THRILLER REVIEW: The One Man - Andrew Gross

Release Date: 22/09/16
Publisher:  Pan

SYNOPSIS:

Auschwitz, 1944. Alfred Mendl's days are numbered. But he has little left to live for - his family were torn away from him, his life's work burned in front of his eyes - until a glimmer of hope arises as he watches a game of chess. To the guards Mendl is just another prisoner, but in fact he holds knowledge that only two people in the world possess. The other is working hard for the Nazi war machine.

Four thousand miles away, in Washington DC, intelligence lieutenant Nathan Blum decodes messages from occupied Poland. After the Nazis murdered his family, Nathan escaped the Krakow ghetto and is determined to support his new country - and the US government knows exactly how he can. They want to send Nathan on a mission to rescue one man from a place no one can break in to - or out of.

Even if Nathan does make it in and finds him, can they escape the most heavily guarded place on earth?


REVIEW:

OK, you like Thrillers and want something spectacular, you also want something with a historical context alongside a huge sense of danger accompanied by consequences for choices made throughout. So where are you going to go? Well, this recommendation from me is from an author I’ve not read before and whilst I know he has a back catalogue, it was the premise of this title that really grabbed me. Taking us back to the days of World War 2 with a tale of a daring rescue from Auschwitz. Its gripping from page one. Has a cracking protagonist and keeps you glued throughout as the knowledge that it’s all being done for could end the world.

The dialogue is cracking, the time period brought to life and really lets you feel that you are walking through that dark period of history which when backed with a good sense of pace really does deliver a book that I’d put top of any Thriller fans list for the Christmas period. Yes it’s a little early to be thinking that far ahead but this book really was that good. Cracker.