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Hemingway is credited with saying, "All good books have one thing in common—they are truer than if they had really happened." That thought can definitely be ascribed to this World War II novel where fact and fiction cohabitate imaginatively in chapter after chapter. The literary conceit is simple enough: suppose the Germans had apprehended General Patton. However, the plot that follows is anything but simple, as the highest echelons of U.S. Command plan an incredibly desperate mission to simultaneously hide his capture from the world and rescue the fabled warrior.
As the plot develops, historical figures like Omar Bradley and Dwight D. Eisenhower mingle with fictional soldiers like the tough-as-nails Major Pizzio and Giuseppe, the Italian partisan committed to helping the Americans regardless of the cost. In both its savagery and heroism, war is depicted realistically as training exercises go catastrophically awry, firefights wreak havoc on enemies and allies alike, and sacrifice tops safety as the body count rises.
Author Burdick tells his tale with energy, passion, and authenticity. He keeps his foot on the pedal, and once begun, the pace never slackens. His characters are vividly drawn as flesh and blood human beings, not simply rehashed stereotypes. He has a researcher's eye for detail that manifests itself in spot-on descriptions of equipment, weapons, and aircraft of the era. The dialogue is salty and completely believable. Action and suspense sequences unfold cinematically. This is a novel one sees as well as reads, and it's one that readers will likely remember long after the last page has been turned.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review