"[An] ominous account of the marriage of medicine and murder,
circa 1938.Quinn imbues the story with a wealth of historical detail and atmosphere.
This is a good choice for those who enjoy a rich, stylish period piece that, like Philip
Roth's The Plot against America, explores the fickle fate of men and nations and the
destructive power of a really bad idea."Booklist

"Quinn's novel is as much a rebuke of the systematized violence of war as it is
straight-up spy thriller."Publishers Weekly

On the eve of World War II, a murder in New York City draws two vastly different men,
an American detective and a German intelligence officer, into the gathering storm.

One of hundreds of simple homicides each year, indistinguishable from any other in 1938
was the death of a spinster nurse killed in her apartment. A suspect is caught and convicted.
Private Investigator Fintan Dunne is lured in to the case and coerced by conscience into
unraveling the setup that has put an innocent man on death row. Following the trail leads
him into a murder conspiracy of a scope that defies imagination.

Meanwhile, in Germany, with no limits to Hitler's mania, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of
Military Intelligence, knows that the "hour of the cat" looms when every German must make
a choice.

Peter Quinn, author of the acclaimed historical novel Banished Children of Eve, previously served as speechwriter for New York governors Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo. Currently corporate editorial director of AOL Time Warner, he lives in Hastings, New York.

Ned Schmidtke has played leading roles on Broadway, on national tours, and at dozens of regional theaters in the United States and Canada. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he continues to work in theater as well as film and television.