#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 WE BEGIN AT THE END by CHRIS WHITAKER

ABOUT THE BOOK

We Begin at the End is a powerful novel about absolute love and the lengths we will go to keep our family safe. This is a story about good and evil and how life is lived somewhere in between.

‘YOU CAN’T SAVE SOMEONE THAT DOESN’T WANT TO BE SAVED . . .’

Thirty years ago, Vincent King became a killer.
Now, he’s been released from prison and is back in his hometown of Cape Haven, California. Not everyone is pleased to see him. Like Star Radley, his ex-girlfriend, and sister of the girl he killed.

Duchess Radley, Star’s thirteen-year-old daughter, is part-carer, part-protector to her younger brother, Robin – and to her deeply troubled mother. But in trying to protect Star, Duchess inadvertently sets off a chain of events that will have tragic consequences not only for her family, but also the whole town.

Murder, revenge, retribution.How far can we run from the past when the past seems doomed to repeat itself? 

PUBLISHED BY ZAFFRE BOOKS

PURCHASE LINKS

Goldsboro Books – signed first edition
hive.co.uk
blackwell’s

MY REVIEW

BUY THIS BOOK!! Thank me later!!

Wow! It’s never easy to review a book like this as you don’t want to give too much away, but you just want everyone to grab a copy and experience it for themselves!! It is full of characters that you gravitate towards, care for, despise, and as you watch the story unfold you end up experiencing every decision made, you hear every noise, feel every emotion – it just swallows you up whole and you are in for one hell of a journey!!


And in the character of Duchess, you have someone who just shines out! From a young age she’s had an awful life, with many harrowing experiences and her whole life is shaped by despair. Her mother, Star, is struggling with her own issues, especially after losing her sister. Duchess is there for her mum though and helps to care for her brother Robin. Chief Walker is always looking out for them too, especially as he feels responsible for the direction their family life has taken – his best friend, Vincent King, is serving time in jail for the death of Star’s sister when he was 15 – and 30 years later he is set for release. There’s scores to be settled, and truths to be uncovered and when another horrific crime is committed then fingers start pointing again and life seems to be repeating itself once more.

Duchess has always seen herself as an outlaw, after hearing some family history stories, and the way she cares for her brother and vows to right wrongs – your heart just aches for her. She is full of rage and anger after having to grow up so quickly and her only mission in life is to protect Robin. Moved from pillar to post she is reluctant to accept change and almost appears to resent nice things happening as she doesn’t feel she deserves it. Just when things are settling down for her and Robin, it is cruelly ripped away from her again and the rage returns…

This is unquestionably one of my books of 2020 and I cannot recommend it highly enough! You’ll laugh, cry, be shocked, be outraged – it has everything!! Amazing!!

★★★★★