My Review (5 stars out of 5) Writer and critic Geoff Dyer serves up a scene-by-scene analysis of the classic war movie, ‘Where Eagles Dare’ highlighting his favourite scenes as well as commenting on some of the actors’ proclivities – such as Richard Burton’s drinking, and Clint Eastwood’s stock-in-trade expressions. ‘Where Eagles Dare’ is one…
Category: War
‘The Skeleton Road’ by Val McDermid
My Review (5 stars out of 5) The discovery of a skeleton on the roof of a gothic building in Edinburgh gives Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie a difficult starting point. The task of identifying the bones, which have lain there for several years, means the lack of evidence leaves the team little to go…
‘A Woman of No Importance’ by Sonia Purnell
My Review (5 stars out of 5) In September 1941, a young American woman posing as a journalist arrived in Vichy, France. Her task was to work with the French resistance to sabotage, upset, and divert the Nazi invaders. By 1942 the Gestapo were hot on her heels, but Virginia Hall continued to slip through…
‘The War of the Worlds’ by HG Wells
My Review (5 stars out of 5) When an army of invading Martians lands in England, the population are thrown into panic. As huge three-legged machines trample across the countryside destroying everything in their path with a deadly heat ray, the people of Earth must come to terms with the possibility that humanity is to…
‘The Austrian Bride’ by Helen Parusel
The Austrian Bride My Review (4 stars out of 5) Austria, 1938. Longing for a better future for her fellow Austrians, Ella is caught up in the excitement when Hitler marches into Linz. But her enthusiasm fades as she witnesses the Nazis methods. Encouraged to join the Reich Bride School by her boyfriend Max and…
‘A Town Like Alice’ by Nevil Shute
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audio Book) Twenty-year-old Jean Paget is captured by the Japanese while working in Malaya during World War Two. Along with a group of women and children she is forced to march through the jungle while the enemy figures out what to do with their prisoners. Meeting some Australian…
‘Burke in the Land of Silver’ by Tom Williams
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Taking on the role of a spy, soldier James Burke reinvents himself as a Buenos Aires leather merchant, and with his trusty assistant William, sets off to aid efforts to free Argentina from Spain. Caught between two warring factions, Burke is faced with a difficult task and soon…
‘The Great Escape’ by Paul Brickhill
My Review (5 stars out of 5) The classic wartime adventure story that tells how 600 men worked on a plan that would eventually result in 76 men escaping from a prisoner-of-war camp. With men engaged in digging, forging passports and other documents, making suitable escape outfits and keeping the Germans occupied when they got…
‘High Risk’ by Ben Timberlake
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) Ben Timberlake delves into his various careers and non-careers as an archaeologist, Special Forces soldier, combat medic and drug addict, emerging in one piece, though perhaps not quite the same man as he once was. From a truly scary near-death experience in a very dodgy bar in…
‘The American Crusade’ by Mark Spivak
*** May 2001. Islamic terrorists crash a Boeing 737 into the Mall of America, killing three thousand people. With the nation in fear for their lives, Vice President Robert Hornsby has the opportunity to stamp his fervent beliefs on his country and become the most powerful vice president in American history. But can Hornsby succeed…
Colin Garrow 