Period: World Wars

The Ministry of Fear

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The Ministry of Fear
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In London during the Blitz, an amnesiac must outwit a twisted Nazi plot in this “master thriller” of espionage, murder, and deception (Time).

On a peaceful Sunday afternoon, Arthur Rowe comes upon a charity fete in the gardens of a Cambridgeshire vicarage where he wins a game of chance. If only this were an ordinary day. Britain is under threat by Germany, and the air raid sirens that bring the bazaar to a halt expose Rowe as no ordinary man. Recently released from a psychiatric prison for the mercy killing of his wife, he is burdened by guilt, and now, in possession of a seemingly innocuous prize, on the run from a nest of Nazi spies who want him dead.

Pursued on a dark odyssey through the bombed-out streets of London, he becomes enmeshed in a tangle of secrets that reach into the dark recesses of his own forgotten past. And there isn’t a soul he can trust, not even himself. Because Arthur Rowe doesn’t even know who he really is.

“A storyteller of genius,” Graham Greene composed his serpentine mystery of authentic wartime espionage—and one the author’s personal favorites—while working for MI6 (Evelyn Waug

The Dirty Dozen

The Dirty Dozen
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The Dirty Dozen is a classic that survived the circumstances that made it possible, yet alone keeps those circumstances alive.
The orders to Captain John Reisman were to select twelve General Prisoners convicted by courts-martial and doomed to be executed or serve lengthy prison terms for murder, rape, robbery and other crimes of violence, and to train and qualify them in as much of the clever and dirty business of behind-the-lines operations as they could absorb in a brief time; then to deliver them secretly onto the European mainland just prior to D-day, to wreak havoc upon segments and personnel of the Nazi war machine.

The Keep (The Adversary Cycle Book 1)

The Keep (The Adversary Cycle Book 1)
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The Keep is the first book in the Adversary Cycle from best-selling author F. Paul Wilson

“Something is murdering my men.”

Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small castle high in the remote Transylvanian Alps. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims.

When an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find something that’s both powerful and terrifying. Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore – who just happens to be Jewish – to shed some light on the mysterious happenings. And unbeknownst to anyone, there is another visitor on his way – a man who awoke from a nightmare and immediately set out to meet his destiny.

The battle has begun: On one side, the ultimate evil created by man, and on the other…the unthinkable, unstoppable, unknowing terror that man has inevitably awakened.

The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II

The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II
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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a perennial favorite of readers young and old, Herman Wouk’s masterful World War II drama set aboard a U.S. Navy warship in the Pacific is “a novel of brilliant virtuosity” (Times Literary Supplement).
Herman Wouk’s boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life–and mutiny–on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater was immediately embraced, upon its original publication in 1951, as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of World War II.
In the intervening half century, The Caine Mutiny has sold millions of copies throughout the world, and has achieved the status of a modern classic.

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
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Like no other masterpiece of historical fiction, Herman Wouk’s sweeping epic of World War II is the great novel of America’s Greatest Generation.

Wouk’s spellbinding narrative captures the tide of global events, as well as all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of World War II, as it immerses us in the lives of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war’s maelstrom.

The Winds of War and its sequel War and Remembrance stand as the crowning achievement of one of America’s most celebrated storytellers.

Eye of the Needle

Eye of the Needle
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The worldwide phenomenon from the best-selling author of The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, A Column of Fire, and The Evening and the Morning

His code name was “The Needle.” He was a German aristocrat of extraordinary intelligence – a master spy with a legacy of violence in his blood, and the object of the most desperate manhunt in history….

But his fate lay in the hands of a young and vulnerable English woman, whose loyalty, if swayed, would assure his freedom – and win the war for the Nazis….

The Last Lieutenant (The Todd Ingram Series Book 1)

The Last Lieutenant (The Todd Ingram Series Book 1)
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“Powerful and engaging. Truly an inspiring and emotional story of bravery and sacrifice … a must read.” —Nelson DeMille, #1 NYT Bestselling Author

The year is 1942.

Bataan has fallen to the Japanese. The Philippines seem sure to follow. When a general surrenders the last American outpost in the West Pacific, Navy Lieutenant Todd Ingram refuses to give up the fight.

Taking to sea under cover of darkness, he leads his ten man crew to accomplish the impossible….slip through Japanese naval blockades, travel 1900 miles to Australia, and singlehandedly stop a ruthless Nazi spy.

There are no reinforcements. There will be no rescue.

And if Todd fails, he won’t just lose his crew…he’ll lose the woman he loves, too.

In the heart-pounding tradition of Ken Follett’s Eye of the Needle comes a thriller brimming with raw courage, non-stop action, and an unforgettable villain.

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Praise for John J. Gobbell and THE LAST LIEUTENANT:

“Epic adventure in the grand tradition—a rip-snorting barnburner by a first-rate storyteller.” —Stephen Coontz

A Time to Serve

A Time to Serve
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As World War II begins, the Cooper family is thrust headlong into the fray, where they must face the ultimate test of courage—from the home front to the battlefield.

“…a suspenseful saga of one family’s inspiring fight…” —Lee Jackson, author of After Dunkirk

It’s 1941. Clyde and Abigail Cooper are happy newlyweds. She’s from Seattle’s upper crust, and he’s from the wrong side of the tracks. Yet the two are deeply in love. All Clyde wants is to give Abby the life she deserves.

But his plans are dashed with the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

However much he loves his new wife, Clyde can’t ignore his duty to serve. His cousin Shawn Cooper enlisted months before, anticipating the coming war. He regales Clyde with his experiences with a fledgling, experimental US Army unit known as the paratroopers. Soon Clyde enlists with plans for the Airborne, hoping the longer training cycle will outlast the war…

Abby is devastated to part with her new husband, and she knows she needs to find something to occupy her time. While the war has brought many new opportunities for women in the workforce, Abby stumbles into something quite exciting…and dangerous.

For Abby’s father, Victor Brooks, America’s entry into the war means profit. Brooks Industries was on the brink of collapse, but the war has changed everything. The only thing that can stop him is his own insatiable greed.

Thousands of miles away in the Philippines, Clyde’s brother Frank, a US Army soldier, fights for his life against a relentless Japanese onslaught. Ill-equipped, with no chance of resupply, Frank and his unit fight a well-trained Japanese Army on the Bataan Peninsula. After months of bloody fighting, Frank finds himself on the final Allied strongpoint remaining in the Philippines—Corregidor Island.

A Time to Serve is the first book in this epic new WWII historical fiction series, told through the eyes of the different members of the Cooper family, and following the war through its conclusion. Recommended for fans of Jeff Shaara and Ken Follett.

Tark’s Ticks: A WWII Novel

Tark's Ticks: A WWII Novel
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A desperate and bloody defense in the early days of WWII.

Hours after the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Army invades Luzon. The allies retreat to the Bataan Peninsula and the ensuing bloody battle sets the tone for the entirety of the war in the Pacific.

Far from home and abandoned, the brave GIs and Filipinos fight the Japanese to a standstill. Long months of bloody combat take their toll on both sides, however. The Japanese have reserves…the allies don’t.

Sergeant Tarkington and the soldiers of the 1st platoon are put to the ultimate test. With dwindling supplies and constant harassment from the battle-hardened Japanese, the GIs must adapt and become a cohesive fighting unit if they hope to survive.

Tark’s Ticks is the first book in this gritty WWII series

The Scarlatti Inheritance: by Robert Ludlum

The Scarlatti Inheritance: by Robert Ludlum
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First Robert Ludlum (the Bourne identity, Jason bourne)) novel

Her weapons: money and power. Her target: the most dangerous man in the world—her own son. Elizabeth Wyckham Scarlatti has a plan, a desperate, last-minute gamble designed to save the world from her son, Ulster, an incalculably cruel man who is working for the Third Reich under the name of Heinrich Kroeger. If Elizabeth cannot stop him, Ulster will give Hitler the most powerful instrument on earth.