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The Expendable Spy
Against the background of a deadly undercover war between the Gestapo and Soviet agents during the collapse of the Third Reich, The Expendable Spy is the hair-raising novel of an audacious American who discovers a secret so big and so appalling that his own intelligence office orders his execution.
279 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
17 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Jack D. Hunter
26 books9 followersHunter was born in Hamilton, Ohio, on June 4, 1921, the son of Whitney G. and Irene Dayton Hunter. Ironically, while his father, whose long career with the Du Pont Company began as a paint color evaluator because of his sensitivity to colors, Hunter was red-green blind. He graduated with a BA in journalism from Penn State University in 1943.
During World War II, Hunter joined the U.S. Army, but when he could not recognize the color of flares or follow tracer bullets he was transferred to counter-intelligence in a move that spared him the fate of most of the others in his infantry class — death on Omaha Beach during D-Day.
Because he spoke German, having taught himself and then studied it in college, Hunter was sent to Germany just after the war ended. The Allies had discovered that some high-ranking Nazis had gone underground and were waiting until the political atmosphere settled down, at which point the Nazis would infiltrate the new German government. As a 24-year-old lieutenant, Hunter, disguised as a Lithuanian black marketeer, engineered a sting called "Operation Nursery", which resulted in the arrest of over 1000 Nazi plotters in a single night. He was awarded the Bronze Star.
"Operation Nursery," including Jack Hunter's role in it forms the basis of the nonfiction book The Axmann Conspiracy: The Nazi Plan for a Fourth Reich and How the U.S. Army Defeated It, Berkley Books (Penguin), Sept. 2012.
After the war, Hunter worked in various journalistic capacities, as a public relations executive for Du Pont, and as a speech writer in Washington D.C.
His first novel was 'The Blue Max', and the publisher remarked that, as a new author, they would not spend the money to have an artist paint a color cover for his book. Hunter, who often dabbled in water colors, volunteered to paint it himself. The publisher liked it and used it, and Hunter considered that cover painting to be his first "sale". He then turned what was once a hobby into a second career as an aviation artist.
Hunter was the author of 17 novels, his last being 'The Ace', which was published on October 1, 2008. Like The Blue Max, which is still popular after 44 years, 'The Ace' deals with World War I aviation, but focuses on the human costs and chaotic conditions that belabored the Americans in their need to build a world-class air force virtually overnight.
During the 1980s, Hunter served as the writing coach for reporters working at the (now defunct) Jacksonville Journal and for the Florida Times-Union, which still publishes in Jacksonville. In this role, which continued three days a week for 10 years, Hunter provided encouragement, tutelage and support to hundreds of journalists, some of whom went on to work at The New York Times, The Denver Post, The Miami Herald and in many other venues.
He lived in St. Augustine, Florida, until he died at age 87 on April 13, 2009.
During World War II, Hunter joined the U.S. Army, but when he could not recognize the color of flares or follow tracer bullets he was transferred to counter-intelligence in a move that spared him the fate of most of the others in his infantry class — death on Omaha Beach during D-Day.
Because he spoke German, having taught himself and then studied it in college, Hunter was sent to Germany just after the war ended. The Allies had discovered that some high-ranking Nazis had gone underground and were waiting until the political atmosphere settled down, at which point the Nazis would infiltrate the new German government. As a 24-year-old lieutenant, Hunter, disguised as a Lithuanian black marketeer, engineered a sting called "Operation Nursery", which resulted in the arrest of over 1000 Nazi plotters in a single night. He was awarded the Bronze Star.
"Operation Nursery," including Jack Hunter's role in it forms the basis of the nonfiction book The Axmann Conspiracy: The Nazi Plan for a Fourth Reich and How the U.S. Army Defeated It, Berkley Books (Penguin), Sept. 2012.
After the war, Hunter worked in various journalistic capacities, as a public relations executive for Du Pont, and as a speech writer in Washington D.C.
His first novel was 'The Blue Max', and the publisher remarked that, as a new author, they would not spend the money to have an artist paint a color cover for his book. Hunter, who often dabbled in water colors, volunteered to paint it himself. The publisher liked it and used it, and Hunter considered that cover painting to be his first "sale". He then turned what was once a hobby into a second career as an aviation artist.
Hunter was the author of 17 novels, his last being 'The Ace', which was published on October 1, 2008. Like The Blue Max, which is still popular after 44 years, 'The Ace' deals with World War I aviation, but focuses on the human costs and chaotic conditions that belabored the Americans in their need to build a world-class air force virtually overnight.
During the 1980s, Hunter served as the writing coach for reporters working at the (now defunct) Jacksonville Journal and for the Florida Times-Union, which still publishes in Jacksonville. In this role, which continued three days a week for 10 years, Hunter provided encouragement, tutelage and support to hundreds of journalists, some of whom went on to work at The New York Times, The Denver Post, The Miami Herald and in many other venues.
He lived in St. Augustine, Florida, until he died at age 87 on April 13, 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 31, 2018
I did this as an audio book and it made for good treadmill listening.
September 1, 2025
A WW2 based spy thriller, with many twist and turns. Consumed via audio from library, it was worth the listen (~10 hrs). Fun even if a bit far fetched.
February 9, 2013
OK, there is no getting around it. This book is terrible. It doesn't help that the narrator seems bored to death. The prose is mechanical. The plot... OK, so the author has been to Munich. I am convinced because he was able to rattle off street names that must be there. After all, there was no other reason for rattling them off since they didn't factor into the story at all.
Yet, there is something about the old "Saturday matinee bad film noir from the thirties" feel about it, but alas, it fails even at being "good" bad most of the time. We are supposed to believe that this is thinly veiled autobiography, so we get the "moral dilemma" of our spy hero having to sleep with the beautiful blond German gold digger. He agonizes about this for days, because, after all, he could have just blackmailed her or beat her up. Then he is hardly fazed when he does punch her and mildly disquieted when she is blown across the room by a 45. Dude, seriously? This book was written in 1965, so the author had 20 years to polish his attitudes and his exploits.
Yet, there is something about the old "Saturday matinee bad film noir from the thirties" feel about it, but alas, it fails even at being "good" bad most of the time. We are supposed to believe that this is thinly veiled autobiography, so we get the "moral dilemma" of our spy hero having to sleep with the beautiful blond German gold digger. He agonizes about this for days, because, after all, he could have just blackmailed her or beat her up. Then he is hardly fazed when he does punch her and mildly disquieted when she is blown across the room by a 45. Dude, seriously? This book was written in 1965, so the author had 20 years to polish his attitudes and his exploits.
September 26, 2015
This book fails utterly as prose -- the writing isn't great, the pacing is terrible, there's a lot more of the author's weird shit in here than I need or want (eg: all the women are constantly in raptures about the greatness of American men vs all other men), and it suffers from that ailment common to mysteries where the author is so concerned with the reader never seeing it coming that nothing in the denouement makes any sense. But I do think it succeeds as something like a primary source -- the author did do intelligence work in Germany right after the war, and there are a lot of details about the setting, and the job, and there's a noirish slant to the dialogue and the protagonist that I came to enjoy despite myself.
December 26, 2013
1945 in Germany. This is an amazing read due to the incredible level of day-to-day detail built into each scene. The rich prose, emotion, and stark reality of war from a largely civilian perspective takes you back to another time where the significance is lost on most people today. Only someone who lived, understood, and got it down on paper before it dissipated could have done such a masterful job. Any WWII historian or student of the era will find the book fascinating.
March 13, 2015
The expendable spy by Jack D Hunter
I won this book through Member Giveaways on LibraryThing. An American intelligence officer who happens to speak flawless German is parachuted behind German lines in 1945 as a courier on a secret mission. He is in fact expendable yet he needs to live long enough to tell his story. While I wasn't really able to relate to the story it was a good read. Perhaps much of it was beyond mysterious for my taste buds. ( )
flagMar 12, 2015 | edit |
I won this book through Member Giveaways on LibraryThing. An American intelligence officer who happens to speak flawless German is parachuted behind German lines in 1945 as a courier on a secret mission. He is in fact expendable yet he needs to live long enough to tell his story. While I wasn't really able to relate to the story it was a good read. Perhaps much of it was beyond mysterious for my taste buds. ( )
flagMar 12, 2015 | edit |
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September 6, 2012OK, very slow build up. Hunter could have removed a few items
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews