What a book! real delight ( )

Having read nearly all books written by this author this story was unique due to the time period and plot. Just about every book Greg has written takes place in contemporary Mississippi with interesting characters, tons of plot twists and rapid fire momentum. Here he takes the reader to WW II with an American scientist and Jewish guerrilla war soldier. And while well written and paced it pales in comparison to his other stories. ( )

I actually listened to this book which was a mistake. I think the story itself was good, but because so many of the characters were from "all over", i.e., Germany, Poland and other Eastern block countries, I found it difficult to understand them. The narrator was almost too good when it came to the accents of the individuals. The other problem was that some of the names sounded familiar and I had trouble telling some of them apart. I would recommend reading this book instead of listening to it. ( )

If you have a weak stomach, this is not the novel for you. However, if you do decide to pass it over, you will be missing an incredible read.

What characters there are in this book, from real life to fictional, and all are woven together to create people that the reader will either be 100% with throughout, or really want t see them come to a grizzly end. Despite them all been based in the WWII era, and everyone knows the outcome of this war, it doesn’t stop the reader from immediately connecting with anyone of a number of the principal players in this plot. It does take some time to get to know the characters but the wait is well worth it and the journey to the reader learning about them and their motivations adds a great deal to the plot. There really isn’t a great deal more I can say about the characters in this book without beginning to include spoilers in this review; one thing I will say though is that it was very refreshing to read some very strong female characters and to travel their path with them to its conclusion, and many times the ‘who will you choose?’ question raises its ugly head, and they have to make that choice.

This novel is a very solid and well researched piece of historical fiction with, as I mentioned earlier, fact woven seamlessly into the fiction. Some of the facts included actually had me doing research myself into them once I had finished the book and this is always a good thing. Although this could be listed as a holocaust book, the action does not take place entirely in a camp and when it does it is not the usual kind of camp we read about. The descriptions of the horrific things that took place in this camp to not just Jews actually made my stomach turn at some points and I am far from being squeamish. It is not a fast paced book by any stretch of the imagination, but this is good as when the action takes place it leaves the reader breathless and wanting to read on. I loved the ending to this book, in fact I think it was my favourite part; there were no neat ribbon tied packages that gave closure, but a image of hope for the future which epitomised everything those had participated in this war fought for.

I would highly recommend this book to any and all readers.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/09/19/review-black-cross-world-war-two-1-greg-il...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
( )

If you have a weak stomach, this is not the novel for you. However, if you do decide to pass it over, you will be missing an incredible read.

What characters there are in this book, from real life to fictional, and all are woven together to create people that the reader will either be 100% with throughout, or really want t see them come to a grizzly end. Despite them all been based in the WWII era, and everyone knows the outcome of this war, it doesn’t stop the reader from immediately connecting with anyone of a number of the principal players in this plot. It does take some time to get to know the characters but the wait is well worth it and the journey to the reader learning about them and their motivations adds a great deal to the plot. There really isn’t a great deal more I can say about the characters in this book without beginning to include spoilers in this review; one thing I will say though is that it was very refreshing to read some very strong female characters and to travel their path with them to its conclusion, and many times the ‘who will you choose?’ question raises its ugly head, and they have to make that choice.

This novel is a very solid and well researched piece of historical fiction with, as I mentioned earlier, fact woven seamlessly into the fiction. Some of the facts included actually had me doing research myself into them once I had finished the book and this is always a good thing. Although this could be listed as a holocaust book, the action does not take place entirely in a camp and when it does it is not the usual kind of camp we read about. The descriptions of the horrific things that took place in this camp to not just Jews actually made my stomach turn at some points and I am far from being squeamish. It is not a fast paced book by any stretch of the imagination, but this is good as when the action takes place it leaves the reader breathless and wanting to read on. I loved the ending to this book, in fact I think it was my favourite part; there were no neat ribbon tied packages that gave closure, but a image of hope for the future which epitomised everything those had participated in this war fought for.

I would highly recommend this book to any and all readers.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/09/19/review-black-cross-world-war-two-1-greg-il...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
( )