Rating: Summary: Read better. Review: The story is Okay. At times predictable and the last few pages are peppered with spelling mistakes which i find very unprofesional. Slow at times. If the time period interests you and you are not looking for a fast paced read, go for it.
Rating: Summary: Mediocre Review: I thought Reich handled the immediate aftermath of WWII in Europe very well. I can see in my mind all the pictures he painted of the results of the Great War. However, I was distressed with his handling of General Patton! Patton may have been a military martinet but he would never be a traitor against the US & conspire to kill a president. Reich may have spent too much time in Switzerland & become enamored of the Germans!
Rating: Summary: Horrible Review: Don't read this book just because you liked Numbered Account. Numbered Account was excellent, this is anything but. I had to force myself to read the last 200 pages. I still don't know where the climax is. Horrible book. I hope he does better next time.
Rating: Summary: Covers some pretty familiar territory Review: This book is interesting enough, but no better than "Eye of the Needle" or "Day of the Jackal," in my opinion, and not as gripping as "The Odessa File."A military lawyer is on the trail of a Nazi war criminal who has escaped from a detention camp but has not fled the country. Evidence emerges of a planned high-profile political assassination. As the lawyer draws closer to his quarry, he begins to suspect that members of the American military are co-conspirators in the plot. Some of the elements are pretty familiar: the former reform school boy who made good and wants to prove himself, the angry man gunning for the murderer of his brother, the ruthless, arrogant super-spy that nothing can stop, the mentor who turns out to have been corrupted, the beautiful ice-princess who once loved the villain but finds herself reluctantly falling for the hero, the psycho military commander, the diabolically clever assassin who makes his way through hundreds of security staff, all armed to the teeth, and just sidles up to his target, and so forth. The author's research shows in his detail about the desperate life of survivors in Occupied Germany after the Second World War. On the other hand, there are irritating lapses, though they are more on the order of minor editorial matters than anything else. A pallet in a warehouse is spelled "palate"; a military band is said to be playing a "Souza" march; a string quartet with piano accompaniment is performing, and one character speculates that they are performing a violin concerto, while another wishes they had played the Eroica symphony, either of which would be absurd for such a small group; finally, an assassin is compared to Gavrilo Princip, the Serb anarchist whose assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand provoked World War I--and who is referred to in the book as "Princeps." Finally, as another reviewer has noted, the author has extrapolated from certain known tendencies of General Patton to draw a conclusion that is sheer libel, if it were possible to libel the dead. Some years ago, a spy thriller called "The Glendower Legacy" was written, in which evidence is uncovered that Washington may have collaborated with the British during the American Revolution, but somehow, that plot device was handled more evenhandedly, without making you feel that Washington's memory and reputation had been completely desecrated. This book is good enough to read on an airplane or at the beach, but it's no great accomplishment, in my opinion.
Rating: Summary: Just Okay Review: The basic premise of The Runner and the description of the post-WWII period in Germany are very interesting. However, Reich's writing style has made his latest suspense thriller somewhat lacking in "the stuff" I need to keep me, and I think many readers of this genre need to keep them, on "the edge of their seat." For instance, the main character and key supporting characters are not interesting enough, and so I found myself not caring as much as I probably should have about what happens to them. Further, the action sequences were not plentiful enough for my taste and were too spread out when they did occur. As a consequence of these limitations, I found The Runner, overall, to be moderately enjoyable but a book that was easy for me to put down to do other things and not be in a rush to get back to.
Rating: Summary: Another wonderful thriller by a promising author Review: Having greatly enjoyed Reich's debut novel Numbered Account, I really looked forward to his next one. Although I had some doubts when I read that it involved a story about an American hunting a former SS-officer right after World War II, I couldn't resist. But I shouldn't have worried! The story is extremely captivating and especially the backdrop of the summer of 1945 provides a very interesting setting. The story is about an American lawyer, Devlin Judge, who decides to hunt down the SS-officer that killed his brother, Erich Seyss. Seyss is a former Olympian runner (which is not really relevant for the story) and also a master in impersonating the enemy (which is more interesting and proves instrumental in some interesting turns of events). Since Seyss just escaped, the story quickly turns into a cat-and-mouse game with a real conspiracy and a very interesting interpretation of Patton's actions! Having read some of the reviews listed below, I am a bit surprised by some of them. Why do readers get so worked up by some minor factual errors that are not relevant for the story? Do they read a book to catch the writer in some mistakes, rather than enjoying the story? And, being a European, it is amusing to see how Americans get all upset since they feel that the memory of one of America's great hero's (Patton) gets soiled, while other readers feel the book is anti-German. Actually, Reich explained how Patton's actions in the book are based on real facts (okay, the story is fiction, but hadn't you noticed that?)and the book is overall quite neutral about either Americans, Germans or Russians. All groups contain both good and bad people; it is almost like real life! Devlin Judge is a very enjoyable protagonist. One with a mission, a conscience, but also with doubts, self criticism and able to make mistakes. So, if you enjoy a good thriller with a very likable and believable hero, read this one!
Rating: Summary: Just the facts, ma'am! Review: Sorry, this one doesn't do it for me. In order to enjoy fiction, one must be able to "suspend disbelief" and be caught up in the story along with the characters. Too many factual errors for me to maintain that critical suspension of disbelief in this one. For example, Mr. Reich describes a .45 caliber pistol as having nine bullets in the cartridge, one in the chamber. Huh? A bullet IS a cartridge, and they go in the magazine, or the clip. Little things like this are jarring, like seeing a soldier with long hair curling over his ears in a movie about WWII - just not realistic. Mr. Reich has a fairly good writing style, but he needs - badly - a fact checker.
Rating: Summary: Who Can You Trust? Review: This is one of those feasts for devotees of conspiracies. If you are a true paranoid you will have no problem in relating to a tale where most of the members of the U.S. Army are traitors. Then again I was in the Navy, so I really don't know what goes on in the Army. Our story begins in Germany during the chaos of mid 1945. Our hero is an Army major, Devlin Judge, who is chasing down vicious ex SS major Erich Seyss who was responsible for the murder of Judge's brother. It appears that Seyss has been employed to conduct one last operation for the greater glory of Germany. He is to wreak some sort of havoc at the Potsdam conference to be attended by Truman, Stalin, and Churchill. Go ahead, your turn. You fill in the story blanks. That's right our hero is right on the heels of the villain but can't quite catch him. A pretty woman enters the story. People that should be trusted really let us down. Excitement mounts as we near the Potsdam city limits. Stalin and his new friends eat borscht unaware that danger threatens. I'm not trying to imply that the book is a bad one. It really isn't. The post WWII Germany setting is quite interesting. The story hums along just fine with lots of thrills and spills engineered to keep you awake an extra hour at night. The only problem is that the plot doesn't vary much from the standard formula for stories involving the good guy who is one step behind the bad guy who is about to destroy the world as we know it. Oh yes, there's that strange ballistics lesson that we are given. Our villain has just shot a man in the head in order to steal his uniform. Author Reich states "It had been a clean shot, barrel pressed to skin so as not to risk bloodying the uniform." I guess when you shoot an officer in the head the bullet just rattles around inside the skull instead of exiting, and soiling those nice khakis with blood and brain fragments
Rating: Summary: The Runner Sprints Review: Very imaginative if not a little far fetched. It's a real pageturner and a fun read with some history gossip thrown in.
Rating: Summary: The Trashing of an American Hero Review: Mr. Reich could have written an excellent story concerning the immediate aftermath of the war in Europe, however he spends most of the book making Gen. Patton a traitor and common murderer. His attempt to take Patton's warnings about the intent of the Soviets and the need to push them out of Eastern Europe (we might ask some of those left behind the iron curtin if Patton was correct) have been converted to his being a traitor, this is going to far, unfortunatly the courts have ruled that you cannot slander the dead.
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