City of Fading Light

In this lackluster effort by veteran novelist Cleary (this is his 34th book), the characters are superficial; the story is longwinded and implausible, weakened by attempts to evoke Berlin in 1939. Cathleen O'Dea has left Hollywood to make films in Germany with the hope of getting her Jewish mother out of Ravensbrueck. Cathleen's secret mission involves flirting with Reichminister Goebbels, who is in charge of movies under the Third Reich, while resisting his advances. As he grows more importunate, Cathleen confides in Sean Carmody, who agrees to help rescue her mother. The love affair between Sean and Cathleen and the facile solution to their supposedly impossible problem comprise the main plot. But it debouches into inventions about patriotic Germans who scheme to assassinate Hitler, a deluded British noblewoman hoping for England's alliance with Germany, the thwarted career of an American homosexual jazz musicianall developed in an improbable manner. Foreign rights: John Farquharson. February 19