Crossing by Night

Fact and fiction create a winning combination in former deputy national security advisor Aaron's ( Agent of Influence ) romanticized account of real-life spy Elizabeth Thorpe Pack, the young American wife of stodgy British diplomat Arthur Pack, during the Spanish Civil War and at the beginning of WW II. Elizabeth's honeymoon announcement that they're going to have a baby sooner than propriety dictates makes Arthur fear for his career. After using Elizabeth's beauty and social status to meet Vita Sackville-West, Winston Churchill and others above his station, he puts their newborn son up for adoption and takes Elizabeth to Spain, where she behaves ``like a mad debutante'' and falls for Antonio Zaragoza. In the summer of 1936, she catches the eye of the SIS by rescuing the besieged British embassy in San Sebastian. Flying into Madrid during the bombing, she locates Zaragoza and frees 18 men from a Valencia prison. When Arthur is later posted to Warsaw, the British recruit Elizabeth to steal Polish copies of the Enigma, the Nazi encoding device. Relishing her work, Elizabeth pursues handsome intelligence officer Count Michael Lubienski and uncovers Poland's complicity in Hitler's acquisition of Czechoslovakia. Then Churchill asks her to engage in yet another risky, heroic act of espionage, which brings the book to a riveting denouement. In Aaron's capable hands, Elizabeth is an irresistible heroine and her story is the stuff of highest adventure. BOMC alternate; major ad/promo; optioned by Republic Pictures for a TV miniseries. (May)