V-3

The specter of Armageddon looms in Melchior's eighth novel (Order of Battle, Eva). Its agent is the V-3, a poisonous exsiccating gas developed by Hitler to succeed the V-1 and V-2 rockets. In the present, aging but still fanatic Nazis plan to unleash the gas and kill millions. Army intelligence reactivates chemist Einar Munk who, as a wartime operative for the OSS, first learned of the gas's manufacture. His orders: find it and contain it. In this desperate mission, Einar is aided by his wife, Birte. Einar discovers the V-3 in a sunken U-boat, the canisters dangerously near final corrosion and each of them booby-trapped. One explosive episode follows another in this thriller, and the explosions keep the reader hopping as the enemy zeroes in. U.K. rights: Laurence Pollinger; translation rights: Dodd, Mead. November 11