Look Long into the Abyss

The Third Reich is collapsing. The rules have changed. There are no rules.  

Nazi Germany, 1945. Hitler Youth on suicide missions...old men hanged for desertion ...marauding slave laborers...homeless Germans clogging roads...and looted art hidden everywhere.

As Hitler's Germany thrashes in its death throes, Lt. Gina Cortazzo follows close behind the American front to rescue art stolen by the Nazis. Her success awaits the capture of Alt Aussee, the salt mine where the thousands of stolen masterpieces in Hitler's private collection are hidden.

But SS Brigadeführer Reinhard Hofmann is also heading there with his crack forces, on his way to establish a final fortress where Nazism can hold out. And he is ready to carry out the Führer's final order: destroy the entire collection, should it be in danger of falling into enemy hands.

Look Long into the Abyss paints a chilling and vivid picture of the last days of World War II. The cast of characters includes Sgt. Bill Terrill, who saves Gina's life as they cross paths with suicidal Hitlerjugend; Frieda, the mother of a Hitler Youth fighting with Hofmann; Stanislaus, the Polish slave laborer with whom Frieda and her daughter form an unlikely alliance; and Father Hieronymus, the abbot whose monastery harbors more than one dangerous secret.

Throughout the chaos, Raphael's Portrait of a Young Man weaves a spell. Thieved from thieves, lost then found, the priceless work alters the lives of Frieda, Stanislaus, and Gina...and others caught in the maelstrom.