The Fifth Column
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
The Fifth Column is a thrilling novel about the only man who can thwart a Nazi sympathizer uprising in New York during the Second World War, from bestselling author Andrew Gross.
A Man in Trouble
February 1939 and Europe is on the brink of war. Charles Mossman is in a bar in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, reeling from the loss of his job and his failing marriage, whilst outside thousands of Nazi sympathizers are attending a hate-spewing rally. As he confronts one, Charles makes a horrendous mistake with deadly consequences.
A City of Secrets
Two years later, Charles is released from prison and tries to reunite with his family. The US has kept out of the war for now but the pressure in the city is rising as those sympathetic to the Nazi cause lay the foundations for what lies ahead.
The Enemy Within
As he tries to make amends with his wife and daughter, Charles starts to understand that surrounding them there are forces that will use any means necessary to bring about the downfall of his nation. And when his daughter is befriended by a seemingly amiable Swiss couple, it brings to the surface his fears of a 'Fifth Column' of embedded German spies in their new neighbourhood. All Charles wants is to redeem himself as a husband and father, but sometimes a man must do questionable things to stand up for his family and what he believes, even sacrificing his life to do so . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the powerful first chapter of this ambitious, if flawed, thriller from bestseller Gross (Button Man), washed-out, alcoholic Columbia graduate student Charles Mossman is drinking in a Manhattan bar, mourning his twin brother, recently killed fighting the fascists in Spain. It's 1939, and Mossman, who's Jewish, is taunted by Nazi sympathizers who attended a huge pro-Hitler rally at Madison Square Garden earlier that evening. In the ensuing fight, Mossman ends up accidentally killing an innocent bystander. In 1941, after serving his manslaughter sentence, Mossman returns home to his wife and their six-year-old daughter, Emma, who's spending a lot of time with their neighbors, the Bauers, an affable Swiss couple. After hearing from Emma that she's heard the ostensibly anti-Nazi Bauers praise Nazi policies, he grows suspicious about their loyalties and begins some clumsy amateur sleuthing. The early revelation that the Bauers are part of a fifth column operating within the U.S. undercuts the suspense. Contrived plot developments don't help. Nonetheless, readers will root for Mossman in his heroic efforts to thwart the villains. 100,000-copy announced first printing; author tour.
