The Seventh Secret
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- €4.99
Publisher Description
Emily Ashcroft and her father, Sir Harrison Ashcroft, have set out to write a definitive biography of Adolph Hitler. Before they can finalize their manuscript, however, a cryptic letter from a German dentist sends Sir Harrison off to attempt the excavation of the site of the Führerbunker, where Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, lived out the final weeks of their life before committing suicide and being cremated in a shallow pit. The thing is – maybe they didn't.
Unfortunately, before the excavation can begin, Ashcroft is run down in a hit-and-run that would seem accidental – except the driver backed up and ran him over a second time.
Armed only with the dentist's letter, her notes, and the determination to finish her father's book, Emily Ashcroft makes her own journey to Berlin. She is joined by a Russian museum curator, an American architect writing a book on Nazi and Third Reich architecture, and a Mossad agent, posing as a reporter. Together they uncover what may be the greatest hoax ever perpetrated – the faked death of the Father of the Third Reich, and the plan to bring the Nazi party back to power.
Through harrowing adventures, steamy romance, impersonators, SS guards, and survivors they piece together the missing puzzle pieces of what really happened so long ago. The only question is – are they up to the challenge, and, as they begin to close in, can they survive it?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Though the prose is flat and the dialogue often tedious, Wallace (The Chapman Report, The Man) transforms a bizarre and incredible situation into the linchpins for a convoluted "spi-fi'' thriller. Eminent Oxford don Sir Harrison Ashcroft, on the verge of proving that Hitler did not die in the bunker, is murdered in Berlin. His daughter, Emily, continues this quest. Her life is endangered but she has new and unexpected protectors: Rex Foster, researching the vainglory of Nazi architecture; Nicholas Kirvov, curator of a Soviet art museum; and Tovah Levine, Mossad agent. The four prove a tough match for a coterie of neo-Nazis conspiring to perpetuate Hitler's image and obscure the details of his death. The true story of Hitler's last hours is revealed in counterpoint by Eva Braun, who has indeed survived. Now known as Evelyn Hoffmann, she has another secret: she and der Fuhrer had a child. Having created this situation, however, Wallace fails to exploit its explosive consequences, and the narrative sputters out without making much of an impact. January 13
