Cave Dwellers

Set in prewar Germany in 1937–1938, Grant’s intricate spy novel focuses on a young German army lieutenant sent to America on a dangerous and doomed intelligence mission. Grant (Another Green World) tells a clever story of suspense and treachery as growing resistance to Hitler and the Nazis force desperate opponents to act. Lt. Oskar Langweil is recruited into the Abwehr, military intelligence, by a rumpled naval officer named Jaap. His first overseas mission is to contact Tobias Lugan, a fixer for a sympathetic and powerful U.S. Senator, but Oskar is betrayed and barely escapes. Desperate to return to Germany, Oskar and a socialist named Lena travel as husband and wife on a German ocean liner. On the voyage they meet the senator’s son and the son’s SS bodyguard; however, no one is who they seem, and the Gestapo is very interested. All four run for their lives from a brutal SS colonel who wants them dead. Jaap and a motley collection of eccentrics are the only ones who can save them and, they hope, thwart Hitler’s plan to invade Czechoslovakia. Pursuits, shoot-outs, surprising plot twists, and an exciting showdown at an alpine mountain lodge complete this remarkably tense and well-crafted thriller. (Apr.)