"What I am looking for--what I desperately need, Mrs. Weiss--is a spy."
Adolf Hitler is still a distant rumble on the horizon, but a Jewish spymaster and his courageous spies uncover a storm of Nazi terror in their own backyard.
In the summer of 1933, a man named Adolf Hitler is the new and powerful anti-Semitic chancellor of Germany. But in Los Angeles, no-nonsense secretary Liesl Weiss has concerns much closer to home. The Great Depression is tightening its grip and Liesl is the sole supporter of two children, an opinionated mother, and a troubled brother.
Leon Lewis is a Jewish lawyer who has watched Adolf Hitler's rise to power--and the increase in anti-Semitism in America--with growing alarm. He believes Nazi agents are working to seize control of Hollywood, the greatest propaganda machine the world has ever known. The trouble is, authorities scoff at his dire warnings.
When Liesl loses her job at MGM, her only choice is to work with Leon Lewis and the mysterious Agent Thirteen to spy on her friends and neighbors in her German American community. What Leon Lewis and his spies find is more chilling--and more dangerous--than any of them suspected.
Code Name Edelweiss is based on a true story, unknown until recent years: How a lone Jewish lawyer and a handful of amateur spies discovered and foiled Adolf Hitler's plan to take over Hollywood.
Industry Reviews
Amateur spies attempt to foil a 1933 Nazi plot in this high-voltage thriller from Landsem (In A Far Off Land). After German-born single mother Liesl Weiss is fired from her secretarial job at MGM Studios, she's desperate to find work to support her children. Her search leads her to Leon Lewis, a Jewish attorney, who offers her handsome pay to spy on the Friends of New Germany, an organization he suspects is plotting against American Jews. Despite her misgivings, Liesl is driven by her Christian sense of morality to accept the offer. Soon, Leon, Liesl, and the mysterious Agent Thirteen uncover Joseph Goebbels's plan to transform Hollywood into a Nazi propaganda machine. As they work to foil the plot, Liesl confronts fears for her own (and her children's) safety; guilt at hiding her double life from her family; and latent sorrow over her policeman husband's disappearance two years earlier. It adds up to a riveting spy story and a nuanced look at the way religion can either justify prejudice or fuel moral action. Liesl's adventures will keep readers hooked to the last page. (Mar.)--Publishers Weekly
