The Edit

An unnamed Nazi war criminal, the off-putting narrator of this rambling thriller set in 1995 from Jones (The German Agent), has escaped justice and is hiding in Central America. An SS officer who served as Adolf Eichmann’s assistant in Vienna, he frequently addresses the reader directly as he sets about writing his self-serving memoirs. The meandering pace picks up after Kate O’Brien, a friendly Irish woman, seeks to hire his fishing boat. When Kate offers to edit his memoirs, he doesn’t accept, but that doesn’t stop her from snooping, which leads to his imprisoning her in his home. The ensuing philosophical debates between the two don’t generate much heat, and the action builds to a contrived, unconvincing climax. Unnecessarily abstruse language (“micturition”) doesn’t help. Jones does a far better job in his mystery series set in turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna (The Third Place, etc.). Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (Dec.)