Kanon, Joseph

In 1945 Istanbul, American undercover agent Leon Bauer's attempt to save a life leads to a desperate manhunt, a game of shifting loyalties, and an unexpected love affair.

Alex Meier, a young Jewish writer, fled his native Berlin, Germany, before World War II, but when McCarthyism threatens his new life in America in 1948, Alex makes a desperate bargain with the CIA: he will go back to Berlin and act as their agent in the political hotspot as a way of earning his way back to his new home and family. But almost immediately, things start to go wrong, and Alex finds himself a wanted man. Even worse, he discovers that his real mission is to spy on the woman he left behind, the only woman he has ever really loved.

Ben Collier travels to California, after returning from military service in Europe during World War II, and visits his sister-in-law to inform her that her husband, Ben's brother Danny, suffered a fall from a hotel window that later leads to his death, causing Ben to investigate who may have murdered his sibling.