Eclipse

At the center of this convoluted fiction debut by the author of A Man Called Intrepid is an elusive character named Radzki who had some mysterious connection with Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess in the heat of WW II. Scott Talbott, star of an American TV news show, first hears of Radzki when he interviews Hess in prison, a journalistic coup he brings off following the disappearance of his show's producer while investigating the reason so many governments remain intent on keeping Hess away from the press. With the help of London colleague Sally Ryan, Talbott attempts to unravel a labyrinthine identity puzzle surrounding ""Radzki.'' He turns out to be a Zionist who had allowed Stalin to set him up as a Soviet spy working under Hess and who is now still active as a powerful Jewish mole inside the Kremlin. Radzki, Talbott discovers, was also the man his mother had sheltered in England during the war and whom he had known as Uncle Samuel. This is a frustrating, poorly organized novel, all the more disappointing because its shortcomings obscure a potentially fascinating character and premise. (March 21)