The Nude On The Cigarette Case

by Regis McCafferty

December 1939. Nighttime Manhattan. Snow mixed with rain. Two shots ring out in an alley. Max Grant, private investigator, two double bourbons under his belt, enters the alley to investigate. A man, two bullets in his chest, dying, paws at his coat pocket. His only words are, "Find the nude on the cigarette case" Grant removes the cigarette case, looks at the picture, pockets it, then calls to bystanders to get the police. Curiosity, even without a client, prompts him to investigate and leads him into the murky sphere of activity that surrounds the beginnings of the atom bomb. The war in Europe is public, but something else was going on, quietly, behind the scenes, never making headlines in major newspapers or news programs on radio. Walter Lippman doesn't write about it and Edward R. Murrow never mentions it in his CBS news broadcasts. That something is the exchange of nuclear fission information between mathematicians and physicists in the Unites States, England, and Europe. In 1939 that information exchange has diminished in volume between the western scientific communities and those under German control and influence, most notably Denmark and Norway. Sarah Bennett, the nude on the cigarette case, has been kidnapped and is being held in the Redhook area of New York by German agents. Bennett, a scientist, travels Europe under the guise of an art dealer but is also the conduit for shared information between scientists in Nazi dominated Europe and those in the United States. And Max Grant, in love with a photo on a cigarette case, is just the guy to go looking for her"

268 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 2013

Reviews

[Scott Diane]

Regis McCafferty's novels are simply put, fun for the pipe smoker! They are not superb literature and often the story is not the most original, yet they are well written, enjoyable and with plenty of pipe-smoking details. Would recommend to any pipe smoker looking for a fun escape from reality.

[Tom]

Enjoyable thriller, that although is a bit contrived in parts is still a well put together read with a fair bit of pipe smoking in it as well as beautiful dames, Nazis and a plot to get information on American nuclear secrets during the latter period of the 1930's.