The Land God Made in Anger

In this potboiler by the author of Seize the Wind , Gestapo chief Heinrich Muller has been dispatched to South Africa at the end of WW II to establish the Fourth Reich amidst the ethnic German and sympathetic Afrikaner population. A native Namibian observes him as he emerges from the ocean, and retrieves a parcel that drops as he heads into the brutal desert. Forty years later, James McQuade, a struggling fishing boat operator, is solicited to purchase a souvenir Iron Cross from the Namibian's son. His interest piqued, McQuade is certain that a cache of Nazi loot must be nearby and that Muller is needed to locate it. He travels to Europe to do research, encounters the widow of one of Muller's victims and holds an improbable meeting with Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, who gives him a photo of Muller. On the flight home he meets and falls in love with Sarah Buckley, ostensibly a journalist but actually a Mossad agent. Mossad, naturally, seeks justice, not ``loot.'' The race for Muller begins with Sarah suffering divided loyalties. Although Davis demonstrates knowledge of South Africa and U-boats, the story is predictable and the prose often trite and repetitious. (Nov.)