The Arms Maker of Berlin

Nat Turnbull, a history professor who specializes in the German resistance, is only mildly surprised when his estranged mentor, Gordon Wolfe, is arrested for possession of stolen World War II archives. But what’s in the archives is staggering: a spymaster’s trove missing since the end of the war, containing potentially explosive revelations.

Key documents are still missing, however, and Nat believes Gordon has hidden them. The FBI agrees, and when Gordon is then found dead in jail, the Bureau dispatches Nat to track down the material, which has also caught the interest of several dangerous competitors. Following a trail of cryptic clues left behind by Gordon, and assisted by an attractive German academic with questionable motives, Nat’s quest takes him to Bern and Berlin, where his path soon crosses that of Kurt Bauer, an aging German arms merchant still hoarding his own wartime secrets. As their tales—and Gordon’s—intersect across half a century, long-buried exploits of deceit, devotion, and doomed resistance begin working their way to the surface. As the stakes rise, so do the risks.