Judas Kiss - Softcover

Katkov, Norman

3

23 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451173198 ISBN 13: 9780451173195

Publisher: Signet, 1992

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When Hitler marches into Austria, Carly Siefermann finds her love for Nick Gallanz, a Jewish architect, threatened, and she reluctantly agrees to marry a Nazi official in exchange for Nick's freedom. Reprint.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Behind the lines in Nazi Vienna (and the requisite far-flung locales): a flatly politicized romantic triangle from the bestselling author of Blood and Orchids (1983). When he rescues her from a clash between the Landswehr and a witless mob of demonstrators in 1937, strong-willed Carlotta Siefermann falls in love with Jewish theatrical architect Nick Gallanz--a bad choice, since Nick and his Zwischentheater, a troupe that's turned from the classics to radical political satire, are about to become victims of the Anschluss. Even as they're being hunted down by a maniacal misfit called Der Chineser, though, Carly is protected by Nick's romantic rival--wealthy, bored sybarite Baron Fritz von Gottisberg, driven to politely suppressed fury when Carly rejects his advances. It seems Fritz will have the last laugh when Carly offers to marry him in return for a safe conduct to Italy for Nick and his family, especially since Fritz plans to have them all murdered at the border. But Nick escapes and flees to Hollywood, where he pushes his way to the top as an independent producer, making beautiful, truthful movies like Maiden Voyage and alienating the powers that be by turning down the chance to produce Domino--little realizing that this saga of the heroic woman who's smuggling downed Allied pilots back to England and France is based on the exploits of Carly, whom he's still convinced set him up even as she keeps writing to him, every letter intercepted by Fritz's minions. And despicable Fritz, recoiling tepidly from his Nazi masters and his disloyal wife, has nothing to do but wait for the inevitable advance of the Russians and the return of Nick, planning to scout locations and kill both Baron and Baroness. Katkov's syncopated prose and abrupt cuts forward make this read like a movie script, and maybe you should wait for the miniseries-- even though its dramatic tension, like the novel's, is bound to depend a lot less on the cartoon characters than on historical hindsight. -- Copyright �1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

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.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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