Track 61

This workmanlike espionage novel from Karlin (City of Liars and Thieves: Love, Death, and Manhattan’s First Great Murder Mystery) takes as its basis a failed real-life 1942 German sabotage plot against the U.S. When Grete Baum, a Jewish refugee, attends a patriotic parade in Manhattan, she’s approached by an attractive stranger, Peter, who, unbeknownst to her, is part of a group of spies who landed on Long Island from a German submarine. Flattered by his interest in her, she joins him for a bite to eat and ends up unintentionally aiding his efforts. Grete eventually learns that Peter and his colleagues are targeting a power station in a secret basement in Grand Central, the destruction of which would cripple not only troop transports in the Northeast but also aluminum plants producing American warplanes. Inspired by the character of Nora Charles as played by Myrna Loy in The Thin Man movie, Baum tries to thwart the sabotage while keeping Peter from a death sentence. The prose and characterizations are merely serviceable. This is no The Day of the Jackal. (June)