Tango into Terror
The one thing Jenkins was proud of was his ability to perform traditional Argentinian dances. The one thing he was ashamed of was his necktie collection. Then a mysterious woman hires him to paint her living room, and Jenkins learns that it’s 1939: The world is on the brink of war, where anything can happen and probably will. He’ll discover that his capacity for hope is matched only by his penchant for whistling—and that Buenos Aires harbors secrets that literally no one knows.
Fiction/suspense
Samba into Suspense
When Simmons arrives in Rio on a photo assignment, it’s with fantasies of hearing lively music and meeting beautiful women. But it’s 1940—just last year, the world was on the brink of war. Suddenly an unemployed Turkish colonel offers him a small fortune to babysit his infant niece, and Simmons must play a dangerous game—a game called “racquetball.” When an exotic Cuban nurse cracks the German Enigma code, Simmons learns that love is fleeting, that potatoes are originally from Peru, and that there are a hundred ways to say “blackmail” in Portuguese baby-talk.
Fiction/suspense
Cha-cha into Chaos
Returning late one night from an evening of heavy drinking and light calisthenics, Franklin discovers a corpse in his hotel room. That means trouble—it’s January 15—well, actually, very late on the night of January 14, 1940. And he’s in Amsterdam, where murder is against the law, and the world is just on the other side of the brink of war. When the dead man turns out to be a popular radio optometrist, Franklin goes on the run. It will take all of his experience in typewriter repair, and his ability to flirt with an invisible Czech actress, to enable Franklin to finally begin to stop at nothing to bring a halt to the madness.
Fiction/suspense
Waltz into Wariness
Danny Foster is down and out in Madrid. He needs a job. He also needs a haircut. He gets both when a mysterious Belgian colonel hires him to deliver a “package” to a revolutionary Communist cell in Lisbon, and then gives him a pageboy. Foster’s got questions—impertinent ones, such as “What am I delivering?” and “Will it grow back?” Instead, he buys a gun, hires a car, and runs over a mysterious, beautiful, exotic, alluring Russian underwear model. The woman lives—or does she? It doesn’t matter. The world is on the brink of war, and nothing matters. Not even love.
Fiction/suspense
Fox Trot into Fear
When Martinson wakes up in a Paris hotel room, he knows only one thing: in two days, the world will still be on the brink of war. He also knows only one other thing: his room is being surveilled by an enigmatic Egyptian soccer team. Then he meets Olga, a beautiful, mysterious Russian diplomat named Olga. Suddenly the police want him for questioning, an American “businessman” approaches him about “business,” and Martinson must learn to play a deadly game that no one, not even the victor, can win.
Fiction/suspense
