book cover of Children of Tender Years
Added by 3 members
 

Children of Tender Years

(1985)
A novel by

 
 
Publisher's Weekly
Even 30 years after his childhood captivity in Auschwitz, British agent Jake Malik has nightmares. He's very much a loner, though apparently assimilated into English life. Sent to investigate possible Soviet involvement in anti-Semitic incidents in West Germany, Jake falls in love with his German counterpart's sister and must come to terms with his fear of her compatriots. Meanwhile, he discovers that a group of Israeli and West German businessmen have set up their own plan for retaliation against Soviet-Arab threats to Israel. Malik is ruthless in his determination to squelch this ''unholy alliance'' without informing any official agencies, and eventually someone tells him, ''You would have made a splendid Nazi.'' The fanatic conspirators cause several murders to be commited, and Malik, in anguish, becomes more alienated. After his ''promotion'' to Washington, Malik's MI6 bosses hint that his future is not to be a happy one. Allbeury (No Place to Hide) has written a fast, engrossing and ultimately very bleak thriller.

Library Journal
For a much-practiced espionage writer ( No Place To Hide, The Judas Factor, etc.), Allbeury projects little of interest here. He stocks a formulaic pool with flat, unexciting inhabitants and barely ripples the surface with intrigue. Sometime in the early 1970s, British Intelligence sends operative Jake Malik, a 38-year-old Polish/Jewish concentration camp survivor, to Germany to investigate a spate of anti-Semitic vandalism supposedly orchestrated by the KGB. Jake and his German counterpart, Heinz Fischer, discover instead a nongovernmental German-Israeli conspiracy to avert Russian aggression through threatened use of hidden nuclear warheads. Expected conflicts due to Jake's background arise, but fail to add needed depth or poignancy of character. Disappointingly uncomplicated and unconvincing. Rex E. Klett, Anson Cty. Lib., Wadesboro, N.C.


Genre: Thriller

Visitors also looked at these books


Used availability for Ted Allbeury's Children of Tender Years


About Fantastic Fiction       Information for Authors