THE JUDAS CODE

by Derek Lambert ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 10, 1984

Why, despite all the evidence, did Stalin refuse to believe that Hitler intended to invade the USSR in June 1941? That's the puzzle-premise of this WW II hypothetical--which provides a rather farfetched, convoluted, slow-moving answer. Churchill, circa late 1940, is determined to trick Germany and Russia into draining, inconclusive, all-out warfare. Phase One is simple: ""Hitler must believe we are preparing to make peace with him""--which he does, thanks to disinformation via Canaris, the Duke of Windsor, and other standbys of WW II speculation. Phase Two? Stalin must believe that a German invasion isn't really imminent. So British agents David Cross (caddish) and Rachel Keyser (Jewish) go to Lisbon to win over the one man in the world whom paranoid Stalin will trust: his secret illegitimate son, Viktor Golovin, an expatriate pacifist now working for the Red Cross under the name of Josef Hoffman! Rachel seduces Viktor, stuns him with the news about his real paternity; Churchill makes a personal plea. Soon the young man is convinced that he will serve both the UK and Mother Russia by feeding the latest in top-secret data to his father in Moscow. What he doesn't know, of course, is that the Brits plan to slip Stalin dis-information at the crucial last moment. Meanwhile, Viktor--who must do real spying among the Nazis to convince Stalin of his credentials--gets in violent trouble with the Gestapo; he travels briefly to Moscow, amid tortures and chases, for a personal pow-wow with his bizarrely doting, previously-unknown father. And finally, while Rachel wrestles with her painfully conflicted allegiances (to Viktor, to the Cause), there's a series of shootouts and scuffles--before the all-important false-message is indeed sent to Moscow. . . but with a twist related to the private, secret ""Judas Code"" that papa Stalin and son Viktor have worked out between them. The secret of this code is easily guessable from the very start. The love/loyalty melodramas are unpersuasive, halfheartedly sketched; the international plot-fillers (London/Berlin/Moscow, etc.) are routine. Still, with an intriguing present-day frame (author Lambert meets up with the principal characters 40 years later), this is adequate, hard-working entertainment for fans of historical pipedreams--even if an un-zesty disappointment from the author of, most recently, The Red Dove.

Pub Date: May 10, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Stein & Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION