From Publishers Weekly
This latest thriller by David Hagberg (aka Sean Flannery) is the fourth in the Bill Lane series. This time, intrepid secret agent man William Lane (just think "Rocky the Flying Squirrel") and his ever lovely wife and partner, Frances Shipley ("Bullwinkle" with a Brit accent), are on the trail of former East German secret policeman Helmut Speyer and his wife, Gloria Swanson (a la "Boris and Natasha"), who at the behest of secret organization strongman Thomas Mann have discovered a secret Nazi treasure trove submerged in a demolished bunker beneath a German lake. The sartorially splendid Lane, who never travels without his Pierre Cardins and Armanis, infiltrates Speyer's secret outfit and is immediately whisked to Germany, where his expertise as a diver allows him to recover the lost strongbox. He survives the sinking of a ship, and then returns to the U.S., where he foils the villainous plot with 11th-hour feats of derring-do that would shame James Bond. This is one of the goofiest thrillers to come out since the Three Stooges took on the Third Reich. There are enough aliases to fill a smalltown phone book, but readers needn't worry about keeping them straight, for as soon as a character is developed, either Lane or Speyer kills them off. Lane, the fashion-conscious hero, is gloriously over the top; the Germans are replicas of fish-eyed Nazis in East German drag; the women are sexy, beautiful and expert at everything; the politicians, military and honest cops are bungling idiots. For readers who like their thrillers with frills, this is catnip; those averse to blithe implausibility should look elsewhere. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Here's a gripping techno-thriller from the popular author who also writes genre fiction under the name Sean Flannery. No matter which name he uses, he delivers the goods: fast-paced plots, sturdy characters, and plenty of high-tech action. His latest, set in the present day, features superspy Bill Lane, who infiltrates a Nazi organization--based in Montana, of all places-- lead by a former Stasi captain who seems to think a long-buried Nazi bunker holds the secret to a superweapon of almost unimaginable power. This is a vintage tough-guy book, with lots of slick violence and clench-fisted wordplay. OK, so the plot is pretty much by-the-numbers stuff, and the characters are not the most original you've ever met, and some of the dialogue is a tad wooden--if it's action and hardware you're after, you'll eat this book up without a single concern about the lack of stylish prose or scintillating conversation. There aren't any recipes, either.
David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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