The Lisbon Crossing
1940. Jack Teller, rogue extraordinaire and companion of the glamorous movie star, Lili Sterne, arrives with her in Lisbon in a blitz of their own. Their mission is to find Lili’s childhood friend, Eva Lange, before the Nazis do. Murders abound as the hunt moves through the winding streets of Lisbon’s Alfama to Estoril’s casino and glitzy hotels, to a remote peasant farm and an isolated palacio, to the crashing waves of the Boca d’Inferno. Then it’s onto a train into occupied Paris and a gut-wrenching confrontation between Nazi intelligence and members of the nascent Résistance— with Jack Teller and the errant Eva Lange caught in the crossfire.
The Lisbon Crossing is a 1940s Bogart-style story narrated à la tough guy and peopled with stock characters, and not especially likeable stock characters. Two of them are historical: Edward, Duke of Windsor and his wife, the former Wallis Simpson. The author makes full use of rumors of their alleged Nazi sympathies and Ms. Simpson’s checkered sexual past.
The story is what carries the book. It’s tightly and imaginatively plotted and packed with made-for-movies action. You can’t not enjoy it. Highly recommended for a weekend getaway—with a pitcher of good cerveza.
