Review: Muddled history and technology
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 7, 2014
The detective aspects of this work were OK, some was very good, and the concept of investigating a 40 year old cold case - and setting it 25 years in the past was good.However this is supposedly set after VE day and apparently before VJ day.  Yet the author has characters talking about (1) 1945 German authorities (2) a 'cease-fire'  and (3) Nuclear powerplants when none existed nor the public aware of nuclear power generation.  Germany was under Military Occupation Government after the unconditional surrender (not a cease-fire) in May 1945 and the de-Nazification program was operating so there was no "German government".  The espionage was supposedly based on German gathering of fuel and electronic control data which was of little historical sense.The conspiracy aspect was to revolve around 1987 "drone technology" and supposedly there were secrets involved that justified a 'wet work operation' against several of the characters.  This was a termendous stretch!  The German's were the war-time leaders of remote piloted bombs, such as the Fritz-X, while US research was a poor second and this was not a major area for the UK.  What information that could be gathered from the war-time German efforts were public knowledge by 1987.  While some areas the Anglo-American electronic warfare (especially radar) was superior to the German this was certainly not true in either remote control or liquid fuel.Today's UAV's (or drones) are less like what is hinted at than today's cruise missles.  In either case the supposition that there was some WWII secrets that justified the extent of such a cover-up is just a stretch too far.  There were several large holes as to why British counter-intelligence did not "roll-up" this particular ring in late 1944 or early 1945 when there was no tactical or strategic reason not to.The logic of not notifying the police, by MI5, that the body was that of a Nazi agent executed in 1945, is not evident to me.  While the German authorities had surrendered a still active agent was subject to summary justice and a tribunal record could have easily been created.  None of the primary personnel were still alive during the 1987 events so there was little legal action justified.  While the story hung on this "official cover-up" the logic is missing.Overall I would give this actually a 2 and a half stars (if ratings allowed) due to the plot points above but it was a nice read.  The tying together of the various characters was well done, if somewhat sketchy, but more character and personal development of the 1987 characters would have been nice.For a free book I would recommend reading it as a light diversion, keeping in mind its flaws.