The Last German

Granger's November Man (League of Terror, 1990, etc.) returns to tangle with an unreconstructed, East German spymaster and with his own thoroughly unpleasant boss. In 1976, American intelligence agent Deveraux - who speaks in Hemingway, has no first name, and goes by the code name November at his intelligence agency - follows his creepy superior officer's orders to meet and debrief treacherous East German agent Kurt Heinemann in Europe. Heinemann has been targeted by Israel's Mossad because of his connections to the Olympic massacre and his willingness to deal with the Americans. The meet begins with a rendezvous with Heinemann's teenage sister, whose neuroses include galloping nymphomania, and ends with Heinemann's bullet in Deveraux's chest. Fifteen years later, Heinemann has to bail out of united Germany. Deveraux, out of the service on disability, is ordered to abandon his reporter girlfriend Rita and return to duty. Shadowy, international spies for hire have been sniffing around a supersecret Japanese supercomputer-encoder, and Pendleton, the evil boas, wants Deveraux involved. Wheels whir within wheels. Pendleton is maneuvering Heinemann at the same time that he manages Deveraux. Deveraux works through a mysterious Irishman, Heinemann is working a Russian turncoat. The CIA seems to know nothing. The Japanese mafia is everywhere. Rita, the reporter who was supposed to be out of it, is in the thick of it. Millions of dollars hop in and out of Swiss accounts. Grindingly complex. Readers who fail to follow the intricacies are likely to find themselves getting irritated at the literary mannerisms peculiar to this series. (Kirkus Reviews)