The Double

Call it fact. Call it fiction. Call it faction, if you like. The story told in these pages is fiction based on fact. A while back, an elderly Scotsman named Philip Jacobs approached the author with this story. Philip lived in Glasgow when Rudolf Hess, Deputy Fuehrer of the Third Reich, crash-landed his plane in a field outside the city. Philip was a young reporter at the time and he swore that the story you are about to read is true in all its essentials. Tuccille has presented Philip's story as a novel, but the only liberties taken are in dialogue that has been invented by the author. This book is dedicated to the memory of Philip Jacobs, who lived through the events portrayed in these pages. The solo flight of deputy fuehrer Rudolph Hess into Scotland in May, 1941, was one of the more bizarre events of WW II. Was Hess acting on his own or at Hitler's behest? Tuccille (Hemingway and Gellhorn and other books) speculates that Hess has been deputized by the fuehrer, sent on a mission to convince England to cease hostilities in Europe so that Germany can concentrate its forces against the mutually despised Stalinist Russia. The proposal is presented to Winston Churchill, who, of course, has an agenda of his own. The plot draws in Scottish journalist Philip Jacobs (the author's source for the saga), who suspects the British government is concealing a great deal in the Hess affair and who comes perilously close to uncovering the full story. The book is a riveting page-turner, recommended for all audiences.