FORGOTTEN BOOK: CODE OF ARMS

 Code of Arms by Lawrence Block & Harold King, 1981

When Lawrence Block set out to write a World War Ii spy thriller he found himself a bit over his head and thriller writer Harold King was eventually asked to come on board as a co-author.  The result is a detailed and historically accurate (as much as possible for a work of fiction) account that both explains why Hitler never invaded England and why Rudolph Hess tried to broker a peace deal with England without Hitler's knowledge.   Not a typical Lawrence Block book by any means but still chockful of what you would expect from him:  deft characterization, tight plotting, rapid pacing, and a great read.

One of Germany's greatest weapons was the unbreakable Enigma coding machine.  But in a top-secret effort the British have broken the Enigma code.  and now they must do everything they can to prevent the Germans from learning that their code has been broken.  Enter James Carstairs, a totally ruthless and driven man placed in charge of not letting the Germans know that Enigma had been broken.  the British have been selectively using the information they have gathered, but the fear is that the Germans may soon suspect that their enigma messages were no longer safe.  Carstairs set up a phony network of spies in order make the Germans assume that the captured information had come from a high-ranking Nazi collaborator rather than from Enigma.  The Nazi they picked for their unwitting foil was Rudolph Hess, the third in the Nazi government and a close friend of Hitler.  The people chosen for Carstairs' network would have no idea that the network was phony and no idea that they were immanently expendable.

American Ted Campbell was an avowed neutral although he had close ties to both England and Germany.  The son of a famed World War I fighting Ace and now the owner of Campbell Aircraft, with main offices and manufacturing facilities in Germany, he has had a personal relationship with many of the Third Reich's top leaders -- not realizing the he was being used as a useful idiot.  With the death of his father, Ted has assumed a mostly administrative role in the company, waiting for the endless paperwork fostered by the German government to be finished so that he can assume control of his company.  Because of the war,  his two major manufacturing plants have been closed...or so he thinks.  Actually they are being used to secretly supply the Luftwaffe with Campbell airplane motors for the German war effort.  It is only when he discovers that a German plane that had crashed into a British estate. killing his fiancee. had been outfitted with a Campbell engine that Ted realizes he had been a dupe.  Ted is recruited by Carstairs and now must navigate dangerous German political waters without truly what his true purpose in this game was.

Johann Regenhauer is a bloodless, psychopathic SS officer wanting to advance his career.  He is charged by Reinhardt Heydrich to investigate rumors of a group of spies working with someone in the fourth Reich.  He does this in thez bloodiest, most ruthless way possible.  Getting only bits and pieces of the plot through torture, Reganhauer soon determines wrongly that Campbell is intricately involved, b ut he must tread carefully because Campbell is friendly with the still powerful Hess.

Hess, meanwhile, while remaining loyal to his friend Hitler and to Germany, feels that it is a grave error for Germany to invade England.  The true enemy is Russia.  If he can somehow arrange for England to join with Germany in attacking Russia, it would be a glorious victory for Hitler.

Kate Buchanan, is an American war correspondent broadcasting from Germany, well-liked because her reporting has caused no problems with the German censors.  She was once a lover of Ted Campbell, but later married a Communist sympathizer; he husband was killed in the Spanish Civil War and Kate has become allied with an offshoot Communist group working in Germany.  Ted learns that the group will soon be targeted by the Gestapo and, fearing for Kate, urges her to leave; when he tries to leave, her former allies try to blow her up, leaving her permanently blind.  Ted's feelings for Kate resurface and she becomes a pawn in the game between him and Reganhauer.

Meanwhile Ted has to try to stop Germany's planned invasion of England and has get an unwitting Hess to Scotland and into the hands of the British...

A finely-wrought thriller.

Block's co-author, Harold King, was best known for his novel Paradigm Red, which was made into the 11977 television film Red Alert.  His other novels include The Task Master, Closing Ceremonies, and Hahnemann Sequela.  

Code of Arms received only one printing from ists publisher, although the publisher evidently released an eBook version that same year (1981).  It was reprinted once in paperback by Berkley in 1982.  It has not been reprinted since.  It is one of only a few of Block novels that he has not reprinted under his own imprint, LB Books.  In terms of page count, it remains Block's second longest novel, coming in at 441 pages to Small Town's 448 pages.

This may not be the Block you are used to but it is a captivating and thrilling read.