Iron Curtain: Lies and Spies is author Gary Kidney’s enthralling sequel to his well-regarded debut, The Eagle Scout Picture. Picking up the story in 1946, the novel explores the post-war dynamic of cleaning up the remains of Nazi Germany and accepting the new Cold War order of tension between the U.S. and Russia and the race to lay claim to nuclear weapons.

The protagonist is Fred Brown/Zelly Zellner, a Texas man diagnosed with schizophrenia who spies for the allies during WWII as SS officer Zellner. Postwar, he’s recruited by the OSS intelligence service, now evolving into the CIA, to return to Berlin to stop the Russians from gaining atomic warfare secrets.

Kidney emphasizes the psychological toll of deep-cover espionage. His protagonist, now thrust into the murky, paranoia-fueled landscape of postwar Europe, finds himself caught in a nuclear cat-and-mouse game behind Soviet lines. Where the first book established a foundation of wartime survival, this installment shifts the focus to the complexities of a divided world.

Kidney is a terrific writer and master of pacing who researches deep historical details that lend the book authenticity and accuracy. But the most fascinating aspect of both books is the main character, who Kidney purposefully depicts as constantly switching identities, whether he’s an American officer working with Russians in the name of postwar cooperation, or a former SS officer returning to Germany and eventually following his mission across Europe to South America. As Kidney writes in one scene where Brown/Zellner excuses himself to take a phone call, “When Zelly hung up, he took a couple of minutes to compose himself. Fred came back to the porch.”

Chockfull of intrigue, betrayal, seduction, tension and violence, the novel is a perfect read for fans of espionage, high-stake politics and history, or the works of John le Carré and Graham Greene. The author notes at the end that he envisions four more books in this series. Fans can hardly wait.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.