Review: Consistent character and well-researched
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 14, 2013
As a voracious reader of WWII non-fiction and especially the Nazis, I can say that Michael Wallace did a great job of researching the history of the last days of the war.This story takes place in western German in the days after Hitler's suicide. An American airman is downed in enemy territory and winds up with a herd of German civilians all begging him to save them. In the end, Cal, the airman, is faced with a difficult moral challenge when he and his charges are captured by Soviet soldiers. The Soviets are bent on raping and pillaging to exact revenge for the millions of their own killed in the Nazi invasion of Russia. Cal is the only one standing in their way. He has only his own conscience as a weapon.The book is well-written, the characters (for the most part) believable and consistent. The story flows along without an interruption that disengages the audience. I enjoyed it very much.My only quibble is that a few of the characters were pretty 2-D and uninteresting for that reason. Little Hitler, for example, was not formidable enough to be the main antagonist. But in the end, Cal's real battle is within. It's a short book and some development of the struggle is lost in the pacing, but overall it's a solid piece of work.