Reich,
Christopher. The Runner. Delacorte. March 2000. c448p. ISBN:
0-385-33366-8. $26.95. Fiction.
Bestselling author Reich (Numbered Account) takes us back
to post-World War II Germany in an historical thriller
of the highest order. Attorney Devlin Judge, in Europe
as a member of the International Military Tribunal
to try the leaders of the Third Reich, is consumed
instead by his desire to find Erich Seyss, the SS Major
who cold-bloodedly murdered Judge’s older brother. Seyss, a former
Olympic sprinter known as the White Lion, has escaped from a POW camp and has
a mission of his own—an assassination plot that will disrupt Allied plans
for the political future of Germany and the European continent. Judge soon discovers
that other Americans are assisting the fugitive and that their treason extends
to the highest levels of the military. Reich offers many pleasures, among them
a masterful recreation of a past milieu, an engrossing story, and compelling
characters of remarkable depth and complexity. Highly recommended.