*Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
**Warning: This review contains more spoilers than normal. Most of the spoilers listed happen within the first 60 pages or so, but it does give a lot more information than the blurb.**
The Thyssen Affair by Mozelle Richardson is a spy thriller set in 1980. Our hero is Canyon (Cane) Eliot, a retired CIA agent in his late 50s who owns a ranch in Colorado. Peter, a surrogate son, and active member of the CIA contacts him with a job. The Russians have dug up the skull of an unimportant major buried in a WWII POW cemetery in Oklahoma and 'we' don't know why. The CIA was able to intercept the package before it reached Zurich, and now they are trying to determine the importance of the skull, and keep it away from the Russians.
At first, Cane refuses. He is retired, comfortable, and has no desire to reenter the job at his age. Peter manages to convince him he is a necessary part of this picture and the only one capable of completing it. Cane's family roots are German, and he spent a lot of time growing up in Germany. As a result, Cane speaks flawless German, looks German, and knows his way around much of Germany. They need Cane to go to Germany, posing as a German soldier to contact the widow of 'the skull' to find any clue as to why the Russians want it bad enough to dig it up after 30+ years in the ground. Add to this an assortment of Russian spies, a legendary Israeli spy and a huge Nazi conspiracy and we've got ourselves a thriller.
I generally really enjoy the thriller/suspense/conspiracy genre. I love reading a book that makes my pulse rate jump, my adrenaline flow and keeps me awake at night because I'm so invested in the story. This book didn't deliver any of that. It's supposed to be suspenseful and intense but I spent more time being bored or disbelieving than captivated. Now let me tell you why.
For starters, the bad guys were the Russians and the Nazis. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting awfully tired of the bad guys always being Russian. You see it all the time in books, movies and television. I almost feel like every time I turn around, it's another Russian. I do understand that this book takes place in 1980, which is during the Cold War. So, it makes sense that the CIA's attitude is (and I quote) "... if the Russians want it then by God so do we!" But still. Really? It just felt a little bit ridiculous to me. And seriously... Does it always have to be the Russians?! But wait! Even better than Russians, we also have a secret underground Nazi organization devoted to helping former SS agents return to Germany and start new lives. How do they do this? By using the millions and millions of dollars worth of stolen Jewish treasure.
The Russians know that the skull does not truly belong to Major Von Stober, but really Otto Thyssen, BFF to Hitler himself. (Hitler was best man at his wedding.) So, it makes sense that Hitler left Thyssen in control of the finances. He was in charge of, and responsible for a large portion of the treasures stolen from the Jews. He had an Italian dentist plant a micro-dot treasure map in his tooth. Let me interject here briefly, because I have a few problems with this idea. First, I don't know how accurate the idea of a 1940s micro anything technology is. Was there really the technology to do this back then? Even if this technology was possible, I don't know that. All I know is that micro technology is supposed to be relatively new tech. But more importantly, if Thyssen knew where the treasure was headed, or had put it there himself, why on earth would he bother planting a chip into the bones in his skull?! Seriously! He already knew where he needed to go! It just felt illogical to me and, considering that this is the basis for the story, I was a little leery.
Then, you have the spies. So many spies! Seriously! We have the ex-CIA agent. He's in his late 50s and continually remarks that he's just too old for this stuff, and yet... he somehow manages to outsmart, out fight and just plain out do every one, every time. Next, we have Anya. She's a beautiful KGB agent, pretty high up the chain. She's important. But, she isn't very good... Oh, and you can catch where this connection is headed within the first few chapters. Cane's reaction to meeting her makes it pretty obvious. Anya also have several friends that we meet throughout the duration of the novel, there to help and/or protect Anya. I won't tell you who they are, or what real role they take, because I don't want to spoil too much of the story, we also have the undercover Nazis. They make several appearances as well. But, as if that isn't enough right there, we also have a super hard core Israeli tailing Cane who is also interested in the treasure. But, he wants to reclaim it for the people (the Jews) that it was stolen from. In case you missed it, that's a lot of spies in one story.
Overall, this book wasn't awful, but it wasn't amazing either. I'm not sorry that I read it but I doubt I will be picking it up again.
Have you read it? What did you think?