Hour of the Assassins

Book excerpt: To prevent the rebirth of the Nazi regime, an ex-CIA agent turns SS hunter in this thriller of deception, buried history, and a far-reaching conspiracy. In the hell of Auschwitz, the devil was named Mengele. His atrocities were unspeakable, and among his victims were the wife and child of a man named Wasserman, who was forced to watch them die. Mengele survived the war, disappearing into hiding in South America, and Wasserman ran too—fleeing to the United States to make a fortune as a Hollywood porn king. Now he is dying of cancer, but before he goes, he wants Mengele dead. To see the Angel of Death hunted down and killed, Wasserman recruits former Vietnam vet and ex-CIA agent John Caine. Caine’s journey into the heart of darkness takes him from a neo-Nazi Odessa network in Paraguay to Jerusalem to a sinister cadre in Vienna and finally to the South American jungles. It is here, deep in the Amazon, that Caine believes he’s met his match—a doctor revered by the headhunting natives, and determined to keep his isolated clinic a secret from the civilized world. But Caine’s mission is only beginning. The victim of a shocking deception, he’ll soon be the hunted, as an unwitting key player in one of the greatest conspiracies of our time. From a master of the spy thriller, the author of the award-winning novels based on the Showtime series Homeland: Carrie’s Run and Homeland: Saul’s Game, this is a tale of twists and vengeance that’s “like a ride on the Magic Mountain rollercoaster” (Los Angeles Times).