The Nuremberg Papers

Anthology editor Lewis (Strange Island Stories) delivers an action-packed if overwrought political thriller set in 1985 New York City. Disgraced former assistant district attorney Mike Levinas has rebranded as a private investigator working out of a shabby Manhattan office. Mike’s business is in a slump when a distraught woman named Millie Johnson walks into his office claiming her older husband, Long Island literature professor Pete Hesse, has disappeared. Mike eagerly takes the case, which grows treacherous when people close to Pete are killed. As Mike worries he could be next, he unravels an international conspiracy with links to Pete—and Nazi war criminals. With little interest or help from the police, Mike starts to wonder who he can trust, casting suspicion on his punk-rock love interest, his old law school cohorts, and even his client. Lewis maintains a sufficiently paranoid tone, but the plot eventually grows too convoluted for its own good. It’s a mixed bag. (Nov.)