📖 Book Reviews ~ The Counterfeit Candidate / The Führer's Prophecy by Brian Klein

 

Level Best Books
2021
The Reich Trilogy #1

My thanks to the publishers and
Graeme Williams Marketing for my copy of the book

Berlin, 30th April, 1945

As the Russian Army closes in on the war-torn City, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun take their own lives. Their bodies are burned and buried in the Reich Chancellery garden, above the Führer's bunker. 

Buenos Aires, 9th January, 2012 Three audacious thieves carry out the biggest safe depository heist in Argentine history, escaping with more than one hundred million dollars' worth of valuables. Within hours, an encrypted phone call to America triggers a blood-soaked manhunt as the thieves are tracked down, systematically tortured, then murdered. 

San Francisco, 18th January, 2012 Senator John Franklin, hailed as the 'Great Unifier', secures the Republican Presidential nomination and seems destined for the Oval Office. Despite the sixty-seven year interval and a span of thirteen thousand miles, these events are indelibly linked. Chief Inspector Nicolas Vargas of the Buenos Aires Police Department and Lieutenant Troy Hembury of the LAPD are sucked into a dark political conspiracy concealing an incredible historical truth stretching from the infamous Berlin bunker to Buenos Aires and to Washington, which threatens the very heart and soul of American democracy.

📖 My Review..


A spectacular safe depository heist in 2012 sets the scene for this fast action dual time thriller which takes us from the police departments of Buenos Aires, to the presidential candidate race in the USA and then further back in time to the last days of war torn Germany. The premise of the story, and I don't want to give away any spoilers, is that everything we thought about the final days of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun is about to be reimagined.


The story moves along at a fast and determined pace and there is much to take in in terms of plot and malevolence, in fact there are some truly unlikable characters but all credit to the author for making this such an intriguing read. I enjoyed the way the story flipped around in time and became increasingly fond of the two detectives Chief Inspector Nicolas Vargas of the Buenos Aires Police Department and his American counterpart, Lieutenant Troy Hembury of the LAPD who really do have to keep their wits about them especially when the action really starts to heat up.

The Counterfeit Candidate is a well imagine thriller which spins the alternate history theory on its head and gives us a real page-turner of an adventure.

Level Best Books
2024
The Reich Trilogy #2

My thanks to the publishers and
Graeme Williams Marketing for my copy of the book

30 January 1939. Adolf Hitler makes an infamous speech at the Reichstag threatening “The annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”. This vile public proclamation is seized upon by his fanatical supporters who christen it “The Führer’s Prophecy”.

November 1943. A sinister plot hatched inside Block 10 of the notorious Auschwitz deathcamp is known only to a handful of Nazis as Operation Gesamtkunstwerk. It’s a plan originated by Hitler, Himmler and Mengele and now, almost eighty years later, it’s finally ready to be actioned by the direct descendants of the Führer.

April 2022. As the world emerges from the Covid pandemic, an encrypted zoom call involving five participants, based across four continents, approves a plan that could have unimaginable consequences for the State of Israel. Chief Inspector Nicolas Vargas of the Buenos Aires Police Department and Lieutenant Troy Hembury of the LAPD join forces with Lea Katz, an elite Mossad agent, in a race against time to try and prevent the unthinkable consequences of Operation Gesamtkunstwerk.

📖 My Review..

The Führer's Prophecy is the second book in the Reich trilogy and this story pretty much picks up where the first book finished so it is better to read the trilogy in order. We stay in close connection with the Buenos Aires police department as they seek to keep one step ahead of a group of individuals who are caught up with the The Führer's Prophecy which was outlined in Hitler's speech at the Reichstag in 1939.

Catching up with the characters from the previous book, particularly Chief Inspector Nicolas Vargas of the Buenos Aires Police Department and his American counterpart, Lieutenant Troy Hembury of the LAPD gave the book a nice sense of continuity.  There is just as much intrigue and action which kept me turning the pages however whilst the premise of the book was just as fast flowing I didn't warm to the plot quite as much as in the first book but overall that didn't spoil my enjoyment of the story. There's a sense of the tying up of some loose ends which lends itself to the conclusion of the trilogy which I am sure will see one character, in particular, get his final comeuppance.

About the Author

Brian is an award-winning Television Director, with over twenty-five years' experience in the industry. His work regularly appears on Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC and Sky. Amongst his directing credits are twenty-five seasons of the iconic car show, Top Gear and five seasons of A League of their Own Road Trip, Sky One's highest rating entertainment show. He has directed two feature-length films for BBC Worldwide and five entertainment specials for Netflix.

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