(2022) VERY GOOD! This book had me from page 1. After almost dying from a hired hit, Patton is drawn into an effort to stop a neo-Nazi who is after a stash of gold in the Alps put there by Heinrich Himmler at the end of WWII. An implausible plot, but so well crafted I couldn't stop until the end.GOODREADS: When librarian Patton Harcourt comes under sniper fire in her rural North Carolina home, she is thrown together with professional assassin Nemo and into a web of international deceit.On the run from two German killers, Patton and Nemo discover a seventy-five-year-old Enigma message which leads them to Bletchley Park in England and a code breaker named Ruthie Drinkwater, an old flame of Patton's. Unable to complete the job of code breaking at Bletchley, the trio leaves and are pursued by the Germans, who support a white-supremacist agenda. The Germans work for Ingrid Weiss, whose grandfather was a prot g of Henrich Himmler and who is following in his footsteps.When Patton, Nemo, and Ruthie break the code, they discover a message claiming that Himmler mastered alchemy, and Patton and Nemo are incredulous but determined to stop Ingrid Weiss from obtaining limitless wealth to promote her agenda. In need of a book owned by Weiss, they travel to Munich. When they break into her home to steal the book, they find themselves in a deadly situation.Using the Enigma message, the group travels to Prague and then the Italian Alps. What they find when they arrive puts them in the crosshairs of Weiss and the Nazis, and leads to a high-stakes confrontation that will require allies from their pasts to ensure their survival.

I've read all of Charlie Lovett's books (except his earliest) and enjoyed them all. He became a must-read author for me when I finished his The Lost Book of the Grail. Lovett is a master of the literary mystery; however, The Enigma Affair is a departure for him-- an out-and-out thriller with whizzing bullets, edge-of-the-seat chases, witty repartee, and loathsome villains. I enjoyed every second of it.

The ensemble cast is excellent. It's soon apparent that Patton Harcourt is not your usual small-town North Carolina librarian, and Nemo (once you get a bit of his backstory) is one of the most sympathetic assassins you'll come across. Then there's Ruthie Drinkwater, who works at Bletchley Park; Alex Lansdowne, the owner of a very large collection of Nazi memorabilia; and Jean Simpson, a librarian who finds herself joining this motley crew after she becomes incensed over some stolen library books. As the cast grows-- each member adding an important element to the group's chances for success-- the witty dialogue between them provides laughs and lightens the darkness of the overall quest... because learning about Himmler's brand of alchemy has the power to suck all the light from a room. (On a personal note, if I thought any of the characters to be unnecessary, it was Ruthie Drinkwater, but your mileage may vary.)

If you're in the mood for a chase across Europe to save the world from chaos, hop aboard The Enigma Affair. It's too much fun to miss, and I certainly look forward to what Charlie Lovett will come up with next! ( )