Finished: Marathon Man (Goldman) Wow, a really great, page-turning book! I can't believe there were three one-two punches not too far into the book that I didn't see coming at all! :-) As the book opens, it's the 1970's in New York, and two very old men get into their version of a road rage battle which ends in the tragic death of both of them. One of the men is in the witness protection program and is the father of Nazi Auschwitz torturer, Christian Szell, apparently second to only Mengele himself in his sadistic ways. Szell lives, hidden, in Paraguay, and whenever he needs more money for his reclusive, yet lavish, lifestyle, his father goes to the bank and cashes in a few of the millions of dollars worth of stolen diamonds that Szell smuggled from Germany and keeps in a safety deposit box in New York. Through several clandestine couriers and messengers, the money from the sale of the diamonds is put safely in Szell's hands.

:::there will be spoilers, so don't read this if you want to read the book:::

In another world all his own lives Thomas "Babe" Levy. He's a brilliant, Jewish graduate student who is working on his PhD at Columbia University in history. He is incredibly unattractive and his one hobby is long-distance running. He often fantasizes that he's racing a marathon with current world-renowned marathon runners. He has a brother Henry "Doc" Levy, who is ten years older who works in the oil business. Together, the two of them are the only two left in their family, as their mother died when they were young....and then, the tragedy that Babe can't get over....his father committed suicide when Babe was ten, because he had been falsely accused of being a communist by Joe McCarthy, and could never shake the stigma. Babe, never good with women, actually meets a beautiful Swiss woman named Elsa and falls in love with her, and she with him. He writes to Doc to let him know how happy he is and asks him to come to town and meet her. Meanwhile, we have a snippet of Elsa on the phone to someone named Erhard to whom she indicates it will be easy to make Levy fall in love with her. :-(

In a third world, we meet an American agent, Scylla, who works for "The Division", which is apparently even more super secret and covert than the CIA. Scylla is known in the business for his lethal hands. When he travels to Paris for his next job, he is attacked at night in the park by another known lethal associate, Chen. Chen has obviously been hired by someone to do away with Scylla, but why? Scylla makes quick work of Chen and gets ready for his appointment the next morning. When his reliable contact doesn't make the appointment the next day, Scylla heads to his apartment expecting to find him dead....the only thing that would keep the contact from meeting him. Scylla enters the apartment and finds him sleeping. He realizes right then that the contact didn't make the appointment because he expected Scylla not to be there, i.e., he knew about Scylla's appointment with extinction the night before. Scylla gets what information he can from his contact, and them kills him. The only piece of information that seems worthwhile? That Szell's father had been killed in an automobile accident in New York. Scylla ponders the information and then starts thinking about his lover, Janie, back home. They've been together for five years and maybe it's time he gets out of the business and they make a home in London.

Back in New York, Szell has made his way there for a short trip to try and figure out how to get his hands on his diamonds after his father's death. He is the second signer on the safety deposit box, but he's paranoid and wonders if the police or some other government agency will somehow know and be waiting to arrest him. Also, Babe and Elsa meet Doc, who has come to visit, for dinner at a fancy restaurant. Doc takes the hour or so to size Elsa up and finally gets out of her that she's German, not Swiss. She leaves, upset, and Babe is furious with his big brother. Doc tells Babe that Elsa is using him, probably for a U.S. citizenship and that there's no way a girl that beautiful is on the up and up with the likes of his homely, brilliant, awkward brother. Furious, Babe leaves the dinner in pursuit of Elsa. Elsewhere, in Central Park, Scylla is skulking in the bushes. He's apparently called a meeting with Szell! Before he can get to the gist of the meeting, Scylla realizes he's once again been double-crossed and Szell slices him from the pubic bone to the chest and leaves him to die. Knowing he's dying, Scylla gets up and decides he won't die right there. Meanwhile, Babe, unsuccessful in finding Elsa, has headed back to his apartment in hopes that she'll call. She finally calls hims, but he hangs up quickly when his brother suddenly appears in the doorway terribly injured. He's been cut from pubic bone to chest! His brother, Doc, is Scylla!!! (This was my first one-two punch.)

A devastated Babe holds Doc (Scylla) in his arms as he dies. Soon, the police are going through his apartment as Babe sits in shock. Then, a more formal looking man in a suit comes in and seems to take over. The police bow to his wishes when he says their department will take care of it now. Once alone, he introduces himself to Babe as Peter Janeway, with the Division. He tells Babe he can call him Janie. Gasp!!! (My second one-two punch!) Scylla's lover Janie is a man!

Janeway explains to Babe that Doc was, in fact, a spy for the U.S. who had a dangerous job...and that he and Scylla were close friends. He asks Babe to tell him anything Scylla might have said as he died, but Babe insists he said nothing. He tells Babe he'll keep him safe, but tells him to stay in his apartment until he can get that arranged in the morning. Babe, still in shock, agrees. He feels relatively safe because he's actually a master marksman with the pistol that belonged to his father. He keeps it loaded at all times. When younger he had hoped to use it to exact revenge for his father's suicide, but then Joe McCarthy died. Of course...Babe is NOT safe in his apartment. Two thugs, Karl and Erhard (the guy Elsa called) kidnap Babe before he can get to his gun and take him to meet face to face with Szell himself!!! Szell, of all things, before the war, was a dentist. He uses his dentist tools and drills to torture Babe mercilessly. He insists on knowing information that Babe simply doesn't have. When he's tortured him almost to death, Szell tells Karl and Erhard to take him to another room...that they'll dispose of him later because he obviously knows nothing. Hearing this, Babe is too weak to escape on his own...but then Janeway appears!! He kills Karl and then Erhard and whisks Babe away in his car. He wants to know everything that happened, and so does Babe! Babe insists on knowing the truth, so Janeway finally tells him that his brother Doc (Scylla) was a courier for Szell, sanctioned by the government? Anyway, Szell would take the diamonds from America to Europe to the contact (the one who was sleeping), who would then convert them to cash. For some reason, when his father was accidentally killed, Szell felt as if Scylla would double-cross him on the next transaction and try to take the diamonds, so Szell ordered the first failed hit on Scylla. Having failed, Szell ordered another hit....but Janeway didn't think he'd come to America. However, when Janeway tells Babe that Szell used to be a dentist, Babe cries out that Szell IS in America, because it was a dentist who was torturing him! Janeway asks Babe to try his hardest to remember if Scylla uttered anything to him at all when he was dying, but Babe still insists that he didn't. As they pull to a stop, Babe realizes that Janeway has brought him back to where he was being held captive, and there stand Karl and Erhard, alive!!! (Third one-two punch.) Janeway pushes Babe out of the car and tells the other guys that he truly doesn't know anything. Gasp! Janeway is working for Szell!!! omg, I didn't see that one coming either.

So...the whole rescue of Babe was a ruse to see if Janeway could get anything out of him. Szell instructs the three to kill Babe since he's of no use, and then he leaves. Babe's survival instincts kick in and while Janeway, Erhard and Karl are arguing, Babe puts his marathon man skills to use and takes off running. He outruns them all and is able to get retrieve his gun from his apartment without being caught by the thugs. He also, mistakenly as we now know, calls Elsa to meet him at 6:00 am at the drug store. :-( Elsa comes and, acting like she has his welfare at heart, drives him to this secluded lake house of a friend to rest. Once they get there, though, Babe (remember he's brilliant?)...he turns his gun on Elsa and tells her he knows she must be in on the whole scheme. She tries to deny it at first, but then admits it. He say he knows the others will be coming soon and she says yes. When Erhard, Karl and Janeway come, Babe is very disappointed that Szell isn't there. He really wants to kill the man who killed his brother. The others think that Babe is just this meek nerdy guy and don't take the fact that he has a gun seriously. They never dream he could be a good shot! He kills them all, and before killing her, gets Elsa to tell him where Szell is. Szell is at the bank in Manhattan, retrieving his diamonds!!

So....Babe heads to the bank and finds Szell as he's coming out. Szell the great torturer is such a little wuss with a gun pointed at him. It's truly pathetic. Anyway, Babe takes Szell to some secluded bushes in a park and shoots him...several times. At the end, a young police officer shows up and realizes that Babe shot the dead man who is lying there. Babe says he'll go with the police officer as soon as he's done skimming all of the millions of dollars worth of diamonds into the reservoir like stones. That's the end of the book! I really enjoyed reading this book, and being surprised at so many twists and turns! Believe it or not, with this long recap, I didn't even get everything in! :-) As I was reading, I kept hoping there would be a sequel to the book, but then when it ended in Szell's death, I realized there probably wasn't one. Glad I finally read this one! :-)