Tag: Reviews

#BookReview The Man in the Bunker (Tom Wilde 6) by Rory Clements @ZaffreBooks

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The Man in the BunkerAbout the Book

Germany, late summer 1945 – The war is over but the country is in ruins. Millions of refugees and holocaust survivors strive to rebuild their lives in displaced persons camps. Millions of German soldiers and SS men are held captive in primitive conditions in open-air detention centres. Everywhere, civilians are desperate for food and shelter. No one admits to having voted Nazi, yet many are unrepentant.

Adolf Hitler is said to have killed himself in his Berlin bunker. But no body was found – and many people believe he is alive. Newspapers are full of stories reporting sightings and theories. Even Stalin, whose own troops captured the bunker, has told President Truman he believes the former Führer is not dead. Day by day, American and British intelligence officers subject senior members of the Nazi regime to gruelling interrogation in their quest for their truth.

Enter Tom Wilde – the Cambridge professor and spy sent in to find out the truth…

Format: Hardback (460 pages)          Publisher: Zaffre
Publication date: 20th January 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller

Find The Man in the Bunker (Tom Wilde #6) on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

Rory Clements’ books featuring Cambridge professor turned spy, Tom Wilde, have become one of my absolute favourite series. I’ve devoured every one of them and The Man in the Bunker was no exception. (I’m also a fan of his John Shakespeare series set in Elizabethan England.)

Who do the intelligence services in Britain and the United States call on when they’ve a tricky problem to solve? Why Cambridge professor of history turned spy Tom Wilde of course – much to the exasperation of his wife, Lydia, in this case.

The brilliantly dramatic and chilling opening chapter is a prelude to everything you could possibly want from a spy thriller: plenty of action scenes, car chases, narrow escapes, assassins waiting in the shadows, wily and ruthless villains, double-crosses galore. There are also a host of interesting secondary characters, such as the colourful Boris Minsky, Jerzy ‘the boy with the camera’ and the dedicated Dr. Angie Gray.  The skilfully crafted plot means there are plenty of side stories the reason for whose inclusion remains deliciously intriguing for a large part of the book.

Wilde is assigned a companion in his investigation, Lieutenant Mozes Heck. Heck is a wonderfully drawn character. Whilst, as readers of the previous books will know, Wilde has his own share of traumatic memories, Heck’s are beyond imagining. His first-hand and very personal experience of the atrocities committed by the Nazis has given him a deep-seated hatred of those Nazis who survived the war and ‘an overpowering hunger’ for revenge. As a result he is utterly ruthless – shoot first, think later – meaning at times he is difficult for Wilde to control.  ‘Heck was in a blood-red world of his own, and no amount of reasoning was going to alter that.’ On the other hand, Heck’s sharp-shooting skills, physical resilience and ability to pass unnoticed are definitely things you want in a difficult situation, and Wilde and Heck experience plenty of those.

Wilde’s investigation into whether Hitler remains alive takes him to the heart of post-war Germany giving the reader a vivid insight into the destruction visited upon cities such as Berlin by Allied bombing and the advance of the Russian army.  ‘This is real life, this is the detritus of war, right here.’ Berlin has become a place of ruined buildings, piles of rubble and people trying to eke out a living in the shattered remains of their city. It’s a dangerous place as well.  ‘The problems start after dark when the desperate and the dispossessed come out and defy the curfew. It’s kill or be killed.’

There also unsettling scenes in the makeshift camps for people displaced by the War including those who survived the concentration camps. And a visit to a particular site in Berlin brings Wilde a chilling reminder of the evil of the Nazi regime. ‘He did not believe in the occult, nor even an afterlife, yet he could hear the children’s cries.’

I can’t say much more about the plot without giving too much away. But, I hear you ask, does Wilde discover if Hitler survived the Berlin bunker? Sorry, not telling. Read the book and find out.

I thought The Man In The Bunker was absolutely fabulous, another masterly spy thriller from the pen of Rory Clements. A few loose ends left subtly dangling at the end of the book leaves me hoping this is not the last outing for Tom Wilde. In the meantime Tom, Lydia deserves her holiday.

In three words: Compelling, action-packed, suspenseful

Try something similar: V2 by Robert Harris

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Rory ClementsAbout the Author

Rory Clements was born on the edge of England in Dover. After a career in national newspapers, he now writes full time in a quiet corner of Norfolk, where he lives with his wife, the artist Naomi Clements Wright, and their family. He won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award in 2010 for his second novel, Revenger, and the CWA Historical Dagger in 2018 for Nucleus. Three of his other novels – Martyr, Prince and The Heretics – have been shortlisted for awards.

To find out more about The Man In The Bunker and the previous books in the series, join the Rory Clements Readers’ Club via the link in his website. (Photo credit: Author website)

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The Man in the Bunker

#BlogTour #BookReview Late City by Robert Olen Butler @RandomTTours @noexitpress

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Late City BT PosterWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Late City by Robert Olen Butler. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to No Exit Press for my digital review copy.

Late CityAbout the Book

A visionary and poignant novel centered around former newspaperman Sam Cunningham as he prepares to die, Late City covers much of the early twentieth century, unfurling as a conversation between the dying man and a surprising God.

As the two review Sam’s life, from his childhood in the American South and his time in the French trenches during World War I to his fledgling newspaper career in Chicago in the Roaring Twenties and the decades that follow, snippets of history are brought sharply into focus.

Sam grows up in Louisiana, with a harsh father, who he comes to resent both for his physical abuse and for what Sam eventually perceives as his flawed morality. Eager to escape and prove himself, Sam enlists in the army as a sniper while still underage. The hardness his father instilled in him helps him make it out of World War I alive, but, as he recounts these tales on his deathbed, we come to realize that it also prevents him from contending with the emotional wounds of war.

Back in the U.S., Sam moves to Chicago to begin a career as a newspaperman that will bring him close to all the major historical turns of the twentieth century. There he meets his wife and has a son, whose fate counters Sam’s at almost every turn.

As he contemplates his relationships – with his parents, his brothers in arms, his wife, his editor, and most importantly, his son – Sam is amazed at what he still has left to learn about himself after all these years in this heart-rending novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner.

Format: Paperback (256 pages)         Publisher: No Exit Press
Publication date: 27th January 2022 Genre: Literary Fiction

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My Review

I read and thoroughly enjoyed Paris in the Dark, the fourth book in the author’s Christopher Marlowe Cobb historical crime series, in 2018.  Late City is an entirely different kind of book but one I absolutely loved.

The book could have been a straightforward fictional story of a man’s life, albeit one that has spanned over a century, but what sets it apart is how the story is structured as a conversation between Sam and a figure representing God. The God of Late City is not only omniscient but understands sarcasm and can even take, or make, a joke. ‘Listen, Sam. A lot of stuff that tries to pass for my voice is just humans tweeting in all caps in the middle of the night.’ Offering Sam by turns sympathy, encouragement or gentle rebuke, God acts as a combination of guide, judge and therapist.

God’s stipulation is that Sam may not have foreknowledge so Sam’s experience is not so much reminiscence as a reliving of events in his life. It’s akin to real-time reporting, reflecting Sam’s career as a journalist. God refers to Sam’s reliving of events as the Cunningham Examiner, the late city edition of the title, explaining. ‘You put it all in the story by today’s deadline and tomorrow you wait for further developments.’ Occasionally events in Sam’s life are rendered in the form of newspaper headlines.  One gets the sense that the purpose is not for Sam to obtain God’s forgiveness but to allow Sam a way to forgive himself for things he did, things he failed to do or things he failed to say.

As is evident from the book description, Sam is a participant in, or a Forrest Gump-like witness to, many significant historical events and has first-hand encounters with historical figures such as Al Capone. The book illustrates the malign influence that can be wielded by those in positions of power. (The author may have a modern day example in mind given the event that opens the book.)  There’s also a message about the importance of standing up for causes you believe to be right, whatever the cost. As God says (and I never thought I’d write that!) ‘Just know that sometimes a bad thing can be shared by multitudes. While for a good thing, there might only be a few of you’.

There are some particularly tender moments between Sam and his son, Ryan, and between Sam and his wife, Colleen and I loved the way these relationships were explored. By the end of the book, Sam has come to understand what’s really important in life and also had revealed to him ‘untold stories’ about those close to him, things he never knew but perhaps should have done if he’d only listened more, been present more. As God explains, ‘There are some stories waiting for you, written for the Cunningham Examiner. But they never appeared. Never made it as far as your editor-in chief’s desk.’ Coming to terms with the  revelations in these stories requires a tolerance that was sadly lacking in society when Sam was growing up but it results in him finally realising how a small act can bring solace to another human being when it really matters.

I thought Late City was a beautifully written and thought-provoking book and I’ll freely admit the ending moved me to tears.

In three words: Poignant, insightful, moving

Try something similar: Stoner by John Williams

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Robert Olen Butler Author PictureAbout the Author

Robert Olen Butler is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, and seventeen other novels including Hell, A Small Hotel, Perfume River & the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series. He is also the author of six short story collections and a book on the creative process, From Where You Dream.

He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and received the 2013 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University.

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