Neil Maresca

Appointment in Berlin Neil Maresca

"Appointment in Berlin," the first in a series of "Lucas Hamilton Spy Novels," combines the best of both historical fiction and contemporary spy drama as it weaves together the crumbling world of the Third Reich in Eastern Europe with the chaos and intrigue of post-World War II Germany. When we first meet Lucas, he is in a U. S. military hospital in West Germany recuperating from beatings sustained while he was a prisoner of the Stasi, the infamous East German secret police. How did this quiet, almost reclusive young man, one of the first selected to represent the U. S. as an Eisenhower Student Ambassador for Peace, wind up in an East German prison accused of spying and murder? It is 1957, the height of the Cold War, and Europe is awash with agents, double agents, spy networks and moles. Where, exactly, does Lucas Hamilton fit in? Is he a patriot? A spy? A sociopath, capable of killing without emotion or remorse? Or is he simply an eager young man caught up in a battle between forces he cannot control? To find the answer, we must turn the clock back to 1944, where 10-year old young Lucas and his family must find a way to survive in Nazi-controlled, war-torn Budapest.