ForbesLife: Who cares if the pilot never turns off the seat-belt light? You've got your spring vacation reading right here, and by the time you look up, they'll be opening the doors. Tom Gabbay, a former television comedy writer and producer at NBC, sets the carousel going on this suspense ride as his tough guy/stuntman/lady- killer character, Jack Teller, is hired by a Marlene Dietrich--like actress to accompany her to war-torn 1940 Europe.  In a Lisbon crawling with Gestapo agents, frantic refugees and various ne'er-do-wells of uncertain allegiance, the actress is seeking a lost childhood friend, a quest that has already resulted in the spectacular death of Teller's predecessor--perhaps at the hands of the friend herself. The many pitfalls in Teller's path include a leather-corset-clad Wallis Warfield Simpson, who lures him into a night of B&D while the Duke of Windsor is out whooping it up with his Nazi-schmoozing pals. Anything for the cause.…  Gabbay serves it all up with Raymond Chandler--esque dark humor, a rich sense of place and a fine feel for the yawning chasm between those privileged to float above the exigencies of that dark time and those who were engulfed in its horrors. Rocky Mountain News: The year is 1940, and the war in Europe is building to a crescendo. Jack Teller is a former gangster, bit actor, stand-in and sometime lover and friend of beautiful Hollywood star Lili Sterne. Jack finds himself in Lisbon as Lili's escort as she attempts to find a lost childhood friend named Eva Lange, who may or may not be a German spy. A private eye in Lili's employ who had been searching for Eva has met a gruesome end. As stand-in gumshoe, Jack's going to need all the skills he can muster - and a heaping helping of luck - to stay alive and unravel the story of Eva Lange. Final word: Gabbay has taken on the mantle of countless previous WWII thriller writers and has done them proud with a hairpin plot and believable suspense. Peter Mergendah Kirkus Reviews History continues to be fertile thriller territory for Gabbay, who brings back his Bogart-esque hero from The Berlin Conspiracy (2006) for a WWII-era prequel. Before he joined the CIA, Jack Teller was a Hollywood stuntman. One of his stunts was seducing the wife of a psychotic production chief, however, so Teller figures it's a good idea to accept aging star Lili Sterne's request for his company on a cruise to Lisbon. It's June 1940: The German army has overrun France, and Europe is awash with refugees. The still-stunning Sterne, a former Berliner who leaves "a trail of whispers in her wake," wants Teller's help in locating Eva Lange, a childhood friend who has supposedly surfaced in Portugal after months on the run. The last detective Sterne hired supposedly located Lange, but Eddie Grimes died under mysterious circumstances before he could reunite the women. Teller quickly ascertains that not only was Grimes shot before his car was dumped in the ocean, but that the body locked in the car's trunk belongs to a missing Abwehr officer. Each was shot with a different gun, but both had been seen with Lange. Could the mysterious missing woman be behind the multiple murders? Was she working for the Nazis, British intelligence, or herself? Teller doesn't care about world politics, declaring, "Only suckers get involved in somebody else's fight." As he warms to the glamorous Sterne, however, he becomes ensnared in a web of international intrigue that also holds the recently abdicated Duke of Windsor and his trashy wife (in a subplot based on historical fact). With a story cribbed from period movies like Casablanca, Gabbay has created more of a pastiche than a novel, but it's fast and fun. Mystery Scene Magazine: Any time an author can bring a reader into another time and place with a single phrase, especially if that phrase occurs in the book's first sentence, you know you're in good hands. So it is with Tom Gabbay in his second novel, The Lisbon Crossing. And the phrase? "I lit a Lucky.” Set in 1940, the action begins in Los Angeles, specifically Hollywood, then moves swiftly on to Europe, where Hitler has just sent the Nazi Army into Paris. Protagonist Jack Teller, whose most recent job was stunt double for Errol Flynn, accompanies Lili Stern (fictional ringer for Marlene Dietrich) to war-neutral Portugal to rescue her childhood friend Eva Lange, an escapee from and possible spy for the Third Reich. Jack is a man of many talents, and he gets to use most of them in this swiftly moving story that proceeds with all the twists, turns and intrigue that anyone could want from a spy novel. The cast of colorful characters includes two from real life, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. From Lisbon the action moves to Paris for a tense and satisfyingly inevitable conclusion. There is simply nothing not to like in this book, the first I've read by Gabbay. It will not be the last.   - Dianne Day Book of the Month Club: I had never heard of author Tom Gabbay, but after reading The Lisbon Crossing he's now on my list of authors to watch. This book has everything you'd want in a thriller: A flawed hero who always lands on his feet. Check. A femme fatale who's as quick with a quip as she is with a gun. Check.  An evil Nazi just steps behind who kills them both. Double-check. Throw into the mix an aging movie star, the Duke of Windsor and his scheming wife, and the seedy streets of Portugal and you've got the next novel you won't be able to put down. Aging screen idol Lili Sterne wants stuntman Jack Teller to find her childhood friend Eva, a German exile who may be hiding in Lisbon from the Nazis. It doesn't bode well for Jack that the last P.I. sent to find Lili was found dead with the head of German intelligence stuffed into his car's trunk. From here the mystery only deepens with a thrilling climax in Paris that could change the course of WWII. If you love detective stories then you should pick up The Lisbon Crossing...it's like Dashiell Hammett reincarnated.