L H Knickerbocker

Jockey on a Crocodile L H Knickerbocker

A romp through the espionage networks of the 1950s. Sylvester Van Zandt pens his memoirs as a Korean War hero and an early spy for the CIA. He must put aside the silver spoon of his birth to decide between the army and reform school. In the army he rediscovers his knack for languages, first demonstrated as a child in Hitler's Berlin. This leads to his becoming a hero in Korea where he crawls behind the enemy's line to steal secrets. But no hero goes unpunished. In Argentina, he infiltrates a cell of Nazi émigrés. In occupied Berlin he eavesdrops on the Russians and lures a KGB colonel to defect. In Paris, he uncovers a plot to assassinate de Gaulle. They are impossible tasks for most men, but Sylvester Van Zandt is not most men. In the kaleidoscopic world of spying, nothing is as it seems. There are also the Van Zandt girls. There is Molly with the infectious smile and a fascinating toy chest; Suzanne, a part-time Parisian hooker and full-time law student; and Judith Ann, a tabloid reporter who gets her story no matter what. "Irreverent, off-the-wall, and sometimes just plain wild adventure, 'Jockey on a Crocodile' is high spirited reading from cover to cover." -- Midwest Book Review