Game Of Spies: Amazon.ca: John Altman: Books

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From Booklist

The game of spies was one the British played exceedingly well during World War II, and their successes have generated a vast literature. This novel posits that a British espionage coup was ignored by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1940, thus allowing the German blitzkrieg to overrun the Low Countries and France in just six weeks. Most of the book is about the flight of two people from the Nazis. One is Hobbs, a British operative with a dubious reputation as a con man and opportunist. The other is Eva Bernhardt, a young German woman "recruited" by Hobbs. Hobbs is inserted into Germany to extract Eva after she obtains information about the Germans' thrust into the west. Chasing these two are Hagen and Frick, smart and relentless officers in the Gestapo's intelligence unit. It's spy versus spy, agent and double agent, double cross and triple cross. It's taut and lean and filled with action, yet author Altman still finds room for insightful reflections on the motives, morals, and misgivings of all the primary characters. A first-rate military thriller. Thomas Gaughan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2001

Tightly plotted, briskly paced: in its admirable economy what thrillers ought to be and seldom are. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

17 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

3.9 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars WWII spy thriller, May 6 2004

By	NANCY (Golden, Colorado) - See all my reviews

Although I'm not generally a reader of World War II nazi spy stories, a friend whose judgment I usually trust recommended this author#s work very highly and lent me the book. I was hooked from the first chapter and could hardly put the book down. I can't judge the historical accuracy of the book, but in terms of interesting characters and complex, fast moving plot, this book was intriguing and well written. I give it 5 stars!

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3.0 out of 5 stars Clumsy spies, April 18 2004

By	Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Game Of Spies (Hardcover)

This novel seemed to be a little fragmented. It starts out with a kidnapping which seems to be partially explained later in the novel, but not very well. There seem to be a lot of spies and intelligence service people tripping over their feet, and sleeper agents who are not very well placed. People seem to be dashing about in all directions. One would like to think that intelligence services operate with some amount of intelligence and well trained personnel, but perhaps that is wishful thinking.

The author tries to wrap things together later in the novel with an explanation of some grand scheme to plant misinformation, but by that point I had lost interest. It is the usual case in the spy business, i.e., you don't know who is working for whom, and you may not be sure of who you are working for yourself. You really can't trust anyone.

In this novel, various people have been blackmailed or seduced into spying, which would usually produce unreliable agents. It would be better to find someone willing to sell out for money (the usual case), or perhaps someone with a grudge against the establishment, perhaps someone who did not get a promotion which they feel in their own mind that they merited, i.e., a Benedict Arnold type.

I would note that the real sleeper agents at the start of World War II tended to be well placed, e.g., the one at Scapa Flow or the one in Honolulu, where they could provide valuable information.

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