#1 - Jonas Stern ( )

Using the enigmatic mystery of Hitler's second in command's reasons for flying solo to the UK in the early days of WWII, this novel expands on the mystery by asking who it really was who took the solitary dare towards Britain. Rudolf Hess, Hitler's right hand man for most of his pre-war political career did indeed land in England on May 10th, 1941. Or did he? When the Rudolf Hess who had been incarcerated in Spandau Prison since the conclusion of the Nuremberg Trials suddenly comes to die under suspect circumstances, a set of events reaching back to Hess's escape from Nazi Germany escalate rapidly taking over most of the novel in a James Bond fashion. Was the man imprisoned in Spandau really Rudolf Hess or as long suspected a carefully planted double?

And that's where this book falls apart. The author takes great pain to paint a picture of the chaotic days of internal politics of Germany between 1941 and the end of the war. But at the same time the incredibly out of proportion events, that take the main characters from West to East Berlin and back again all the way to South Africa, reduce the carefully crafted intrigue to a pile of Reichstag rubble. What could have been a subtle and suspenseful political thriller, turns quickly into a dime novel that would make even the most die hard Bond fan shudder. ( )

A long buried Nazi secret erupts into a nerve shattering nightmare, as fact meets fiction. in this explosive international thriller.
In 1941, Rudolf Hess, Hitler's fanatical Deputy Fuhrer, shocked the world by flying on a seemingly mad peace mission to Britain. He was captured there, and after the war, spent the rest of his life behind the forbidding walls of Berlin's Spandau prison.
In 1987, with that sole remaining prisoner's death, S;andau is razed, and the strangest, most mysterious chapter of World War II i closed forever, or is it?
The answer to this question is a decisive and deadly no for Berlin police sergeant Hans Apfel. In the rubble of Spandau, Hans discovers a sheaf of tattered papers in a holowed brick. It is the half-mad diary of Prisoner #7, known to the world as Rudolf Hess. And it holds the first shocking revelation of why Hess flew to Britain, and the terrifying dimensions of Hitler's boldest, most brilliant move at the height of his evil genius.
Thus the most vicious and momentous competition in the annuals of international espionage is set in motion. In a Germany moving toward unity, in a Soviet Union falling apart, and an Israel facing destruction, the most skilled players of the post-glasnost era will stop at nothing to seize the Spandau papers. Brutal violence, global intrigue, treason, and terror turn innocent bystanders into desperate combatants, in a world where nations battle for supremacy and trust is another word for suicide.
With unforgettable characters, including Sgt. Hans Apfel and his estranged father, forced to ally themselves against impossible odds; Hans' kidnapped wife, fighting to save her unborn child; and a driven Israeli agent whose country's survival depends on the contents of the Spandau diary. This riveting thriller moves relentlessly across time and around the globe. Its pulse-pounding action ranges from Germany to South Africa, from England to Israel, from a World War II conspiracy to its long-delayed but inescapable endgame, a Nazi dream that will not die. This is an epic novel that rips open the last great secret of World War II. ( )