THE UNLIKELY HUNTRESS

In Maitland-Lewis’ thriller sequel to Legacy of Atonement (2023),a married couple in Argentina confronts a Nazi conspiracy.

This explosive novel is built around an unlikely premise: Given the opportunity, who could pass up capturing a fugitive Adolf Hitler, and his wife, Eva Braun? However, this is exactly what stay-at-home mom Giselle and her husband, Felipe, want to do after a harrowing confrontation with the former dictator at his Paraguayan compound, “where he was medically experimenting on children no older than my daughter,” she recalls. Now re-established in cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Giselle and Felipe simply want to live their lives and raise their daughter, even though a plan is apparently in the works to re-establish Hitler and the Nazis. The appearance of Karen Fegel, the nanny of Giselle’s friend, upends the family’s plans. Giselle’s uncle, Daniel Lavy—a former agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service—suspects that the nanny is actually Karen Fegelein, the daughter of Gretl Braun (Eva’s sister) and a notorious SS commander who was shot for desertion. Gisele, Daniel, and Felipe rapidly find themselves pulled into a nerve-wracking international chase that drives them to their limits, “as though the war had never ended for them.” They’re also haunted by the knowledge that failure is simply not an option. Over the course of this thriller, Maitland-Lewis does an exceptional job of weaving historical details into a narrative that unfolds at a brisk pace within its tightly written framework. Although readers will see a particular cameo coming, they likely won’t expect the final twist, which raises an unsettling final question: At what point is it necessary to settle for less than total justice? Aficionados of alternative history and World War II fiction will enjoy pondering such notions.

An often compelling adventure, built around the premise of an international manhunt.