"Here is an engaging novel of historical fiction, with rapidly developing plots and thrilling scenarios of espionage. David Huntley has accurately captured the times and tensions of global intelligence operations of post-World War II Eastern and Western Europe, the escalating concerns of the Allied Powers dealing with the rising Communist Bloc nation in the Soviet Union and Russia, the blooming Cold War, and the proliferation of the nuclear threat to the world.
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"David Huntley's novel, Death Watch Beetle, is an engaging, factually accurate story that drops you deep into the world of espionage and intrigue. If you love fast paced thrillers, get this book, sit down and be prepared not to do anything else until the last page is turned."
"A captivating spy thriller set in World War II and early Cold War era..put it on your must read list!"
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
England and the rest of Europe are trying to recover from WWII and also cope with a belligerent Soviet Union intent on dominating the Cold War. An executive of a British engineering company, Donald Harvey, is co-opted in the early 1950’s by a joint project of the CIA and British Secret Service MI6, to assist in tracing the whereabouts of a missing WWII high level Nazi. This war criminal Hans Kammler, had been responsible for the design of death camps, and the sealing of the Warsaw Ghetto. As one of Germany’s most senior SS officers, Hitler had personally placed this man in charge of all secret weapons programs including the V1, V2, and jet aircraft production, as well as the development of ultra-secret super weapons.
In tracing this wartime criminal through three continents, Harvey is constantly torn between his sworn endeavor and his conscience. He knew the Nazi had never been tried at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in absentia, and he wondered why? Was it because he had escaped with technology for which the West and the Soviets would be willing to ignore his war crimes, in return for his allegiance? This is the conundrum facing Harvey as he follows the dangerous trail of his quarry through one international sequence after another.
Donald Harvey’s conscience is also tested with the fact that his own love interest of Alijca Kozlowksi is a survivor of wartime atrocities against the Polish, and Jewish populations by both Russia and Germany. It is further tested and his resolve to hunt down the Nazi is intensified when Alijca’s Polish uncle is brutally murdered by a Russian assassin in a peaceful and bucolic English town.
This author brings the story to a startling and climactic conclusion by providing a plausible explanation as to the fate and final whereabouts of the war criminal. Interestingly, in these final chapters, it also provides a certain nexus to the early development of the apartheid system in South Africa.
"Donald's journey deep into the heart of a secret, nefarious organization pays homage to the tireless efforts of World War II codebreakers, superbly illustrating the ingenuity they employed to help shape the path of history."
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What I loved most about the storyline is that it places you in the middle of the action, as a participatory reader. In many cases, while reading David Huntley's work I relived much of my own personal adventures as a military veteran of war and post-war actions.
Huntley is to be commended for having written a thought-provoking, suspenseful account of one of the most dynamic moments in history. As this novel takes you over several continents, through several adventures, with various individuals, you will undoubtedly come to appreciate the great critical thinking and rhetorical talents of David Huntley."
