SOUVENIR

by David A. Kaufelt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 29, 1983

Underground/Nazi chase and romance in 1942 Paris--featuring a tidy group of French and American heroes, a Nazified French sadist, and a lengthy, complex escape from Vichy France. Floy Devon of Philadelphia, who visited her naughty Aunt Louisianne in Paris once years ago, now comes to Paris to stay--this time with her own illegitimate son, Curry, who was sired by a cheating so-and-so back home, now dead. Floy has been making a tiny splash in films, produced and directed by Louisianne's live-in homosexual English friend, Lord Billy. But then, in 1942, Floy is being pursued by Cambertin, a French-raised collaborationist who's now an officer in the Gestapo--an icy creep wearing rimless, blue-smoked specs. And life in general becomes more dangerous, particularly for Billy, who fought in the Spanish Civil War, and Louisianne, who, it turns out, heads an organization named the Fleurs de Mal: she's the White Rose for this organization--which is not only an Underground conduit but also an attempted link to de Gaulle in London. So, after Billy and Louisianne both die in quite horrible ways, arrogant Max Winterhagen, the best passeur in France, will guide Floy, Curry, and two Jewish sisters through the Nazi traps set in France and at the borders: along the way they'll meet other Fleurs, stop at a nudist camp, and even stay at a grand hotel in Nice (with Max in an S.S. uniform). And, with Cambertin on the scent, they will soldier on (not everyone will make it) to the final entrapment and a boffo square-off in Barcelona--which includes the exposure of a traitor in their midst. Regulation heroes-and-hounds, but --like last year's Silver Rose--as competent as it is familiar.

Pub Date: Nov. 29, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: New American Library

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION