I come across a lot of these modern thriller type books at work, and most of them are quite poor in my view. However, I was quite impressed with this, Greg Iles's debut novel. What sets this apart from other novels of a similar type (many of them written by more popular writers, I might add) are two things: The writing is very solid and measured, showing a very intelligent control of pacing and an excellent grasp of character, and the characters themselves are for the most part depicted in shades of grey rather than stark black and white. The protagonists are not at all the perfect hero types you'd find in a Tom Clancy novel, but instead make a lot of silly mistakes and manage to do the wrong thing at least half the time. The most assured and experienced protagonist is certainly the old police captain, Herr Hauer, but he is compromised here by concern for his naive son and a desire to see things through to the end with a minimum of death and harm. I found the pre-unification Germany setting to be very tense and portrayed with a great deal of realism, and unlike many other stories involving vast conspiracies with international ramifications, one can easily see how all the powers at play could bring their force to bare in this sort of environment, particularly in a situation of the magnitude at the core of Spandau Phoenix. The novel does a tremendous job of intriguing the reader by the true, and strange, case of Rudolf Hess, and I admit that after finishing this I went and looked up a lot of information on the man, his mysterious mission and his long prison term and unexplained death. Iles even does an admirable job of portraying the Nazis during the 1940s interludes here, making you aware of the madness in the command structure but not descending into parody or farce as it is often tempting to do.The novel stumbles a little in the ending, where Iles can't seem to help but yank out all the restraints that have kept things admirable throughout, and indeed, it all goes more than a little over-the-top, with everyone just screaming at each other and throwing guns around while a nuclear bomb is primed to explode. However, these kinds of set pieces are almost the expected finish for this sort of novel, and I won't begrudge Iles much for this as i'm often the sort of person who prefers the journey to arriving at the destination anyway, and in this case, the journey was quite satisfying. I'll be checking out something else from this writer soon.
I've yet to read one of Greg Iles' more contemporary thrillers but this is the second of his two World War II related novels I've enjoyed. At nearly 700 pages, it includes multiple interweaving storylines and complex inter-relationships between both East and West German, Soviet, British, American, Israeli, Libyan and South African characters and political interests, so it's sometimes hard to keep everything straight. There are more than a few times I had to go back and re-read a few pages or more just to ensure I had the right characters and my own personal clarity on storylines, but it's well worth the effort. I'm a big fan of Nazi villainy (there's none better), conspiracy theory and alternate history so "Spandau Phoenix" was right up my alley. There were a few times where I found myself plunging through, trying to persevere to the end, but overall it was a very quick page-turned and something I would recommend to fans of the genre.
What do You think about Spandau Phoenix (1994)?
Still a 5 star read after all of these years!A brilliant conspiracy fiction alternate history theory on what really happened to Rudolf Hess (On par w/ Jack Higgins "Thunder Point" about Borman or Joseph Heywood's "The Berkut" about Hitler).Shortly after Spandau prison is obliterated, with the US, Great Brittan, the Russians and Germany all mistrustful of one another guarding the Rubble a German police officer unearths some hidden documents about the true identity of the prisoner assumed to be Hess. Before he can decide how to procede, mayhem breaks lose as first the Russians and then the rest figure out that something is missing. Murder, brutality and a mad and desperate chase ensue as all sides race for the hidden info. Where does the trail lead...well, you need to read it to find out.Must read WW II fiction, I would highly recommend.
—Mark Soone
**SPOILERS**Where have all the Nazis gone?One thing about the new millenium is that there are no more old Nazi's running around the pages of our thrillers. No more Marathon Man, no more Boys from Brazil! Hell, even Indiana Jones left the Nazis behind with the new (and hopefully) last installment. So, having been Nazi free for quite some time it was interesting to go back and read a thriller that contained Nazis as well as East and West Germany, Gorbachev, Apartheid and no grunge music. Overall,
—Michael
Having just finished reading Black Cross by Geg Iles, I hopped onto this follow up. I prefer his more current novels in terms of storyline. However, I was really drawn into the premise of this book. The historical fiction aspect of what may have happened if Rudolf Hess was never in Spandau prison caught me off guard.This novel, even though it was slow developing and contained too many characters, was very intriguing and well crafted. After completing the book, I had to really think about how easy it would have been for the story to actually be true. That, to me, is the mark of an excellent writer. I consider Greg Iles to be my favorite author. The characters all came to life. Even though there were many characters, and I had a bit of trouble keeping them straight, Mr. Iles made everyone of them relevant to the story.A very good story.
—Bill Thibadeau
