THE NAZI CONSPIRACY

Was there a fiendish scheme to assassinate three Allied leaders when they met in Tehran in 1943 to plot a decisive assault on the Third Reich?

Meltzer and Mensch, who co-authored previous volumes describing attempts to kill George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy, have adapted their 2023 edition for adults, presenting young readers with an entertaining, fast-paced yarn. Though the evidence they rely on that the featured scheme ever actually existed is at best circumstantial, they have assembled a vividly rendered historical cast. In addition to better-known figures, readers will encounter people who may be new to them, such as Mike Reilly, the harried head of the U.S. Secret Service, and Austrian Nazi commando Otto Skorzeny. The historical information presented in their broad overview of the Second World War includes Hitler’s quoted goal to “make Germany great again” and Roosevelt’s funeral, all relayed in the present tense. The account of the 1943 Tehran Conference as a meeting designed to pressure the reluctant Churchill into committing to an Allied offensive from the west in the spring of 1944 paints an engrossing picture of the complex personal and political relationships of the three world leaders. Side stories of contemporaneous events, including Skorzeny’s daring rescue of Mussolini from captivity by King Victor Emmanuel III, the assassination of key Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, and Nazi atrocities at Poland’s Majdanek concentration camp, artfully add drama and emotional intensity.

A readable blend of action and historical insight.