The Last Nazi [Hardcover]

Stan Pottinger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2003

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Fourth Procedure comes a riveting thriller about a deadly virus, born of the past, that threatens to destroy the present. The Last Nazi seamlessly weaves genetics, terrorism, and the very human struggle of right and wrong into a terrifying and unforgettable story.

Melissa Gale is an attractive, ambitious lawyer and investigator for the Office of Special Investigations, the Justice Department's "Nazi Hunters." Her quarry, known only by the name "Adalwolf," was the brilliant young protégé of Dr. Josef Mengele, the Butcher of Auschwitz. Presumed dead for almost fifty years, Adalwolf has suddenly reappeared in the United States to take the lives of three people in a chilling, unusual way.

Melissa stalks Adalwolf to bring him to justice, only to discover that he is actually stalking her. She has something he wants: a personal medical history that holds the key to his plan for the ultimate crime. Using a deadly biological virus born of the genetic projects started in the Nazi labs, Adalwolf is about to unleash the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. Melissa Gale and the baby she is carrying could be the key to his success.

Trapped in his nightmare scheme, she is forced to fight for her life. The tension builds unbearably as Melissa's race to save her baby and stop Adalwolf from carrying out his plan forces her to confront the boundaries of good and evil---not only in him, but in herself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's difficult to come up with a fresh Nazi scenario without resorting to the cloning gambit, but Pottinger (The Fourth Procedure; A Slow Burning) succeeds admirably in this hair-raising thriller. His villain, Adalwolf, the 16-year-old foster son of Dr. Josef Mengele, joins the short list of fiction's baddest bad boys from the very first sentence. The setting is Auschwitz, Christmas Eve, 1944: "He heard a soft voice, a little girl's voice, singing quietly in the operating room. When it stopped, Adalwolf told her to keep singing, there was no need to be afraid, everything was going to be fine." The reader understands that nothing from here on out is going to be fine. Fifty-eight years later, gutsy Melissa Gale, a lawyer for the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, joins a SWAT team as they blast through the door of an apartment where the elderly Adalwolf is hiding. Melissa has been hunting this particular Nazi for five years, and he's taunted her throughout the chase. Adalwolf has murdered three people in the process of cooking up a deadly virus that threatens to kill every Jew in the world. The concept of a designer virus dedicated to wiping out one particular ethnic or racial group has been fielded, but Pottinger's take is by far the best of the bunch. Add a kidnapped child, more cold-blooded murder and a pregnant heroine who may be carrying the deadly plague along with her baby, and you've got a lethal prescription for a stay-up-all-night read.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Pottinger, author of The Fourth Procedure (1995), combines the promising science of in vitro fertilization with the heinous technologies of germ warfare and eugenics to produce a thriller with a ruthless villain and nonstop twists and turns that will keep readers on edge until the very end. Melissa Gale, a lawyer and agent with an investigative unit of the FBI, is on the trail of the mysterious Adalwolf, a former assistant to Joseph Mengele, who aided in experiments on concentration camp prisoners. For Melissa it's not just a job, it's a personal mission because her grandmother died in a concentration camp. When she and her partner botch the swat team operation, their careers are put in jeopardy, and the elusive Nazi is emboldened to continue with his plot to develop a killer virus. On quasi-hiatus from the investigation, Melissa concentrates on reviving her marriage and getting pregnant, but she can't stop profiling the Nazi killer. Her compulsion to find Adalwolf and--unknown to her--his fascination with her put the investigator and the Nazi on a collision course that endangers those who are close to her. This is a fast-paced, absorbing novel that tackles difficult social and medical issues in the context of an enthralling thriller. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312276761
• ISBN-13: 978-0312276768
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,264,444 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank God this is Fiction!, August 4, 2003

By 

M.J. Rose "mjroseauthor" (Greenwich, Ct USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Nazi (Hardcover)

Stan Pottinger's book kept me turning pages, kept me guessing, kept me up at night, and kept me desperately hoping that what happens in the book can not and will not happen in real life.

What makes it so good is that is yes, this book has a stunning plot that twists and turns, and yes, it has a stunning female heroine and a stunning fiend at the helm, but more importantly:

All too often suspense or thrillers have only one premise - good vs evil -- THE LAST NAZI has that too, of course -- but it has more. This threat is not just to society at large but is played out on a very personal scale with the main characters so that you - the reader - feel it and respond to it in a far more immediate way.

Nothing about this book is a disappointment. And everything about it sheer excitement from the very first page to the last.

Note to the author: This book demands a sequal. And I can't wait.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN EPIC READING OF AN EPIC THRILLER, August 21, 2003

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Nazi (Audio Cassette)

Just when we thought all fears of Nazi terrors had long been laid to rest "Adalwolf" appears in our country. His given name is not known. What is known is that he is a genius, and was once the diabolic young protege of the Butcher of Auschwitz, Josef Mengele. The world believed him dead for almost half a century. Yet, he is very much alive and has killed three people.

Melissa Gale is an attorney and investigator for the Office of special Investigations, the entity known as "Nazi Hunters." She is on the trail of "Adalwolf," little knowing that he is stalking her. It is only through Melissa and her personal medical history that this deadly psychopath can create a virus capable of mass destruction.

The two readers cast for this epic thriller deserve a hearty high five. Paul Hecht invests his delivery with appropriate menace, and Maggi-Meg Reed is a sterling Melissa.

- Gail Cooke

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An elderly Nazi seeks revenge., September 28, 2003

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Nazi (Hardcover)

"The Last Nazi" features Melissa Gale, a beautiful and brainy lawyer and Nazi hunter. Gale is desperately trying to track down a villain named Adalwolf, who assisted the infamous Dr. Mengele in Auschwitz. Adalwolf is now a seventy-five year old man, but he has not slowed down either physically or mentally. The unrepentant Nazi is an expert in biology, genetics, and virology, and he hopes to use his formidable knowledge to create a virus that will destroy his enemies.

The first half of "The Last Nazi" is intriguing, suspenseful, and full of surprises. Together with a SWAT team, Melissa closes in on a rooming house in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Adalwolf supposedly lives. Will Melissa's desperate effort to capture Adalwolf finally succeed? Or has her cunning adversary once again outsmarted her?

The beginning of the novel has thrills, chills, and many surprises. Unfortunately, the second half of the book goes downhill, as the author substitutes formulaic melodrama for genuine suspense. Stan Pottinger's many twists, turns, and complications dilute his story's effectiveness. If the author had expended more effort on humanizing his characters and on making his plot a bit more realistic, "The Last Nazi" would have had far greater impact.