A heart-pounding and intelligent espionage novel about a Nazi war criminal who was said to be dead, the rogue CIA agent on his path, and the stunning woman connected to them both.

Seventeen years following the fall of the 3rd Reich, Max Weill has never ignored the atrocities he saw being a prisoner at Auschwitz-nor the face of Dr Otto Schramm, a camp doctor who caused Mengele on appalling tests and who delivered Max’s family towards the gas chambers. As the battle came to a close, about The Accomplice Schramm was among the many high-ranking former-Nazi officials who were able to escape Germany for brand-new lives in South America. There, leaders like Argentina’s Juan Perón gave them secure harbour and new identities.

With his lifestyle nearing its end, Potential asks his nephew Aaron Wiley-an American CIA table analyst-to complete the duty Max by no means could: to locate Otto in Argentina, catch him and bring him back again to Germany to stand trial.

Unable to distinguish allies from opponents, Aaron will ultimately have to discover not only Otto, however the boundaries of his own private morality, what lengths they are prepared to go to render justice.

‘Joseph Kanon has this corner of the literary panorama and it’s a joy to see him reassert his title with such emphatic expert’ Lee Child

‘Sensational! No one writes period fiction using the same style and suspense – not forgetting product – as Joseph Kanon’ Scott Turow

‘Kanon is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not only of le Carré and Greene but also of Orwell’ NY Times

‘Clever, devious and morally complicated’ Sunday Times

‘The perfect mix of intrigue and accurate history brought to lifestyle’ Alan Furst

‘Joseph Kanon proceeds to show that he is up there with the most effective…of spy thriller writers…Kanon writes beautifully, superbly…he’s the master of the shadows of the era’ THE CHANGING TIMES

‘The critical stock of Joseph Kanon is certainly high, and Defectors will add further lustre to his popularity…You can find pleasing echoes here of the “entertainments” of Graham Greene’ Guardian