Reviewer Mary Lignor: Mary is a retired librarian, originally from Connecticut but now living in New Mexico. All her life Mary has loved books and has passed this love on to her daughters. Mary started working in a library when her children were young as an Assistant Librarian and ended up as its Director. Her favorite books are suspense, political intrigue and anything involving the World War II era.
Author: Roberto Kusminsky
ISBN:
978-0982144343
Click Here To Purchase Counsel Of The Wicked
This wonderful book begins with a
prologue taking place in a dense forest in the Province of Misiones,
Argentina. The year is 1960. A man, Gerhardt Lesser, who
has lived in the jungle for many years is about to have his prayers
answered. This man was a master builder in Germany during World
War II and a favorite of Hitler himself. He has worked nearly
five years to build this bunker where the Reich could hide artwork
that had been stolen from the Jewish people. As the trucks
bearing this treasure started to appear, this man was faced with
another person that had come with the stolen artifacts to inspect the
hiding place.
This man, called Ricardo Klement, checked
everything out and said to Lesser "You have done good work.
Did you do this alone?" Lesser replied, "My son
helped me but he's not here now. He will be back to help put
everything in place and make a list of all contents."
Lesser was a bit unnerved by the attitude of Klement and wanted to
reach his son after he did the inventory. He had a lot to do
and started right away to inventory the artifacts. Some time
later he found out that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann had been
captured by Mossad agents.
He had been living under the alias
"Ricardo Klement." Gerhardt needed to reach his son
and tell him but, before he could, one of Ricardo's men appeared to
check the inventory. He tried to run away from Eichmann's man
and ran into the bunker, grabbed a couple of pieces of metal and
carved on the walls above the various cubicles that were holding the
art. Gerhardt knew that this was the end for him and needed to
warn his son. Gerhardt was attacked and killed by the Nazi.
The Nazi then went to open the containers and opened one after
another. He was very disappointed as the place was
empty.
And, now the fun begins!!! We move ahead to
the present day in New York City where Dr. Gerson Asher is busy at
work at the Lenox Hill Hospital.
Dr. Asher is a prominent New York
surgeon and ex-Navy SEAL who spent his adolescent years in the care
of his grandfather, Max, who lived in Argentina. One evening
Gerson receives a call from his grandfather who is very frightened
and tells him that he is flying into New York from Argentina the next
morning. Gerson sees his grandfather fatally stabbed by two men
as he comes through an arrival gate at Kennedy Airport.
Grandfather Max has a letter in his pocket with information that
sends Gerson on a dangerous mission, looking for various clues that
Max has left for him to unravel. This search will lead him on a
disturbing path from New York to Argentina on the trail of stolen
World War II artifacts, war criminals and the killers of his
grandfather. He will get help from Nicole, a geneticist from
the NY hospital who is helping to decipher the clues that Max left
behind. Also, a Rabbi's daughter, who works with an
organization of Nazi-hunters in Argentina and a couple of Mossad
agents are thrown in for good measure.
I have to say
that my very favorite author in this genre is Jack Higgins but I must
admit that, after reading Counsel of the Wicked, Mr. Kusminsky is
running a close second. This is a debut novel. Mr. or I
should say Doctor Kusminsky is a surgeon and he is of Argentinian
descent and is an excellent writer of World War II fiction and
certainly seems to have done his research well. I hung on every
page from first to last and was not surprised that he came up with a
eye-opening ending. Please do not stop here, Dr. Kusminsky.
The reading public needs books like this.