The Second Victory

Also published as Backlash, this novel by Morris West opens in the winter of 1945, when the fighting has ended but Austria has not found peace. The country has no functioning leaders and little hope, and the Nazi regime has left behind a legacy of cruelty and death. Major Mark Hanlon, the Allied Occupation Commander in the snowbound Alps, is charged with clearing that legacy away.

Hanlon asked for the post because he hoped to be of real use. Everywhere he turns he meets despair and open resistance. He believes authority should rest on law rather than force, yet his orders carry weight only because soldiers stand behind them, and governing is a responsibility he cannot set aside.

West, an Australian-born novelist, wrote this book in the same vein as The Devil's Advocate and The Shoes of the Fisherman. It is a gripping, character-driven story that draws the reader in, and like those works it raises difficult moral questions that add weight to the drama.