What do you think?
Rate this book
The Thyssen Affair
New York City, Saturday, September 27, 1980 Cane Eliot knew he was being followed before he reached the shuttle to Lufthansa for his overnight flight to Germany. It was the same thing that made the skin on the back of his neck crawl during the war when something was wrong. Making a quick decision to try to lose who ever was tailing him, he called Lufthansa and cancelled his flight. Taking a taxi downtown, the shadow still with him, he got out at Rockefeller Center, slipped through the restaurant near the skating rink to the subway. Finding the small hotel he had known in the Village thirty years earlier and paying for the day, he carried the valise, and entered the elevator. At the fifth floor he left the elevator, ran down two flights and into the men s room at the end of the hall. He had to change his appearance and do it fast. The Stetson had to go. He stowed it deep in a swing-top garbage can, pulled off his boots and dropped them after the hat. Goddamn bloody shame to leave such old friends! For a minute he considered retrieving the rattle snake hat band, but thought better of it. It takes years for a hat and boots to conform to a man s own brand. Well, hell, I ll just have to start over in Colorado when this damn mess is finished. He opened the valise and pulled out his straight-edged razor. Peering intently at his reflection, and twisting his lips first one way and then another he shaved off his moustache. Name of the game. To lose your identity is part of it. He ran his finger across his smooth upper lip and down the scar across his cheek. That brought back memories of the war that he d just as soon forget. It is also as positive an identification as a set of fingerprints. Changing into the gray suit, white dress shirt, knotting the blue silk tie, putting on the black oxfords he d seldom worn except to funerals, he shook his head. The unfamiliar clothes made him feel awkward and uncomfortable. But a quick glance in the mirror, adjusting his tie and smoothing his vest Cane admitted that a suit made a hell of a difference in appearance. Securing the German skull with his jeans, jacket and cowboy shirt in the valise, he cursed under his breath. The satchel was a dead giveaway. But it couldn t be helped. How the devil had he been spotted so soon? Who was following? It must have been the man who passed him on the road to Cummings. Who was he? Well, for Christ sake, he had to be KGB and that meant the Russians knew they had the wrong skull. It meant too, that they could move pretty damn fast. He opened his billfold, cut up his credit cards with the Lapis knife and buried them in the trash. That was a big mistake using credit cards in Oklahoma City. He wracked his brain. Was there anything else to connect him with Cane Eliot? God, yes! The plane ticket from Denver to New York had been in his name! He had been out of it too long. Peter had made a goddamn poor choice for a Company man. Shape up, Cane! This isn t as simple as Peter had thought. He opened the door slowly, satisfied he was alone, walked briskly down the hall. The damn valise. It has to be gotten rid of. Taking the stairs again, this time to the basement he left through the alley door, walked several blocks, took a cab to a small residential hotel he remembered in the Bronx. The lobby was empty. He rang for the clerk and in a heavy German accent asked for a room and signed the register Wilhelm Swartz. Well, by God that ought to take care of any snoopers! He immediately called the number that would locate Peter and briefed him about the tail that had followed him from Oklahoma City. But not about his carelessness. He d rather Peter didn t know about his getting a plane ticket to New York from Colorado via Oklahoma City in his own name. And then to rent a car My God!
- GenresFiction
460 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
7 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 30, 2010
This was originally reviewed on my blog, Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing
**Warning: This review contains more spoilers than normal. Most of the spoilers listed happen within the first 60 pages or so, but it does give a lot more information than the blurb.**
The Thyssen Affair by Mozelle Richardson is a spy thriller set in 1980. Our hero is Canyon (Cane) Eliot, a retired CIA agent in his late 50s who owns a ranch in Colorado. Peter, a surrogate son, and active member of the CIA contacts him with a job. The Russians have dug up the skull of an unimportant major buried in a WWII POW cemetery in Oklahoma and 'we' don't know why. The CIA was able to intercept the package before it reached Zurich, and now they are trying to determine the importance of the skull, and keep it away from the Russians.
At first, Cane refuses. He is retired, comfortable, and has no desire to reenter the job at his age. Peter manages to convince him he is a necessary part of this picture and the only one capable of completing it. Cane's family roots are German, and he spent a lot of time growing up in Germany. As a result, Cane speaks flawless German, looks German, and knows his way around much of Germany. They need Cane to go to Germany, posing as a German soldier to contact the widow of 'the skull' to find any clue as to why the Russians want it bad enough to dig it up after 30+ years in the ground. Add to this an assortment of Russian spies, a legendary Israeli spy and a huge Nazi conspiracy and we've got ourselves a thriller.
I generally really enjoy the thriller/suspense/conspiracy genre. I love reading a book that makes my pulse rate jump, my adrenaline flow and keeps me awake at night because I'm so invested in the story. This book didn't deliver any of that. It's supposed to be suspenseful and intense but I spent more time being bored or disbelieving than captivated. Now let me tell you why.
For starters, the bad guys were the Russians and the Nazis. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting awfully tired of the bad guys always being Russian. You see it all the time in books, movies and television. I almost feel like every time I turn around, it's another Russian. I do understand that this book takes place in 1980, which is during the Cold War. So, it makes sense that the CIA's attitude is (and I quote) "...if the Russians want it then by God so do we!" But still. Really? It just felt a little bit ridiculous to me. And seriously... Does it always have to be the Russians?! But wait! Even better than Russians, we also have a secret underground Nazi organization devoted to helping former SS agents return to Germany and start new lives. How do they do this? By using the millions and millions of dollars worth of stolen Jewish treasure.
The Russians know that the skull does not truly belong to Major Von Stober, but really Otto Thyssen, BFF to Hitler himself. (Hitler was best man at his wedding.) So, it makes sense that Hitler left Thyssen in control of the finances. He was in charge of, and responsible for a large portion of the treasures stolen from the Jews. He had an Italian dentist plant a micro-dot treasure map in his tooth. Let me interject here briefly, because I have a few problems with this idea. First, I don't know how accurate the idea of a 1940s micro anything technology is. Was there really the technology to do this back then? Even if this technology was possible, I don't know that. All I know is that micro technology is supposed to be relatively new tech. But more importantly, if Thyssen knew where the treasure was headed, or had put it there himself, why on earth would he bother planting a chip into the bones in his skull?! Seriously! He already knew where he needed to go! It just felt illogical to me and, considering that this is the basis for the story, I was a little leery.
Then, you have the spies. So many spies! Seriously! We have the ex-CIA agent. He's in his late 50s and continually remarks that he's just too old for this stuff, and yet... he somehow manages to outsmart, out fight and just plain out do every one, every time. Next, we have Anya. She's a beautiful KGB agent, pretty high up the chain. She's important. But, she isn't very good... Oh, and you can catch where this connection is headed within the first few chapters. Cane's reaction to meeting her makes it pretty obvious. Anya also have several friends that we meet throughout the duration of the novel, there to help and/or protect Anya. I won't tell you who they are, or what real role they take, because I don't want to spoil too much of the story, we also have the undercover Nazis. They make several appearances as well. But, as if that isn't enough right there, we also have a super hard core Israeli tailing Cane who is also interested in the treasure. But, he wants to reclaim it for the people (the Jews) that it was stolen from. In case you missed it, that's a lot of spies in one story.
Overall, this book wasn't awful, but it wasn't amazing either. I'm not sorry that I read it but I doubt I will be picking it up again.
**Warning: This review contains more spoilers than normal. Most of the spoilers listed happen within the first 60 pages or so, but it does give a lot more information than the blurb.**
The Thyssen Affair by Mozelle Richardson is a spy thriller set in 1980. Our hero is Canyon (Cane) Eliot, a retired CIA agent in his late 50s who owns a ranch in Colorado. Peter, a surrogate son, and active member of the CIA contacts him with a job. The Russians have dug up the skull of an unimportant major buried in a WWII POW cemetery in Oklahoma and 'we' don't know why. The CIA was able to intercept the package before it reached Zurich, and now they are trying to determine the importance of the skull, and keep it away from the Russians.
At first, Cane refuses. He is retired, comfortable, and has no desire to reenter the job at his age. Peter manages to convince him he is a necessary part of this picture and the only one capable of completing it. Cane's family roots are German, and he spent a lot of time growing up in Germany. As a result, Cane speaks flawless German, looks German, and knows his way around much of Germany. They need Cane to go to Germany, posing as a German soldier to contact the widow of 'the skull' to find any clue as to why the Russians want it bad enough to dig it up after 30+ years in the ground. Add to this an assortment of Russian spies, a legendary Israeli spy and a huge Nazi conspiracy and we've got ourselves a thriller.
I generally really enjoy the thriller/suspense/conspiracy genre. I love reading a book that makes my pulse rate jump, my adrenaline flow and keeps me awake at night because I'm so invested in the story. This book didn't deliver any of that. It's supposed to be suspenseful and intense but I spent more time being bored or disbelieving than captivated. Now let me tell you why.
For starters, the bad guys were the Russians and the Nazis. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting awfully tired of the bad guys always being Russian. You see it all the time in books, movies and television. I almost feel like every time I turn around, it's another Russian. I do understand that this book takes place in 1980, which is during the Cold War. So, it makes sense that the CIA's attitude is (and I quote) "...if the Russians want it then by God so do we!" But still. Really? It just felt a little bit ridiculous to me. And seriously... Does it always have to be the Russians?! But wait! Even better than Russians, we also have a secret underground Nazi organization devoted to helping former SS agents return to Germany and start new lives. How do they do this? By using the millions and millions of dollars worth of stolen Jewish treasure.
The Russians know that the skull does not truly belong to Major Von Stober, but really Otto Thyssen, BFF to Hitler himself. (Hitler was best man at his wedding.) So, it makes sense that Hitler left Thyssen in control of the finances. He was in charge of, and responsible for a large portion of the treasures stolen from the Jews. He had an Italian dentist plant a micro-dot treasure map in his tooth. Let me interject here briefly, because I have a few problems with this idea. First, I don't know how accurate the idea of a 1940s micro anything technology is. Was there really the technology to do this back then? Even if this technology was possible, I don't know that. All I know is that micro technology is supposed to be relatively new tech. But more importantly, if Thyssen knew where the treasure was headed, or had put it there himself, why on earth would he bother planting a chip into the bones in his skull?! Seriously! He already knew where he needed to go! It just felt illogical to me and, considering that this is the basis for the story, I was a little leery.
Then, you have the spies. So many spies! Seriously! We have the ex-CIA agent. He's in his late 50s and continually remarks that he's just too old for this stuff, and yet... he somehow manages to outsmart, out fight and just plain out do every one, every time. Next, we have Anya. She's a beautiful KGB agent, pretty high up the chain. She's important. But, she isn't very good... Oh, and you can catch where this connection is headed within the first few chapters. Cane's reaction to meeting her makes it pretty obvious. Anya also have several friends that we meet throughout the duration of the novel, there to help and/or protect Anya. I won't tell you who they are, or what real role they take, because I don't want to spoil too much of the story, we also have the undercover Nazis. They make several appearances as well. But, as if that isn't enough right there, we also have a super hard core Israeli tailing Cane who is also interested in the treasure. But, he wants to reclaim it for the people (the Jews) that it was stolen from. In case you missed it, that's a lot of spies in one story.
Overall, this book wasn't awful, but it wasn't amazing either. I'm not sorry that I read it but I doubt I will be picking it up again.
November 27, 2010
Not having read a lot of spy stories, as that is not my favorite genre, I was not prepared to like the book let alone finish it. I was pleasantly surprised that I did like it and did finish it. This is a past paced novel about the theft of a skull that is believed to hold secrets as to the whereabouts of the treasures that were hidden from the Nazi's in WWII. There are all sorts of spies here, from US CIA, Germany, Russian KGB and the Israeli Mossad. A story about an aging CIA retired operative who is asked to do an investigation in Munich. Cane Eliot is a retired OSS WWII agent who would much rather stay at his Colorado ranch then do what is asked of him. He is convinced to do this mission, where he comes across all sorts of characters, good and bad, who are after the secrets of the skull that Cane has. This mission takes him all over Europe in a very deadly game of cat and mouse in which Cane could be very easily killed, and almost is. This is a fast paced, full of intrigue story and well researched. Interestingly enough this is a story that takes place in 1980 with no computers or cell phones .If you like a good spy story than this one is for you
January 11, 2011
Vietnam veteran turned CIA Agent & Ex-OSS WWII Agent Eliot Cane uses many different names
for this new mission which takes him from Colorado on Sept. 1980 to Munich.
The Russians have stolen the skull of Major Heinrich Von Stober which has a microfil in a tooth (Hitler's Officer's main liaison to Mussolini)
who died in 1945. When the Americans found out about it they exchanged the skull in the transportation process.
Now Canes has to bring the skull to Munich to one man,
He meets a KGB woman agent that tails him to find the skull, and they get close.
Now the Russians and the Israeli Mossed Special Group are trying to get their hands on the skull whatever the cost. Then Cane finds out that the skull does not belong to Heinrich Von Stober but it belongs to Thyssen and if they're right, he could still be alive. So new mission for Cane, find Thyssen and the treasure.
He leaves for Alpendorf and then to Rimini in Italy.
Cane's life is in danger.
What will happen to the skull?
Will he make it out alive?
I love the way this book is written, straight to the point and very simply.
Fantastic ending.
for this new mission which takes him from Colorado on Sept. 1980 to Munich.
The Russians have stolen the skull of Major Heinrich Von Stober which has a microfil in a tooth (Hitler's Officer's main liaison to Mussolini)
who died in 1945. When the Americans found out about it they exchanged the skull in the transportation process.
Now Canes has to bring the skull to Munich to one man,
He meets a KGB woman agent that tails him to find the skull, and they get close.
Now the Russians and the Israeli Mossed Special Group are trying to get their hands on the skull whatever the cost. Then Cane finds out that the skull does not belong to Heinrich Von Stober but it belongs to Thyssen and if they're right, he could still be alive. So new mission for Cane, find Thyssen and the treasure.
He leaves for Alpendorf and then to Rimini in Italy.
Cane's life is in danger.
What will happen to the skull?
Will he make it out alive?
I love the way this book is written, straight to the point and very simply.
Fantastic ending.
July 13, 2011
This book was highly reminiscent of the wealth of spy vs. spy stories that abounded during the Cold War. An ex-OSS operative is pulled out of retirement by his deceased son’s best friend. The interplay between the KGB, CIA, Nazis and the Mossad provide the grist for this mill.
Canyon Eliot was highly entertaining as the multi-talented, loveable and ruthless retiree returning to the fray. It may be a reflection of my own age but it was satisfying to have an older protagonist kicking butt. The Cold War setting may be hard to swallow for the younger readers. It seems like purely speculative fiction unless you are an age to have experienced the stresses of the Cold War. Anya was well portrayed as a woman who strove to succeed in a career predominantly peopled by males with testosterone issues.
I thought the story idea was good and the plot well thought out. I did feel that the ending was a bit abrupt. I think another 20 or 30 pages would have enabled a more “meaty” conclusion. Overall I really enjoyed the book.
I recommend the book.
Canyon Eliot was highly entertaining as the multi-talented, loveable and ruthless retiree returning to the fray. It may be a reflection of my own age but it was satisfying to have an older protagonist kicking butt. The Cold War setting may be hard to swallow for the younger readers. It seems like purely speculative fiction unless you are an age to have experienced the stresses of the Cold War. Anya was well portrayed as a woman who strove to succeed in a career predominantly peopled by males with testosterone issues.
I thought the story idea was good and the plot well thought out. I did feel that the ending was a bit abrupt. I think another 20 or 30 pages would have enabled a more “meaty” conclusion. Overall I really enjoyed the book.
I recommend the book.
October 18, 2010
I was not sure what to look forward to when I received “The Thyssen Affair” this bright blue book with red letters a bit intimidating. At a glance I did not want to read the book I felt like I was back in school and it was part of an assignment but, I decided to give it a try.
If you take pleasure in World War II, Spy and Mystery books “The Thyssen Affair” is a good book for you to pick up. I found 460 pages to be to long since I did not want to read it but, you may not find this to be an issue if you like that sort of genre. The characters are well written, the story moves at a stable pace. I'm not a fan of spy stories. The type/font in this book is extremely simple. The plot is good and I think anyone who loves a good spy novel would enjoy it.
I apologize if this review was not what you expected but, it’s not my cup of tea. I decided to finish the book since I’m the kind of person that doesn’t like to leave things half done but, this was really not my kind of read.
Review link: http://www.onceuponatwilight.com/2010...
If you take pleasure in World War II, Spy and Mystery books “The Thyssen Affair” is a good book for you to pick up. I found 460 pages to be to long since I did not want to read it but, you may not find this to be an issue if you like that sort of genre. The characters are well written, the story moves at a stable pace. I'm not a fan of spy stories. The type/font in this book is extremely simple. The plot is good and I think anyone who loves a good spy novel would enjoy it.
I apologize if this review was not what you expected but, it’s not my cup of tea. I decided to finish the book since I’m the kind of person that doesn’t like to leave things half done but, this was really not my kind of read.
Review link: http://www.onceuponatwilight.com/2010...
August 20, 2010
I wanted to like this novel a lot more than I did. Filled with spies, secrets, and chases that span continents, this book is filled with action. There was something that just did not click with me. The characters seemed stiff and awkward. Many people have a predetermined thought of how spies are supposed to act, and Canyon did not fill this role at all. Some of this may have to do with the fact that Cane is an older spy, which is mentioned several times throughout the book.
One thing in particular that I did not like occured mostly when Cane was in Germany. He mentioned so many specific towns, cities, other places, that it was hard to concentrate on the actual plot. I can probably name not even three cities in Germany, so this information was entirely useless for me. It gave me no picture for the setting and left me more confused than ever.
One thing in particular that I did not like occured mostly when Cane was in Germany. He mentioned so many specific towns, cities, other places, that it was hard to concentrate on the actual plot. I can probably name not even three cities in Germany, so this information was entirely useless for me. It gave me no picture for the setting and left me more confused than ever.
August 22, 2010
I love spy novels. I read my first one in Junior High and have considered espionage one of my favorite genres. I don't regret having read The Thyssen Affair, but I'm not terribly excited about having done so, either.
If I've learned anything from The Thyssen Affair, it's that too many spies spoil the plot. There are a lot of spies here. Their side, our side, and some other countries heard from, all chasing a Hitchcockian McGuffin.
I did appreciate that the story was not set in current time, as several of the plot elements required an earlier timeframe. Element might not be the right word. I ended up with plot-twist whiplash.
And I'm not big on deus ex machina endings.
Don't get me wrong, I had fun reading this book, but it could have been a good spy story, rather than an adequate one.
If I've learned anything from The Thyssen Affair, it's that too many spies spoil the plot. There are a lot of spies here. Their side, our side, and some other countries heard from, all chasing a Hitchcockian McGuffin.
I did appreciate that the story was not set in current time, as several of the plot elements required an earlier timeframe. Element might not be the right word. I ended up with plot-twist whiplash.
And I'm not big on deus ex machina endings.
Don't get me wrong, I had fun reading this book, but it could have been a good spy story, rather than an adequate one.
December 3, 2011
Couldn't finish it. Got within 10 pages of the end and just couldn't pick it up again. This book should be in my sweet spot - Cold War, Mossad, CIA, KGB, Munich, etc. But the clunky characters and silly plotline just didn't cut it. Many times I thought, why continue, but for some reason I did...
July 24, 2010
Couldn't finish...find out why here:
http://idsoratherbereading.blogspot.c...
http://idsoratherbereading.blogspot.c...
October 21, 2010
Not my kind of read but, if you like reading about spies you'll enjoy this book.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews