The Berlin Conspiracy

November 7, 2005
Wallowing in a post–Bay of Pigs funk, ex-CIA agent Jack Teller is called out of retirement in 1963 and sent to Berlin to meet an East German agent with a message for Jack's ears only in the debut of screenwriter and former TV producer Gabbay. Jack is floored by both his contact's identity—he's his long-lost brother—and his information about a plot to kill President Kennedy during an upcoming visit to West Berlin. His dormant idealism roused, Jack delves into the conspiracy while dodging the threats of corrupt CIA higherups and falling in with colorful residents of Berlin's Cold War demimonde. Mixing cynical world-weariness with dead-pan humor and a refreshing lack of Bond-style omnicompetence (random mishaps include a nasty dog bite and a disastrous attempt to shoot off a pair of handcuffs), Jack's story is part John le Carré and part Elmore Leonard. Gabbay constructs the thriller as a dress rehearsal and what-if scenario for the actual Dallas assassination. With rogue intelligence operatives, gangsters, Texas tycoons and a mob of snipers, coverup hit men, fall guys, fall guy impersonators, and miscellaneous functionaries all jostling each other, the plot's many moving parts make the climax a virtual parody of ponderous JFK conspiracy theories. But until this odd turn, Gabbay offers a stylish thriller with an appealing hero.

June 1, 2006
Adult/High School -The nuances of the JFK assassination conspiracy theories chillingly collide with the intricacies of Cold War espionage in this well-crafted, fast-paced thriller. CIA agent Jack Teller is a hard-boiled, world-weary pragmatist who would rather be fishing in Florida but warms to the notion that fate has selected him to abort an assassination attempt in Berlin. If allowed to succeed, it could lead in a matter of minutes to all-out nuclear war and the end of the world as we know it. Teller soon finds himself in that never-never land of spies where no one is who he seems to be, and where danger lurks behind, above, below, and within every doorway. As implausible as this may sound, Gabbay does a credible job of juxtaposing his story with historically accurate but equally implausible events, namely the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the assassination in Dallas. The novel could be viewed as simply a good escapist read, but there is an enormously significant lesson at its core: in a world with stockpiles of nuclear weapons, it only takes a well-placed loose cannon or two to set us all on a course of utter destruction. That story has been told before, but it bears repeating. This is a thrilling tale with historical lessons of lasting consequences. -"Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2005
Set in June 1963 during President John F. Kennedy's visit to Berlin, Gabbay's debut is a Cold War thriller with an assassination plot that mimics Lee Harvey Oswald's successful attempt in Dallas. Jack Teller and his younger brother, Josef, were orphaned at an early age. While Josef stayed in Germany, Jack moved to America, where he later did contract work for the CIA. Now retired and living in Florida, Jack receives a call from his mentor, Sam Clay of covert operations, who gives him orders to take off for Berlin. It seems an East German colonel in the Ministry for State Security has information he will divulge only to Jack. Tough-guy Jack, whose story is narrated in noirish first person, doesn't know whom to trust when the colonel tells him about an assassination plot concocted by men within the U.S. government using a Soviet-trained assassin as the fall guy. Complications ensue until Jack saves the world from nuclear war. A tired plot saved by a few interesting characters; recommended only for larger popular fiction collections." -Ronnie H. Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson"

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.