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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
- V. Louise Saylor, Eastern Washington Univ. Lib., Cheney
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The North Sea lay serene, unusual for spring, but night would soon fall on a smoking, broken continent reeling from the shock of war. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Large, Hard to Chew Stew,
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This review is from: Spandau Phoenix (Mass Market Paperback)
An alphabet soup of Intelligence and Defence Agencies along with hysterical innocents are pulled into a messy vortex of choppy intrigue. The catalyst is the death of prisoner number 7 - Rudolph Hess. The Deputy Fuhrer's flight to Britain in 1941 continues to be one of the great historical mysteries but Iles disdains sparse subtlety. Instead the author throws in everything and the kitchen sink in his thriller including a cast including an aging female assassin, suave mercenary, Columbo-like intelligence officer, Czarist-zealot, South African General, Cuban pilot, Muammar Gaddafi, Leningrad-siege veteran turned professor, and more. Also references to Munich 72, the Odessa, the Russian Revolution, Guernica, the Six Day War will challenge many readers to keep it all straight. Frankly, all of these ingredients were fun - what was a problem was the length and lack of focus on a plausible Hess deception.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Complex but Satisfying,
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This review is from: Spandau Phoenix (Mass Market Paperback)
This is my 4th Iles book and I loved it. I agree, however, this book is not for everyone. It has a complex plot and there are MANY characters in this book. Some of the threads in the plot go nowhere and some seemingly key characters are killed off early in the book. There are also no clear heros (perhaps several) but some good bad bad guys (we all love to hate Nazi's). In my opinion, though, The Spandau Phoenix is a great book. It is exciting and fast paced. The reader has to pay careful attention to the detail but the payoff is a book of epic proportions. I highly recommend it for those not looking for the quick and easy read.
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Action-Packed Thriller With Too Many Pages!,
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This review is from: Spandau Phoenix (Mass Market Paperback)
Greg Iles really packed the action into "Spandau Phoenix." I would have rated the book higher, but it is way too long and goes off on many unnecessary tangents. A tighter narrative would have made a more suspenseful, and enjoyable read. However, if you have the patience to hang-in through almost 700 pages, you may find this suspense thriller very worth while. Berlin's Spandau Prison, where WWII Nazi war criminals were kept, was the last residence of Rudolph Hess, Prisoner #7, and Hitler's one time second in command. Hess left Nazi Germany in 1941 and flew a plane to Great Britain. His reasons, or mission, for going to the UK were never revealed. Hitler publicly called Hess insane for making the flight and parachuting into enemy territory. When Hess supposedly committed suicide in his prison cell in 1987, he was Spandau's last occupant. The prison was then scheduled to be destroyed. As crowds gathered to watch the demolition of this famous building, Berlin police were assigned to maintain crown control. KGB agents diligently photographed the crowd for later identification by the East German Stasi. Among the observers was an Israeli agent. A German police captain, in charge of the contingent guarding the rubble, unexpectedly finds mysterious papers hidden in what was Hess' cell. The papers were all written in Latin, a language he does not understand, except for the first paragraph, which is in German. The paragraph interested the police officer enough for him to bring the papers home to his wife to translate. Thus begins a desperate and brutal quest by the Soviets, British, Americans, and an Israeli agent for the Spandau Diaries - a search which leaves many dead bodies in its wake. Was Rudolph Hess really Prisoner #7, or did he have a double? Did Hess have a political agenda when he parachuted into Great Britain or was he really insane? Were members of the British nobility involved in a subversive plot with Hess and Hitler? This novel involves Germans, Russians, Israelis, British, Americans, South Africans, and Libyans. Iles' extraordinary tale takes the reader on a terrifying adventure into the past, which leads to the chilling realities of the present, that could very well result in worldwide nuclear war. His action scenes are so well written that they are almost visual, and certainly bring this drama to life. The main characters are complex and well defined, individually and in their relationships to each other. The ending will have you on the edge of your seat. In spite of the book's unnecessary length, and a confusing narrative at the beginning, I do recommend "Spandau Phoenix" to fans of mystery-thrillers and espionage novels. Bottom line - great plot and characters overcome any flaws.
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