AT THE MERCY OF MADNESS illuminates the last untold European chapter of WW II's chronology: the saga of the 50,000 Bulgarian Jews. Against this tableau of a world gone mad, the novel charts the stories of two men, a king and a fanatical militant out to kill him. The king was Boris III of Bulgaria whose queen was Giovanna, the daughter of Italy's Vittorio Emmanuele, and his cousin George VI of England. To Churchill, Boris is "distrustful and cunning" and "a man with a slimy reptilian nature." Hitler wants the 50,000 Bulgarian Jews, but Boris procrastinates, promises, and even joins the Axis Pact in a show of solidarity. Himmler and Ribbentrop suspect the king of playing a double game, but Hitler is flattered to have a king as his ally. Boris withdraws into the shadows. He keeps his cards close to his vest. What his true intentions regarding the Jews are opaque. He knows there is a sinister conspiracy within his own government to comply with Hitler's wishes and deport the Jews, yet he decides to intervene in the last minute by agreeing to deport the Jews but only out of the capital and "resettle" them far and wide in the provinces. Again Hitler demands to have the Jews, and again a rumored order "from the highest place" halts another attempt to round them up. Could the king be buying time, while playing with fire? No one knows for sure, including his cabinet and close advisors. To the small but well organized Bulgarian communist underground the king is clearly the implacable enemy who represents a tyrannical fascist regime they aim to eliminate and replace with a Soviet-style "People's Republic." Boris survives three assassination attempts on his life. But in 1943, following a violent encounter with Hitler, Boris suddenly dies a most mysterious death by snake poison. Who was behind the murder of the king? The list of suspects includes not only Hitler and Stalin but, not surprisingly, Churchill. The story of the young militant, Lazar Insarov, is closely intertwined with the life story of Rabbi Haim "Rico"Asa of Temple Beth Tikvah, Fullerton, California, who was 11 when those momentous events took place. Wounded and on the lam, Lazar finds refuge in the home of Avram Asa, a prominent Jewish leader, and a decorated WW I war hero. Rico's ravishingly beautiful cousin, Rebeka, a promising concert pianist, falls madly in love with the wounded Lazar while nursing him back to life. But for the young militant his true love is the struggle against injustice and tyranny. In the aftermath, did the Bulgarian Jews escape the gas chambers? With amazing fidelity, Mr. Kafallo, himself Bulgarian born, brings to life a period of hitherto unknown European history. The result is a heart-pounding novel that recalls in scope, political intrigue and torrid love Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago.