Heart of Deception

The search of Leo Hoffman, a dashing spy, for his daughter, Maddy, drives Malcolm's engaging, if at times sketchy, sequel to Heart of Lies. After the death of Maddy's mother, Martha, during the Japanese attack on Shanghai in 1937, Leo married a hard-hearted woman he entrusted to take Maddy to safety in the U.S. By 1942, 12-year-old Maddy has come to live with her aunt, Martha's sister, Bernice Mason, in posh Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Bernice hopes to protect her from Leo, a mysterious man she doesn't trust, who by now has reached North Africa. Leo's encounters with such real-life American intelligence figures as Col. William Eddy and Carlton Coon lend verisimilitude to his WWII exploits. Maddy's later romantic travails with Bradley Harrington Gordon IV and New York mobster Gene Mandretti yield unexpected conflicts. Shifting between Leo and Maddy, Malcolm movingly depicts the enduring love of a father for his child. (Apr.)