WOLF'S MOUTH, by John Smolens.

As a long-time fan of John Smolens' fiction, I was extremely pleased to learn he had a new novel. Smolens is a master of the suspense thriller in its most literary form. He has demonstrated his mastery of this milieu in several of his previous works, most notably in THE INVISIBLE WORLD and COLD. The former was set in his native New England, the latter in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where Smolens has lived and worked for many years as a professor at Northern Michigan University in Marquette.

WOLF'S MOUTH is Smolens' tenth book and in it he returns to top form, as well as to the northern Michigan setting so chillingly and effectively used in COLD. Smolens' interest in historical fiction (see THE ANARCHIST, THE SCHOOLMASTER'S DAUGHTER and QUARANTINE) also plays a major part, with a story that spans nearly five decades, from the final years of the Second World War all the way up into the early nineties, moving from a POW camp in Au Train, downstate to Detroit, to a war crime tribunal in Germany, and back again to the Upper Peninsula. The story is narrated by Francesco Verdi, an Italian Army officer who flees Au Train to escape execution secretly ordered by Colonel Vogel, the despotic ranking German POW who continues to adhere to the orders of his Fuhrer, ruling his fellow prisoners with an iron fist. Verdi is aided in his escape by a beautiful young woman from nearby Munising, Chiara Frangiapani. The two make their way south, working briefly at a farm near Grayling (where they narrowly escape capture), before ending up in Detroit. There, with the help of some sympathetic members of the American Communist Party, they obtain new identity papers and become Frank and Claire Green, model post-war citizens. Alas, the crazed Colonel Vogel is not done with them, and continues to hound them through the years, driving them north, back into hiding in the UP.

Quite aside from its gripping plot and finely-drawn characters, WOLF'S MOUTH gives us fascinating glimpses into the nearly forgotten culture of POW camps that were scattered throughout the United States during WWII. In Michigan's UP alone there were five of them, converted CCC camps, housing over a thousand prisoners. Most of them are mentioned here, as the Au Train prisoners' soccer team competed with them, even the controversial Camp Germfask, which housed American conscientious objectors ('conchies').

The book's title derives from an Italian adage involving luck, courage and thanks; but there is also a very real wolf that appears twice in the story, both times only briefly, but with chillingly symbolic overtones. It brought to mind, if fleetingly, Jim Harrison's first novel, WOLF, and his protagonist Swanson's search for a glimpse of the then-nearly-extinct animal in the rugged mountains of the UP. And the page-turning intensity of the evil Vogel's dogged pursuit of his prey for years after the war had ended reminded me of another novel, read over thirty years ago: Ira Levin's THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL.

But make no mistake. WOLF'S MOUTH is no pale imitation of anything. It is pure and vintage John Smolens, back again at the very top of his game. The pacing is superb, the suspense palpable, the characters as real as they come. This is storytelling at its best, a suspense chiller with class. I loved this book. My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )