Time of the Wolf

Jones's ( The Turning Point ) accomplished thriller set in World War II Austria offers driving tension from beginning to end, though the author irritatingly characterizes Nazi villains with minor sexual deviations. When General Augustus p. 62 von Tratten commits suicide, few are more surprised than Viennese police inspector Gunther Radok; years earlier, the general had been like a second father to him. Now, in his death, von Tratten trades on that old relationship, bequeathing to Radok the task of completing his act of treason against the Third Reich: smuggling to the Allies irrefutable proof of Hitler's ``Final Solution.'' As Radok accepts responsibility for the documents, he also finds an ally and lover in half-Jewish p. 18 Underground member Frieda Lassen. Meanwhile, Lassen's old love, Wolf Hartmann, reappears after a four-year absence. He claims to have escaped from Nazi custody but is, in fact, a skilled agent assigned to track Radok and the papers. The smallest error can be fatal as Hartmann pursues Radok and Lassen in an exciting intellectual game of cat and mouse from Vienna's catacombs to the Austrian Alps. (Oct.)