#BlogTour THE MAN IN THE BUNKER by RORY CLEMENTS #BookReview @ZaffreBooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n

Delighted to be with you today as part of the Blog Tour for the gripping THE MAN IN THE BUNKER by RORY CLEMENTS.
My thanks to the author, publisher and Tracy of Compulsive Readers for putting the tour together and letting me be part of it all!

ABOUT THE BOOK

WHAT IF HITLER HAD SURVIVED?

In the gripping new spy thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Hitler’s Secret, a Cambridge spy must find the truth behind Hitler’s death. But exactly who is the man in the bunker?

‘MASTER OF THE WARTIME SPY THRILLER’ – FINANCIAL TIMES
________________

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…

Dramatic, intelligent, and brilliantly compelling, THE MAN IN THE BUNKER is Rory’s best WWII thriller yet – perfect for readers of Robert Harris, C J Sansom and Joseph Kanon. 

PUBLISHED BY ZAFFRE BOOKS

PURCHASE LINK

AMAZON

MY REVIEW

This is Book 6 in the Tom Wilde series, and my first! So that shows how it can be read as a standalone! And now I’ve got the enjoyment of the rest of the series to catch up with as I found this to be such an intriguing and fascinating subject to have a story based around! The What If subject is one of those conspiracies that still does the rounds now, so the author has done a brilliant job within this series of using that as the backdrop for a new adventure!

This is set just after the war, so the world is waking up again and trying to move on but life is still pretty brutal in many parts of the world with unresolved anger.  Tom Wilde is trying to live a normal life again, but that is blown out of the water when 3 men show up on his doorstep wanting his help in finding out just what happened in ‘that’ bunker where no body was ever found.

So he has to travel to Germany, interrogate those close to Hitler and others at the top to find out if they know more than they are letting the world believe.   

You get a real sense from the story that many people are still on edge after what they’ve been through for the past few years, and many want revenge for what has happened to them or those they love.  Wilde has a tough job ahead of him getting through to people and trying to work out who he can trust and who is telling the truth.

There’s also a side story featuring the character of Lilly too, a woman who had a fling with a german officer and has been shunned by her own family, and it really hit home how the war had split family and friends.

As I said, this was my first book in the Wilde series and I just loved the whole feel and pace of the storytelling so I’m eager to go back and see where the rest of the series took the character!  It is a smart and dramatic piece of historical fiction.

★★★★

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#BookReview Daisy’s Summer Mission by Hannah Pearl @RubyFiction

ABOUT THE BOOK

Daisy’s job as a gift shop owner may involve selling chocolate truffles and lacy knickers but, this summer, she finds herself turning her hand to a slightly different profession …

Daisy’s boyfriend, Eli, works for a secret government agency and, try as she might, Daisy can’t seem to help getting caught in the middle of his missions, which take her on a thrilling ride from the streets of Paris to a remote health retreat where carbs are banned!

But when she finds that Eli might be in danger, Daisy has to stop playing at being a spy and become the real thing. Teaming up with her pensioner customer, Mr King, Daisy embarks on her most important summer mission yet. Can she save the day?

Sequel to Daisy’s Christmas Gift Shop

PUBLISHED BY RUBY FICTION

PURCHASE LINKS

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daisys-Summer-Mission-romance-escape-ebook/dp/B086L7NX2X/

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/daisy-s-summer-mission

Apple: https://books.apple.com/gb/book/daisys-summer-mission/id1505501826?mt=11&app=itunes 

Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Hannah_Pearl_Daisy_s_Summer_Mission?id=KSTfDwAAQBAJ

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/daisys-summer-mission-hannah-pearl/1136769567?ean=2940162831853

Website: https://www.rubyfiction.com/dd-product/daisys-summer-mission/

MY REVIEW

This was a wonderful read with the touches of humour I’ve come to expect from Daisy and her friends, but also mixes the light with a darker side! From gift shop owner to full blown Spy!! There seems to be nothing Daisy can’t tackle and I loved following her latest escapades! But it’s a story that can be read as a standalone if you haven’t read Daisy’s Christmas Gift Shop .

Daisy is fully loved up with Eli and their relationship just goes  from strength to strength – even if life in her little flat above the gift shop isn’t the most spacious for 2 people!

Her life in the shop is pretty simple, but Eli always appears to be off doing mysterious work for the government and as much as he tries to keep her out of  harms way, she always seems to find a way of getting involved and the case this time is pretty serious! Although having to infiltrate a spa could be a worse way to spend some time!!

As always, her friend Lily is there to add extra comedy with her quips and they are the kind of women you can just imagine having a right laugh with, whatever the circumstances!!

The action involving Eli and Daisy and the spy mission near the end is fast paced and serious, but the party planning that Daisy is involved in  and family and friends storylines add a great mix for you as a reader to enjoy and devour!!  

★★★★

Defectors by Joseph Kanon – book review

THE BLURB

From the bestselling author of Leaving Berlin and The Good German comes a thrilling and richly imagined novel focused on three weeks in the lives of a select group of defected American spies in Moscow during the height of the Cold War.

Moscow, 1961. Stalin has been dead for eight years. With the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Union’s international prestige is at an all-time high. Former CIA agent Frank Weeks, the most notorious of the defectors to the Soviet Union, is about to publish his memoirs, and what he reveals will send shockwaves through the West.

Weeks’s defection in the early 50s shook Washington to its core—he had been a beloved member of the OSS and then the CIA, one of the bright young men who’d come out of the war ready to take an early lead in the new American century. His betrayal rippled throughout the State Department, prompting frantic searches for moles and forcing the resignation of Simon, Frank’s former college roommate and best friend.

Now, a Soviet agency approaches Simon, a publisher in New York City, with a controversial proposition to publish the memoirs of his old friend, Frank Weeks. Simon knows that there’s no way the US government will approve the publication of a book clearly intended as propaganda for the KGB…yet he finds the offer irresistible.

Set against the paranoiac atmosphere of the Cold War, Defectors is a smart and authentic exploration of espionage and betrayal, perfect for fans of John le Carre, “Alan Furst, Philip Kerr, and other masters of wartime and postwar espionage fiction” (Library Journal, starred review).

Published – 1st June 2017

Author Website

Amazon UK

Hive.co.uk – buy online and support your local bookstore

MY REVIEW

I found this to be a fascinating and thought provoking Spy thriller – not a normal genre that I read but will definitely read more of now!

It is the story of 2 American brothers’ – Frank and Simon Weeks – and how Frank defected to the Soviet Union in the early 1960’s. This caused huge shock and outrage at the time back home and his brother was left wondering why.  Fast Forward 12 years, and now Frank is looking to release his memoirs of the events of the time and his brother is in publishing and has been offered the deal to publish the book.  He is intrigued after not seeing his brother for many years and wants to know more so travels to Moscow to meet up with his brother and find out just why now is seen as the time that he wants to share his thoughts.

Frank has been very well looked after in the Soviet Union, especially when he and his wife Jo, lost their son to meningitis and it is absorbing to see things from his perspective and that he thought he was doing the right thing, and how he sees his family and their future panning out.

There is a lot of conversation in this book which did get a little tedious at times, but does offer a great insight into the various aspects of life as a spy, the double dealing, the politics and the betrayal and is definitely worth investing time in taking it all in.

This book is definitely a slow burner and a more intelligent read than some offerings but there’s enough intrigue and an engaging look at the brothers relationship now and then to hook you in and keep you engaged throughout.

Thank you to Emma Finnigan PR for my ARC copy in return for a fair and honest review.