It felt like it took an Eternity to complete this book, at times it was like a form of torture to have to read it, when all I really wanted to do was close the page and never open it again. But the only way to give an unbiased and comprehensive review is to read the story in its entirety.A large part of this story was set in Germany and was boring to read, with parts of the writing not ringing true for me. It was obvious that the Author had done a lot of research about her topic and she had footnotes on some pages, which explained a little more about certain people and places from history.
Joy wrote the entire book using the English language apart from certain words that were repeated over and over and I could not understand why she didn't just write it all in English, the words being; ja, gut and jawohl, I think these words were planted in there to TRY and bring about a German flavour, but it didn't succeed. I found the writing very disjointed and choppy.
The main character, Cole, a supposed secret operative was not at all persuasive. During the story Cole was planted in Germany to impersonate a high ranking SS Officer....although he forgot to do his homework in a number of areas of the impersonated Officers' life; meetings, friends, family. He couldn't even get the accent right or some of the basic traits that were a part of the impersonated Officer. A big no no in the secret agents World I would think!
The story begins in rural NSW with Cole and his wife Shelley living happily as life passes by, seemingly a normal existence. Then one day Shelley is visited by a stranger asking questions about Cole, when she mentions this to Cole, he knows exactly what is happening and exactly what he must do. During one night, Cole enacts his escape plan and disappears, leaving Shelley with many questions. A search through some of Cole's belongings provides more mystery, with a photo surfacing of a woman and a photo of Cole complete with short note and him signing off as someone else.
Shelley decides that she must travel overseas to track down her partner...as you do! Shelley's travels are monotonous and boring at best. The majority of the book is then focused on Germany, WW11 and the Nazis. Enter 3 of Cole's supposed best friends, part of his 'brotherhood' who are intent on killing Cole because of an 'idea' they have of Cole betraying them...no facts, just an inkling and they decide he should die. Joy Chambers does a magnificent job of making Nazis and secret operatives look like bungling, inefficient idiots!
This story should have ample action, drama and intensity while also being completely believable. The characters are all either hardened Nazis or experienced, brazen secret operatives and yet Joy Chambers uses language that a priest would use. A few examples;
- Cole is an undercover SS Officer and uses words like "gosh" and "gee". I do not think he even uttered the words damn or hell. This is a passage from the final page -
"But it's you I want for all time Shell. You're the one I want and need for all time".
"Oh heaven, Cole, then can we go home? Home to Apple Gate?"
"God Shell, yes, we can. Just you and me, that's what I need."
Lame.....
And this...an apology from his 3 friends, who were intent on killing him.
Mako - "Ah, please accept our apology, we made a terrible blunder."
Felix - "Gosh, yeah, Cole, we regret this bloody awful mistake...."
Cole accepts their apologies, which is then followed by a "Heck, thanks Cole."
I do not even know people that talk like that normally, let alone rugged killing machines!
