|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
It is 1940 and Europe is in fear of the Nazis and German domination. Spies are everywhere and no one knows whom to trust. Into this morass steps Jack Teller. Teller is a Hollywood stunt man, who has left Hollywood to escape his mistress's husband. He accompanies famous German actress Lili Sterne. Lili wants to find her childhood friend Eva Lange. Eva is a German exile last seen living in Lisbon but she seems to have vanished. Lili has hired a private investigator but has not heard anything from him. She wants Teller to help her find and rescue her friend if necessary. What Teller discovers is that Lisbon is not a safe town for Americans. No one knows where Eva is, but many believe her to be a Nazi. He must confront many powerful people including the Duke of Windsor in order to see the truth. Once he discovers the missing woman, he finds himself caught up in the conspiracies and threat of the war. As he travels through Europe, he must determine where his priorities lay and what he wants out of life. Only by confronting his own fears and hopes, will he be able to stop a conspiracy that could destroy Great Britain. I found THE LISBON CROSSING disappointing. The characters travel through Lisbon and through Paris, yet the book lacks any geographical descriptions that could provide a sense of place. None of the natives Teller meets have a sense of self. All of the characters Teller meets and all of the locations he sees lack depth and detail. This book could have just as easily taken place in any big city dealing with the threat of Nazi occupation. If a book is going to use a foreign locale to support the plot and explain character actions, then this locale needs to be accurate and needs to be well described. When the locale is neither of these things that the plot falls flat. I am not a fan of spy thrillers. While THE LISBON CROSSING is not the typical spy thriller, it still contains some of the plot elements that I find frustrating. The dialogue leaves something to be desired as it is flat and reads false; the characters are all lying about themselves and their motivations; the actions of the spies do not always make sense; and most of the characters are flat, stereotypes or are not well-developed. While spy thrillers do have their value as a genre, they do not appeal to me.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, March 2007
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
