Date first published	1971
ISBN Number	0 586 03744 6
Page Count	336 p/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

A government accountant / intelligence officer linked to one of the wealthiest families in Europe. Asked to investigate rumours of financial wrong doing becomes embroiled in a major conspiracy, to use company money to finance a new regime that will transform the world. A world run by a new order of men - The Nazis.

Canfield a once respected government employee has placed his future on a trip to Europe to meet with a Nazi leader. He will only meet with one person, and in return for a top secret file will divulge the layout of the Nazi Headquarters. Canfield is not driven purely by duty, but of a personal hatred of the man offering the deal. A man who threw his pampered life away to lead a new life in the new order.

Canfield can only rely on Madam Scarlatti and her daughter in law. As they seek the truth, the body count mounts, until finally she meets with her errant son and destroys his ambitious plans to help over run Europe.

So who is Heinrich Kroeger, and why does he want to meet the son of Ulster Scarlatti?

Review

The book starts in the present, then jumps back a good few years to explain how the current crisis has come about. We meet it's unlikely hero employed as a government accountant, whose job is to secretly look into companies believed to be trading illegally.

The trail moves from America to pre war Europe. A place still wracked by the First World War, and with a Germany facing economic devastation through the Versailles Treaty. Through all this a new force has been born, one that will take the world to the very brink.

The book is very much an economic war set at a time when the world is controlled through the largest families. It's slant is an unusual one, and although it does get bogged down in one or two places is an intriguing read. The ending is almost an anti climax, although there is a final revelation in the final pages which I won't reveal.

The story is in essence that of a wealthy young man, who can do as he pleases, and treats all those less fortunate as lesser beings. While financially sound he is morally bankrupt, and sees ultimate power as the only thing worth having.

A good early Ludlum, showing a new author is on the horizon, and written at a time when Nazi sentiments still ran high, and all sorts of rumours abounded. In the 21st Century, it has all faded somewhat, with many of the players in the war now old men, and with all the major league Nazis now dead.

The book though has not really dated, it has no technology or ideas that would founder in the modern world.

The book is also really quite straight forward as it has only one plotline, unlike some of the more modern novels where you have several concurrent themes. Well worth the read.

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