London, 1978.Frau Fenderman approaches a warder at the Tower of London, asking questions about her husband – a Nazi spy who’d been imprisoned and executed there thirty years ago. But there’s no record of anyone called Claus Fenderman having ever been executed on British soil.Tasked with investigating the mystery, British Intelligence Officer Herbie Kruger digs into the strange operations of the … strange operations of the Psychological Warfare Executive. Beginning to put the pieces together, he discovers that the group was trying to push false occult predictions into the Nazi mind using the famous Nostradamus prophecies. But something had gone very, very wrong.
The deeper he delves into the investigation, the bigger and more dangerous the web becomes, for more than one of the participants in the Nostradamus Operation has something lethal to hide…
Praise for John Gardner:
‘A master storyteller at the height of his power’ – Len Deighton, acclaimed author of Funeral in Berlin
‘Cool polished story-telling with all the sexy sidelines in the best James Bond tradition’ – The Evening Standard
John Gardner was educated in Berkshire and at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He has had many fascinating occupations and was at one time a Royal Marine officer, a stage magician, theatre critic, reviewer and journalist.
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Different take on WWII early on
The only problem that I had with the book is that the writer think that the reader know all the terminology of the 2nd world war, which made the read difficult to read, but a great story and surprising end.
English espionage novel. Sort of The Graduate meets George Smiley. New school graduate recruited and enters deceptive world of espionage where nothing is as it seems. Moderately slow but interesting period novel.
The Nostradamus Traitor (Herbie Kruger Book 1) by John Gardner
I got a free copy of this book from Goodreads. In 1978, in London, Frau Hildegard Fenderman asks a London Tower Yeoman for information on her dead husband. She claims her husband, Claus Fenderman was shot dead on May 16, 1941, for spying for the Germans in WWII.
After it goes up the channels, the case lands in front of Eberhardt (Herbie) Kruger. As Herbie investigates, he comes into strange operations of the Psychological Warfare Executive. Beginning to put the pieces together, he discovers that the group was trying to push false occult predictions into the Nazi mind using the famous Nostradamus prophecies. But something had gone very, very wrong.
Narrated from the third person point of view, the plot takes place in two timelines: 1941 and 1978 in an intricate tangle of Cold War espionage vs German warfare.
I did not get drawn into the book. I thought the plot was incoherent and the characters were one-dimensional. Part of the problem is that they are multiple personalities – as we get deeper into the story one person becomes someone else, and then someone else again. Not a fan, even though it was an easy read.
If you have missed John Le Carre’s George Smiley, take a look at this author. Fantastically convoluted and well-built espionage drama.
Hard to get through this book.
By the time I finished the book there was not one character that I was rooting for. A bunch of despicable people on all sides of the fight.
Premise seemed to have merit but the back and forth through the telling of the story was at times hard to follow .
5 star plus book!!
Excellent spy mystery – during and after WW II.
This book is better than ok, but not great. It is slow getting started, and I often had a hard time keeping up with the different characters. It has a decent ending when everything is wrapped up. Book could be cut in half if some of the extraneous material was eliminated.
Any thing that John Gardner write is something you want to read. He is one of the very best of this genre.
It’s an OK spy novel. I tend not to finish books that I don’t enjoy and I did finish this one but I wish there was more character development.
A great book, plenty of action, plot twists galore and intriguing characters. An extremely well crafted mystery that will keep you guessing throughout. I particularly enjoyed the way Gardner told the story of George Thomas’s WW2 war years.
kind of obtuse
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
If you like Nostradamus this book if a real read. Never sure what will happen next right up to the ending.
Liked the story line, felt the author wrapped it up to quickly, or maybe I’m slow