BEELITZ-HEILSTÄTTEN: Where Ghosts Never Die by Marina Osipova @marosikok #RBRT

 4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: Timeslip terror, Pandora's Box opened...

A most interesting and unusual book.  Obsessed with seeing the place of her birth, a ghostly, derelict German military hospital near Berlin, Marion has no idea what will happen to her once she is inside, and what she will uncover, later.

I loved the timeslip element of this story, with Marion travelling back in time to the First World War, and finding herself working at the hospital as a nurse, tending to the injured men.  One in particular sends shivers of repulsion through her, though she doesn't know why; I liked how Ms Osipova endowed her with vague recollections about her life before, frustrating to her.  She knows something about various people, various elements of her life, but not what those 'somethings' are.  In the case of this patient, we know who he is, but Marion does not.

There are other truths to uncover about her present day life, as age-old documents are unearthed and she seeks the horrifying truth about the handsome young doctor she fell in love with during her dip back into the past, before the mind virus of Nazi Germany infected so many previously sane people.

This book is gripping, masterfully atmospheric, and unpredictable throughout - I thoroughly enjoyed it.

THE SHADOW NETWORK by Deborah Swift @swiftstory

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I read all Deborah Swift's books, full stop!  Original discovered her on Twitter.

In a Nutshell: World War II espionage drama

The next in the series of Deborah Swift's excellent and oh-so-British tales of espionage and undercover networks during World War II.  The Shadow Network is particularly interesting because Lilli, the main character, is a part-Jewish refugee from Berlin, who falls prey to circumstances that lead her to take a major part in a 'black' propaganda outfit, targeting the German people and armed forces.  

This book has a particularly thrilling start, set as it is in Germany, when life was precarious for so many.  The pace continues throughout, culminating in gripping ending that made me wish it was a TV mini-series.  Ms Swift has painted a wonderfully nasty antagonist in the form of Brendan Murphy, member of the IRA.

As ever, the research is detailed and fascinating; Deborah Swift outlines the real story behind the fiction in the back of the book, and, once more, I wished I'd read it first.  I've no doubt that this novel will be as successful as The Silk Code - and I look forward to Operation Tulip!

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT by Erich Maria Remarque

 5 GOLD stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: Looked for it after re-watching the recent German remake of the film

In a Nutshell: A young German man's experiences in World War I

I was surprised, when I started to read this book.  I expected it to be heavy going, a lengthy tome, but it's far from that.  It's not very long (I would estimate about 70K words), and the first person point of view of Paul Bäumer, the protagonist, flows along in a highly readable fashion; it's like reading a diary.  I'd finished it in just two days, couldn't put it down.  

It goes without saying that the novel illustrates the absolute evil of war, and reminds one of the pointlessness of all that those millions of poor men suffered on the Western Front, for nothing much at all apart from making those who profit from such carnage even richer and more powerful.  Meanwhile, Paul and his friends gradually change from enthusiastic lads who were lied to by their teachers about the glory of war and how it was their duty to enlist, to shell-shocked and lost men who can relate only to each other; nothing prepared them for the horror of trench warfare, and no words can explain it to those back at home.

Echoing the cover, it's just the best war novel I've ever read.  Read it!! (btw if you're buying off Amazon, be careful not to get an abridged version)

'I am twenty years of age but I know nothing of life except despair, death, fear,  and the combination of completely mindless superficiality with an abyss of suffering.  I see people being driven against one another, and silently, uncomprehendingly, foolishly, obediently and innocently killing one another.  I see the best brains in the world inventing weapons and words to make the process that much more sophisticated and long-lasting.  And watching this with me are all my contemporaries, here and on the other side, all over the world - my whole generation is experiencing this with me.'

This picture says so much, no matter which country's generals demanded you be sent off to kill and be killed by men just like you - the Cameron Highlanders, before and after WWI.