Kiss Me Twice

Ex-football star Lew Cassidy ( Kiss Me Once ) returns in a thriller that combines suspense, romance and derring-do in an artful mix that will make readers clamor for more adventures featuring the dashing New Yorker. As in his first novel, Maxwell continues to pay homage to the film noir tradition. The year is 1945. Lew is now a partner in a detective agency with his Fordham sidekick, Terry Leary, and Harry Madrid, both former cops. His wife, Karin, supposedly killed in the bombing of Cologne, has been found alive by U.S. Army intelligence officer Col. Sam MacMurdo. Several problems prevent the couple's reconciliation, however. Suffering amnesia as a result of injuries incurred during the blitz, Karin has married SS officer Manfred Moller. MacMurdo recruits Lew to destroy an American escape route for Nazis being run by Reichsmarshal Hermann Goring, whose cohort is Karin's husband. Moller has traveled to the U.S. to establish Goring's network and Lew must find him if he and Karin are to have a second chance for happiness. Maxwell's excellent portrayals of both fictional and historical characters and his attention to period detail effectively evoke the wartime era. The gripping, brisk-paced plot boasts a stunning conclusion, and the promise of a trilogy. (Oct.)