Book Review: A Gathering of Spies

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

A Gathering of Spies     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
John Altman
Class/Genre:   Mystery   WW II
Putnam, Jul 2000, $24.95, 320 pp.

V.1353 is Katarina Heinrich, a German spy trained to be the best at infiltrating American society. Her job is to gather information to enable the Fatherland to win the upcoming war. In December 1933, Katarina kills Catherine Danielson and assumes the dead woman's identity. She moves to Princeton where she becomes a housekeeper for Richard Carter. Soon, Richard and "Catherine" marry. Katarina the spy becomes dormant. In 1942, her spouse obtains a top-secret job working on a weapon of mass destruction at Los Alamos.

Katarina kills someone else to use her identity to bring information on the project to Germany. Andrew Taylor recruits Harris Winterbotham to serve as a double agent, spying for the Germans. Harris knows the Germans have his wife incarcerated at the Dachau concentration camp and plans a triple cross to free his spouse. His actions lead him to a confrontation with the efficient and effective Katarina.

A GATHERING OF SPIES, John Altman's debut novel, is one of the year's best espionage thrillers. The action-packed tale dramatizes life in Germany, Britain, and the United States at the early part of World War II. The realistic characters include heroes and villains ordering innocent people to perform abominable tasks or else. Mr. Altman opens with a triumph that hopefully will be accompanied by more WW II spy stories.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner