by Jorgen Steines

A Historical Fiction, 2023 by Matador, 470 Pages

What I Didn’t Like:

Chapters start with dates and there’s a huge list of characters and entities important to the story up front. If you don’t like them, they’re easy to skim or ignore.
The difficult part of historical fiction like this is that it’s not altogether obvious which parts are historical and which parts are fiction. When you’re dealing with real people or events we may never know what their real motivations were, for example. Speculating on them always makes me instantly wary.
Content warning: this takes place during WWII. People in the book are aware of and discussing the atrocities going on in Germany. Don’t read this one unless you’re in the headspace for that.
A little dry. Historical fiction often needs a larger-than-life character to come alive and help you connect. This one is missing that, making it a bit drier than I was hoping.

Interesting viewpoints to take. This one takes place during WWII and while I have read a lot of books set in this time period I’d say less than half of them focus on the German officers. That makes this a bit more rare of a take.
Well researched. The author even provides a list of source material in the afterword for those that are interested.
The story isn’t character driven. For the right reader, this is a positive. The story focuses on actions and events more than character.

Fans of World War II historical fiction.
Historical fiction fans who want a story that feels more realistic and accurate, not character driven.