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Secret Honor

Secret Honor

List Price: $24.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Secret Honor
Review: Not one of Griffin's best efforts. Little action and excessive attention to the boring details of aristocratic life on both sides of the conflict.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Secret Honor
Review: Not one of Griffin's best efforts. Little action and excessive attention to the boring details of aristocratic life on both sides of the conflict.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: secret honor
Review: Of all Mr. Griffins books that I have read this is the most boring, it would take a computer to keep up with all the German surnames. I read about three quarters of the book and threw it away, I found no suspense, no action, no plot, nothing to keep your interest. I read as much as I did hoping for something. I will admit I haven't read the previous two books of this series, I can only hope that in them there is something to make this book "work".

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Secret Honor, few Secrets
Review: Posted reader-reviews by Kelley and Anthony, fellow West-Coasters are essentially accurate judgments. I rate it 2 stars rather than 3 because it's so much less intriguing than any previous Griffin (Butterworth) novels, in this series, The Corps, or possibly anything but the Philly PD books. As for historical inaccuracies, I right away picked up on the "Army Air Corps," but that's almost obscure; many people don't realize Hap Arnold changed the name to US Army Air Forces in mid-1941. Many other "errors" seem to be continuity or proofreading errors, getting times wrong, as with the invitation to see Peron at 7:30PM but arriving before 6. Not as good as the first two in the Honor series, we still need to read this, I just wish it had been incorporated with #4, so we didn't have to pay to read about a couple of months in the life of Clete Frade.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Secret Honor is A Dud
Review: Set primarily in Argentina during WWII, with some scenes in Germany, Secret Honor is filled with what could have been an interesting blend of romance and intrigue. Cletus Frade, an American OSS officer, marries Dorotea in Argentina and becomes the Patron of a vast Argentine ranch. He is an accomplished pilot, and befriends a German officer, who also manages to fall in love with an Argentine woman. Cletus is also involved in a plot to subvert the Germans in their attempt to use Argentina as a refueling/retrofitting stop for their submarines.

As a piece of historical fiction, the novel brought interesting insights into the involvement of Argentina with Germany during WWII; however, the detail of many evil German officers, their blind devotion to The Fuhrer, and the litany of what officer reported to whom, and their rank and titles, etc. was boring beyond belief. I kept waiting for something big to happen, and it never did.

I have been a fan of Griffin for many years, especially his Brotherhood and Corps series, and expected a much high caliber of character development and fluid plot progression than was evident in Secret Honor. I slogged through the book only because I kept recalling how engaging some of Griffin's earlier books had been, and thought that this one would "kick in" at any time. I won't give up on this author yet, but this was not the Griffin I had learned to savor.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Listening to tape takes a lot of concentration
Review: Some books on tape are easy listening for long car trips. Some involve more complex plots and/or ideas and take more concentration than is safe when driving. I suppose tapes have to be judged by slightly different standards than the books on which they based. A book like <Secret Honor> has so many characters, so many plot threads and twists, that the listener wishes he could look back to remind himself about who a person is or what event is being referred to. Even in its abridged format (6 hours), this novel is pretty involved. Frankly I began to give up half way through. I did like the reader however, and the sporadic use of background music and some sound effects helped somewhat. The plot began very nicely, holding my interest, but then too many things began to happen--and none of them were particularly exciting--to characters with whom I felt little or no sympathy. For those who like this author or sprawling spy novels, this tape is recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: OVERALL SCORE: (A-)
Review: The book set in WWII Argentina, "Blood and Honor" is a great historical fiction of the WWII espionage game, coupled with an intense and dynamic story line. As good as the plot is it's the wonderfully rich and vibrant characters that make this story as great as it is. This story wraps you up in the characters, make you care about them, and takes you on a wonderful journey that ends way too soon, thankfully there are two more books in the series ("Honor Bound" and "Blood and Honor").

Cletus Frade, is a magnificent hero who has intensity, likeability, and charm. The secondary characters are richly developed and are as interesting in many cases as the hero. In fact the character of "Hans Peter (Galahad)" is even more interesting than the main hero, I wish Mr. Griffin would write a series with him as the main character.

This is a transition book in this series, and as such does not have the excitement or drive that it might other wise have, this does not make this a bad book, it's not, in fact it's very good, but just not as good as the first two, and hopefully the next in this series.

OVERALL SCORE: (A-)
PLOT: (A-), CHARATERS: (A+), DIALOGUE: (A-), SETTING: (A), ACTION/COMBAT: (C), ANTAGONISTS: (A-), ROMANCE: (A-), SEX: (Light), AGE LEVEL: (PG)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: World War II Intrigue at its finest
Review: The third in the Honor Bound series from W.E.B. Griffin, Secret Honor continues the intrigue and intricate sub-plots set in Nazi Germany and neutral Argentina. This novel is interesting from many angles. First as always with Griffin, the WWII military context is rich, insightful, and authoritative. The inside look at the Nazi war machine, its affect on the German officers corps, and their unfolding awareness of the Nazi atrocities makes the book a worthwhile read by itself. But there is much more. The South American setting, with all the complexities of Argentine neutrality, and the culture and politics of Argentina in the 1940's vis-a-vis the Germans and Americans, is a fascinating and unusual angle on WWII. Finally, the characters - Cletus Frade, his new bride Dorotea, the OSS officers, the young Nazi pilot Wachstein, and the mysterious Coronel Peron - are rich, fully developed, and unforgettable.

After reading this book I find myself thinking about the characters, and wondering when the fourth in this series will be forthcoming.

This is a great book, and a great historical novel. Read this book and read this series! You will thoroughly enjoy it!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A disappointment
Review: The third installment in W. E. B. Griffin's 'Honor' series is going to be something of a disappointment to anyone who expects the same level of excitement as the first couple of books delivered. This continuation of the story of Cletus Frade and his rather large cast of co-stars seems much more like some domestic melodrama, with the emphasis on shootgun weddings, marriages, receptions and the ongoing muddle of Argentine politics. There were some points of interest; Juan Peron continues as a character, playing a more central - though not very interesting - role, and Evita Duerte (Peron)is introduced, though, again, nothing much is done with the character. At book's end we don't have the sense of a real conclusion and there will almost certainly be a sequel, although I can't imagine why. This story has played out. Enough already. It's hard to take an espionage story seriously when the lead character goes home at night and tells his wife everything he did that day at work. Now that Cletus and "Galahad" are both married off and expecting little ones, where can the story go?

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing...
Review: This book gets the second star only because of the previous books in the "Honor" series and the books in "The Corps" series. There is almost nothing that happens in this book that couldn't have been covered in the last 10 pages of the previous book or the first 10 pages of the next book. 50% of the book was a summary of the previous 2 books! Don't waste your money on this book; you can catch up in the next book easily. Mr. Griffin, please do better next time!


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