A young Jewish orphan is sheltered at a Catholic boarding school in 1942 after Paris police imprison her parents and thousands of Jews in detention centers. When her orphan friend is arrested, she fears the gendarmes will come after her, too. An American newspaperman sought by Nazis and French police hides as the gardener at the school after French police find him with his lover, a university student fighting the Nazi occupation of France. Her colleagues devise a daring plan for him to flee the country. Hannah Abramov, a 12-year-old from The Marais, and Jack Lamont, a former war photographer's assistant for the Chicago Tribune, develop a friendship at Saint-Coeur-de-Marie boarding school on rue de Picpus. "Paris Orphan: Escape from Evil," the new novel by author Charles Loebbaka, is the story of their dangerous journey to stay a step ahead of arrest and possible death. Based on World War Two historical events and accounts of individuals, their story is a true-to-life narrative of life or death in war-torn France. Their survival depends on British female covert agents in France; a hot-tempered French underground leader; a Swiss Red Cross home that cares for displaced children; Basque smugglers and Jewish guerrillas who help refugees; and the mistress of the Gestapo commander in the south of France. Agent Glynis Blake is sent to southern France by Britain's Special Operations Executive to take charge of an espionage and sabotage unit. She teams up with agent Denise Golinska, wireless operator for the covert cell. They partner with Gaston Renard, a French Resistance leader in the Aquitaine area. Isabelle Christiane Despres, mistress of SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Herrmann, a Gestapo commander in southern France, is a woman with a secret known only to her bodyguard/chauffeur. Orphans displaced by the war and with no contact with their families make plans to set out on their own from their safe haven at a Swiss-run boarding house. The lives of the characters are changed forever in unexpected ways by their experiences that take place from 1942 in Europe to 1948 in the Mideast. "Paris Orphan: Escape from Evil" is a sequel to Loebbaka's first historical fiction novel, "Love and Death in Paris." It begins in 1945. * * * "I'm ready, Jacques." Jack Lamont turned in his yard to see his guest walking toward him with one piece of luggage. He took Brigitte Kahane's suitcase, set it down, and held her hands. "I have something I want to give you before Millicent takes you back to Europe," he said. He took Katrine Bouchet's gold necklace from his pocket, reached behind her neck, and hooked the ends together. Katrine's best friend held the gold cross in her fingers for a moment. "I will wear it always," she said. "I have a gift for you." She fastened a bracelet to his left wrist. Katrine's gold band with the Virgin Mary medal and the twelve stars that represent the Apostles and Tribes of Israel glittered in the sunshine. Jack looked for the last time at the tattoo on Brigitte's left forearm: 168495. They clasped hands and said goodbye. He walked to the small apple tree in his late mother's yard and plucked an apple. He wondered again about the orphan, the red-haired girl who loved apples.
Charles (Chuck) Loebbaka is a retired journalist who began his career as a newspaper reporter/editor covering government, politics, law, crime, and the syndicate. After earning a journalism degree from the University of Illinois, he was a reporter for the Star Newspapers (Chicago Heights, Ill.); award-winning editor for the Hollister/Pioneer Newspapers (Wilmette, Ill.); and free-lance writer for the Chicago Sun-Times. He served as media relations manager for corporate and political clients before serving as director of media relations at Northwestern University for 27 years. His first fiction books are "Seeing Double" and "Sparrow's Song," crime noir mysteries. He is editor of "Memoirs of a Psychic and Astrologer" by the late Irene Hughes. A resident of Glenview, Illinois, and former village trustee, Loebbaka is an Evanston, Illinois, native.
