Treason & Triumph

by Bonnie Toews

A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY IS TRAPPED IN THE BIGGEST DOUBLE CROSS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR. Lady Catherine Rushmore’s life is shattered on the night of her concert performance in Berlin, when she witnesses SS thugs trash Jewish homes and brutally murder a baby on Kristal Nacht—the Night of Broken Glass. With her is hard-boiled journalist, Marla Franklin, who sketches rather than photographs the horrors surrounding them. Catherine is ashamed that they don’t do anything to stop the cruelty they witness and joins Churchill’s secret group, formed to prevent Hitler from producing the first atomic bomb. While Catherine can’t forget the golden SS officer she has left behind in Berlin, Marla falls in love with the agent training to sabotage the heavy water supply the Nazis are producing in Norway for their nuclear labs in Denmark and Germany. Though the heavy water supply is blown up, someone on the team betrays the agent Marla loves, and the SS executes him in Norway. But Hitler can still beat the Allies because Dr. Holbak in Denmark can show the Nazis how to unlock the atom’s chain reaction in time to produce the first atomic bomb. To get the physicist to defect to London, Churchill and King George VI decide to send in the one person the nuclear scientist trusts most—Catherine, the king’s cousin. Both leaders believe she is the only one who can convince Holbak to hand over his atomic formulas to the Allies. When Marla discovers Catherine’s mission has also been betrayed, she impersonates her and is captured instead. Once the Gestapo realizes it has been tricked, however, the hunt to find the king’s cousin begins. With the traitor still at large, the biggest double cross of the war continues, while the fate of Catherine and Marla hangs on two men who are sworn enemies.

248 pages, Paperback

First published November 5, 1997

About the author

"Bibi" and "Babu" are Swahili names for Grandma and Grandpa, and when grandparents Bonnie Toews and John Christiansen go to Central Africa, their tour guides fondly call them, Bibi and Babu. These nicknames stick, and as they share their journeys in a series of armchair adventures to faraway lands, they introduce you to countries and people who live in different worlds from the one you know. Their memoirs, however, are not meant to be travel guides. They are meant for adults and children to read and discuss together. Bonnie and John believe: "Reading with your child or grandchild not only entertains them, it can strengthen the bonds between you. We also want to encourage everyone to sideline you from living to your fullest capacity." While in Africa in 2013, John climbed up Mount Kilimanjaro when he was 77-years-old. At the time he was the second oldest man to reach the top of the second tallest mountain in the world.