Tag: thriller

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

whatcathyreadnext

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

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

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

Follow this blog via Bloglovin

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)

Connect with Rory
Website | Twitter | Facebook

The Man in the Bunker

#BlogTour #BookReview Betrayal by David Gilman @HoZ_Books @DavidGilmanUK

whatcathyreadnext

Gilman_BETRAYAL_Blog tour banner (1)-2Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Betrayal by David Gilman. My thanks to Sophie at Ransom PR for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Head of Zeus for my review copy. Do check out the review by my tour buddy for today, Jo at Murder, Jo Wrote.

BetrayalAbout the Book

Someone’s trying to start a war. And Raglan’s just walked into the kill zone.

It has been many years since Dan Raglan served in the French Foreign Legion, but the bonds forged in adversity are unbreakable and when one of his comrades calls for help, Raglan is duty-bound to answer. An ex-legionnaire, now an intelligence officer at the Pentagon, disappears. He leaves only this message: should he ever go missing, contact Raglan. But Raglan’s not the only one looking for the missing man.

From the backstreets of Marseilles, Raglan finds himself following a trail of death that will lead him to Florida, to the camaraderie of a Vietnam vet in Washington D.C., and into the heart of a bitter battle in the upper echelons of the US intelligence community.

Pursued by both the CIA and a rogue female FBI agent, Raglan’s search will place him in the cross hairs of an altogether more lethal organisation. Tracking his old comrade, he finds himself in the midst of deadly conspiracy, and on a journey to a fatal confrontation deep in the Honduran rainforest

Format: Hardcover (544 pages)       Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 6th January 2022 Genre: Thriller

Find Betrayal on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a small commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

I absolutely loved The Englishman, the book that first introduced the world to ex-French Foreign Legion soldier and all-round action man, Dan Raglan, so you can imagine my excitement when I learned that a follow-up was on the way.

The description of Betrayal as a ‘high-octane international thriller’ is spot-on. The action comes thick and fast. If Raglan’s not engaged in deadly combat, he’s either preparing for it or recovering from it.  Raglan is seemingly indomitable; the ‘kill zone’ being a place he knows all too well.  As one character remarks to him, ‘Dead people appear on a regular basis when you’re around’. He’s also clever, tech-savvy, super-fit, has eyes in the back of his head and is adept at using any sort of weaponry you care to imagine. A man of many talents, he can pilot a plane, speak any number of languages, spot a security camera a mile off, find his way through a crocodile-infested mangrove swamp and even perform minor surgery on himself.  And who else do you know who stores bullet fragments in his tooth mug?

In the hands of the author, Raglan is not some sort of robotic killing machine. He’s also mortal and carries traumatic memories of things he’s seen – and done.  He’s a steadfast friend and demonstrates an unbreakable loyalty to the comrades who served alongside him in the French Foreign Legion. As he says, ‘the Legion was family’ and their motto ‘the mission is sacred’ is one he lives by. There are occasional glimpses of a softer side too even if he admits ‘I don’t have anybody tearing themselves apart over me’.

At this point I have a confession to make: I’ve developed rather a crush on Raglan. I know it’s unlikely, and I’m aware I might have formidable competition, but if there’s ever a vacancy for a Mrs. Raglan, count me in. (I hope my husband isn’t reading this.) Apart from anything else, I’d make sure he had a good supply of his favourite dark blue T-shirts and I’d even tend to a wound on his upper thigh. (I really hope my husband isn’t reading this.)

The pace of the book is intense and, despite being over 500 pages, the short chapters help the story move along like a whirlwind. A plot that involves people in positions of power engaging in activity that circumvents government oversight in order to achieve their own political ends, well that could never happen could it? Although, wait a minute… And don’t worry if you don’t know your DIA from your FBI or your CIA, all you really need to know is that there are bad guys out there – really, really bad guys – planning to do all sorts of unspeakable things and Raglan is out to stop them.

Those not completely obsessed by the thought of Raglan stripped to the waist or all sweaty after a punishing two mile run (I know, divorce papers arriving in the post any day) need not worry, your thirst for all-out action scenes will be fully quenched. The author serves up one bone-crunching, brutal and bloody scene after another making you wonder just how Raglan has survived so long. But has he met his match when he encounters a deadly opponent just as driven and ruthless as he is? I’m afraid you’re going to have to read the book to find out.

If you’ve survived reading this Raglan love-fest, I think it will be apparent that I absolutely loved Betrayal. To my mind, it’s everything you could wish for in an action thriller.  (By the way, check out the author’s website to see a photograph taken during a private tour of the Pentagon that formed part of his research for the book.)

In three words: Gripping, action-packed, pacy

Try something similar: No Way To Die by Tony Kent

Follow this blog via Bloglovin

David GilmanAbout the Author

David Gilman has enjoyed many careers  – including firefighter, being in the Paras and as a photographer – before turning to writing full-time. He is an award-winning author, is published in several languages and was also the screenwriter for A Touch of Frost.

Connect with David
Website | Twitter | Facebook

Betrayal Banner