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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br><p>Karl Baier is the CIA's deputy chief of station in Vienna, 1955. As the Allies prepare to return Austria's independence, the body of an Austrian aristocrat surfaces. Baier is asked to investigate. </p><p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p>Eight years into his career with the CIA, Karl Baier once again finds himself on the front line of the Cold War. He is stationed in Vienna in the spring of 1955 as Austria and the four Allied Powers are set to sign the State Treaty, which will return Austria's independence, end the country's post-war occupation, and hopefully reduce tensions in the heart of Europe. But the Treaty will also establish Austrian neutrality, and many in the West fear it will secure Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe and create a permanent division.</p><p>Asked to help investigate the death of an Austrian aristocrat and Wehrmacht veteran, Baier discovers an ambitious plan not only to block the State Treaty, but also to subvert Soviet rule in lands of the old Hapsburg Empire. Then Baier's wife is kidnapped, and the mission becomes intensely personal. Many of his basic assumptions are challenged, and he discovers that he cannot count on loyalties, even back home in Washington, D.C. At each maddening turn in the investigation, another layer must be peeled away.</p><p>Even if Baier succeeds in rescuing his wife, he faces the unenviable task of unraveling an intricate web of intrigue that reaches far back into the complicated history of Central Europe.</p><p>Book 2 in the Cold War Thriller series, which began with Tears of Innocence.</p><p> </p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br><p>"Set in 1955, Rapp's sturdy second thriller featuring Karl Baier (after 2015's <em>Tears of Innocence</em>) finds the CIA officer stationed in Vienna as the deputy chief of station. An early morning summons from the Austrian Interior Ministry takes Baier to the banks of the Danube, where a shooting victim, an elderly man wearing an old Wehrmacht coat, has been found. Representatives of the three other occupying powers--French, British, and Russian--are already there. After examining the crime scene and concluding that the victim may be an Austrian POW recently repatriated from the Soviet Union, Baier returns home, where a mysterious Austrian visitor awaits him. The man, who won't give his name, tells Baier that the murder could have international repercussions if it turns out to be connected to the upcoming signing of a peace settlement and state treaty that will restore Austria's independence. The stranger also warns Baier that his wife, who's visiting her family near Leipzig, may be in danger. Rapp, a 35-year veteran of the CIA, fills his tale of Cold War intrigue with authentic historical detail. <em>(Dec.)"</em></p><p><em>--Publishers Weekly</em></p><p>https: //www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-60381-643-4</p><p>"An entertaining read [...] imbued with history and the global politics of the 1950s."</p><p>--The New York Journal of Books</p><p>"<em>The Hapsburg Variation</em> is a rock-solid espionage tale that will hook you from page one. This is the rare thriller, set at the leading edge of the Cold War, that's so totally authentic you are immersed in the atmosphere of the times and you might expect a young George Smiley to pop in at any moment.. A great story that keeps you on the razor s edge of tension right to the end. The book's hero, Karl Baier, is the most fascinating character of his type since Len Deighton's unnamed agent in Funeral in Berlin--a man you'll relate to even if his story takes place before you were born."</p><p>--Austin S. Camacho, author of the Hannibal Jones Mystery Series</p><br>

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