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[ [ [ The Traitor [ THE TRAITOR ] By Walters, Guy ( Author )Jul-19-2005 Paperback
It is 1943. British SOE agent Captain John Lockhart is in Crete, fighting with the Resistance. Captured by the Germans, Lockhart faces a stark choice, between death and betrayal of his country. Concealing his true motives, Lockhart makes a in return for the life of his imprisoned wife, he will work with the Germans. When his mission is revealed, Lockhart is stunned. He is to lead a unit of the Waffen SS made up of British fascists and renegades culled from POW the British Free Corps. Lockhart takes command, but he has an audacious plan to free his wife and other innocent victims of the war - whatever the personal cost.
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About the author
Guy Walters
21 books70 followersGuy Walters (born 8 August 1971) is a British author, novelist, historian, academic and journalist.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 17, 2020
Reality is sometimes more incredible and implausible than fiction. Some of history’s biggest absurdities and most unlikely events are undeniably actual things that have happened.
The Traitor: A Novel by Guy Walters presents one such incredible story: too hard to really believe, yet based on an actual situation in WW II.
In WW II, the Nazi's assembled a unit of soldiers and others to be used as a force against the allies. This unit consisted not of Germans, but of British citizens who favored the Nazi cause or who were easily co-oped due to their low intellectual capabilities. At it height, this unit actually consisted of 50 such men.
Their role was to serve in undercover activities such as sabotage where their native English speaking skills could facilitate their undercover functions.
Walters' novel imagines the creation of this unit, creates characters to populate the fictional unit, and involves the unit in a fictional, suspenseful tale of intrigue and double dealings.
The work of actual undercover agents and spies often goes entirely undetected and such agents often die with no credit, recognition, or even acknowledgement of who they were, even when their accomplishments were important and memorable events. They leave reputations as being "traitors" in their wakes.
Within the story of this particular special force comes the story of one of its members' daughters seeking to find out about his work and to clear his name. This part of the story intrudes into the primary text only in short and infrequent passages and seems more of an interruption to the main story than a necessary part of telling it. Moreover, this intrusive text detracts from the ending of the greater tale of the last maneuver Walters imagines for this group of agents, giving the novel a predictable rather than a realistic conclusion.
The story tells of recruiting a leader for this group who has been captured in a failed undercover assignment for the British army. John Lockhart becomes the British agent recruited to be the commander, under his Nazi overseer, Major Carl Strasser of the SS, agreeing to the position because he is convinced he will save the life of his wife who has been arrested in the German invasion of the Netherlands. Besides working to free his wife, he believes he can double cross his captors and be a valuable service to the nation to which he truly loyal, the UK.
Is Lockhart naive or is he just as simple minded as were the real-life members of this unit? The reader will have to come to his own conclusions about this. In either case, it is difficult to believe that anyone who had seen what the Nazis had done could imagine that they could be trusted.
The story casts Lockhart as coming across plans for an intensely powerful chemical agent, sarin--the very real and highly lethal nerve gas, and figuring out how to destroy the stockpile of it the Germans have created and planned to send to London on their new, secret rockets.
Walters makes the story both exciting and almost-plausible, making The Traitor a worthwhile novel.
The Traitor: A Novel by Guy Walters presents one such incredible story: too hard to really believe, yet based on an actual situation in WW II.
In WW II, the Nazi's assembled a unit of soldiers and others to be used as a force against the allies. This unit consisted not of Germans, but of British citizens who favored the Nazi cause or who were easily co-oped due to their low intellectual capabilities. At it height, this unit actually consisted of 50 such men.
Their role was to serve in undercover activities such as sabotage where their native English speaking skills could facilitate their undercover functions.
Walters' novel imagines the creation of this unit, creates characters to populate the fictional unit, and involves the unit in a fictional, suspenseful tale of intrigue and double dealings.
The work of actual undercover agents and spies often goes entirely undetected and such agents often die with no credit, recognition, or even acknowledgement of who they were, even when their accomplishments were important and memorable events. They leave reputations as being "traitors" in their wakes.
Within the story of this particular special force comes the story of one of its members' daughters seeking to find out about his work and to clear his name. This part of the story intrudes into the primary text only in short and infrequent passages and seems more of an interruption to the main story than a necessary part of telling it. Moreover, this intrusive text detracts from the ending of the greater tale of the last maneuver Walters imagines for this group of agents, giving the novel a predictable rather than a realistic conclusion.
The story tells of recruiting a leader for this group who has been captured in a failed undercover assignment for the British army. John Lockhart becomes the British agent recruited to be the commander, under his Nazi overseer, Major Carl Strasser of the SS, agreeing to the position because he is convinced he will save the life of his wife who has been arrested in the German invasion of the Netherlands. Besides working to free his wife, he believes he can double cross his captors and be a valuable service to the nation to which he truly loyal, the UK.
Is Lockhart naive or is he just as simple minded as were the real-life members of this unit? The reader will have to come to his own conclusions about this. In either case, it is difficult to believe that anyone who had seen what the Nazis had done could imagine that they could be trusted.
The story casts Lockhart as coming across plans for an intensely powerful chemical agent, sarin--the very real and highly lethal nerve gas, and figuring out how to destroy the stockpile of it the Germans have created and planned to send to London on their new, secret rockets.
Walters makes the story both exciting and almost-plausible, making The Traitor a worthwhile novel.
July 14, 2023
A very realistic story that had me hooked from start to finish ; ok so its a little longer perhaps than your average fiction adventure but then this is no average fiction adventure !
Featuring the "SOE" , the 'British Free Corps ' the German ""SD" and the Russian 'GRU' -which a quick visit to google will tell you really existed at the time - our story ,though not an actual true story- tells of our hero "British SOE agent Captain John Lockhart" at first offering to betray his country to the Germans in order to save his own life and that of his imprisoned wife Anna , before trying to atone for his treachery by destroying a secret nerve gas ('Sarin' -which again google will confirm did exist at the time ) which the Germans plan to launch on Britain in Rockets , potentially killing millions .
Our story also periodically very cleverly jumps through time from the 1940's up to the 1980's with a "side story" featuring John and Anna's daughter Amy who as an adult attempts to discover the truth about her father and whether or not he really was a traitor !
I really enjoyed this book and have no hesitation in saying it is certainly one of the best "stand alone" fiction adventure stories I have ever read !
Featuring the "SOE" , the 'British Free Corps ' the German ""SD" and the Russian 'GRU' -which a quick visit to google will tell you really existed at the time - our story ,though not an actual true story- tells of our hero "British SOE agent Captain John Lockhart" at first offering to betray his country to the Germans in order to save his own life and that of his imprisoned wife Anna , before trying to atone for his treachery by destroying a secret nerve gas ('Sarin' -which again google will confirm did exist at the time ) which the Germans plan to launch on Britain in Rockets , potentially killing millions .
Our story also periodically very cleverly jumps through time from the 1940's up to the 1980's with a "side story" featuring John and Anna's daughter Amy who as an adult attempts to discover the truth about her father and whether or not he really was a traitor !
I really enjoyed this book and have no hesitation in saying it is certainly one of the best "stand alone" fiction adventure stories I have ever read !
October 2, 2021
Almost a 4 so lets call it a 4.5, as it was so good. This may be a novel (whose time span of the action ranges from the 1930's to the 1980's) but it's based on facts and real people. Lockhart may well be the main character in this novel but it was hardest on the three main female characters of Anna & Leni whose lives were reduced to slavery throughout WW2 and Amy who tries to piece together her father's story whilst battling government bureaucracy, red tape and politics.
I wonder how many people have suffered over the years due to that particular brick wall ? I'm sure we all realise that counter espionage was out there in WW2, but who knew the facts ? I wonder how many such tales have been buried under the O.S.Act ? I was aware that many UK citizens were Nazis, Fascists & Communists at the time, what family were more divided on those than the Mitford's ?
I wonder how many people have suffered over the years due to that particular brick wall ? I'm sure we all realise that counter espionage was out there in WW2, but who knew the facts ? I wonder how many such tales have been buried under the O.S.Act ? I was aware that many UK citizens were Nazis, Fascists & Communists at the time, what family were more divided on those than the Mitford's ?
September 23, 2017
Our hero 'Lockwood' seems very naive to me and all he has managed at the beginning is to get people killed. He truly believed that by becoming a traitor he can save his wife and 'appear' to be an informant. Very foolish to believe that they care whether his wife is dead or alive and accepting the typed letters as proof is highly questionable. Eventually he grew to understand the truth and when he learned of the sarin gas he decided he had to destroy it no matter what the cost. Millions of English lives were at stake.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 29, 2025
「Flaunt」ostentum est. Id est.
Nay act turns ten lives swirling around it
To sodding defiance unknown to pious mens.
Defiance leads one to wandering aims.
Aims that steer this society to hapless ends.
Fellows, grab your chins
For nay acts still lead to it.
Unending this idle wandering
Still unknown to pious mens.
Running a gauntlet thee says.
Remote this struggle
Still to pious mens.
Ergo, ten ears pursue one
Who guides Us to the builders
Long-desired nay ultimate end.
Nay act turns ten lives swirling around it
To sodding defiance unknown to pious mens.
Defiance leads one to wandering aims.
Aims that steer this society to hapless ends.
Fellows, grab your chins
For nay acts still lead to it.
Unending this idle wandering
Still unknown to pious mens.
Running a gauntlet thee says.
Remote this struggle
Still to pious mens.
Ergo, ten ears pursue one
Who guides Us to the builders
Long-desired nay ultimate end.
May 1, 2019
This was an exciting book to read. The plot was so good and I got to know the main character Lockhart vey well. Although it was fiction the setting and storyline was realistic of what it was like and how tough it was. I struggled at times to stop reading it which was a good sign for me.
July 27, 2022
superb read
Guy Walters has written a gripping credible novel that stemmed from a man trying to save his wife form a Nazi prison and ending up saving Britain .
It was hard to put the book down once started ..adventure and suspense in every chapter…
Guy Walters has written a gripping credible novel that stemmed from a man trying to save his wife form a Nazi prison and ending up saving Britain .
It was hard to put the book down once started ..adventure and suspense in every chapter…
April 8, 2024
3.5. I've had this book for a lot of years and finally decided to give it a try. I actually thought before I started that I probably wouldn't get far and would abandon it, but it grabbed me and I kept going. All in all, a good read. Not overly believable, but entertaining nonetheless.
October 28, 2018
Interesting historical facts - your never too old to learn.
Read
August 1, 2024shelved
January 2, 2024
This debut World War II thriller is grounded in a fascinating slice of history -- the existence of a tiny Waffen-SS unit called the British Free Corps. This was more or less a Nazi propaganda ploy, recruiting British POWs to form a unit similar to those made of other nationalities (about 500,000 non-Germans served in Waffen-SS units, some conscripted, but many volunteer). The premise here is that an SOE operative named Jack Lockwood is captured in Crete and eventually agrees to lead a British SS unit if it means he can contact his wife, who is being held in a concentration camp. There's a clunky framework around this, involving his daughter in the 1980s, who is digging into the past, trying to find out if he was really the traitor everyone said he was.
There's quite a bit to like about the story, which is rich in period detail about POW camp life, and the wartime German administrative bureaucracy. It's hard not to like Lockwood, who is playing a kind of double-game, agreeing to work with the Germans on the British Free Corps for as long as he can. However, he stumbles across information about a plan to use sarin gas against London and decides that he has to try and stop it from happening. This brings him into the orbit of a woman conscripted by the SD to be a prostitute to German officers, identifying security risks.
They team up and manage to get enough leverage over Lockwood's German handler for them to plan a crazy scheme worthy of an old Jack Higgins thriller, setting up a climax that manages to be simultaneously wildly implausible and maudlin. The book is far too long -- the first-time author spends a bit too much space teasing out the motivation for every character's decision or action. And like many a thriller, there are a few hefty coincidences along the way. Those quibbles aside, it is likely to appeal to any reader with a taste for World War II fiction. For the full nonfiction treatment of the British Free Corps, check out Adrian Weale's definitive 1994 book Renegades: Hitler's Englishmen.
There's quite a bit to like about the story, which is rich in period detail about POW camp life, and the wartime German administrative bureaucracy. It's hard not to like Lockwood, who is playing a kind of double-game, agreeing to work with the Germans on the British Free Corps for as long as he can. However, he stumbles across information about a plan to use sarin gas against London and decides that he has to try and stop it from happening. This brings him into the orbit of a woman conscripted by the SD to be a prostitute to German officers, identifying security risks.
They team up and manage to get enough leverage over Lockwood's German handler for them to plan a crazy scheme worthy of an old Jack Higgins thriller, setting up a climax that manages to be simultaneously wildly implausible and maudlin. The book is far too long -- the first-time author spends a bit too much space teasing out the motivation for every character's decision or action. And like many a thriller, there are a few hefty coincidences along the way. Those quibbles aside, it is likely to appeal to any reader with a taste for World War II fiction. For the full nonfiction treatment of the British Free Corps, check out Adrian Weale's definitive 1994 book Renegades: Hitler's Englishmen.
April 7, 2013
Historical action story about a British secret agent captured in WW2 and coerced to serve in the British Free Corps, a division of the SS. The plot is a thrill a minute, and I can't sustain either anxiety or disbelief that long.
I didn't know anything about the British Free Corps.
I didn't know anything about the British Free Corps.
December 24, 2011
Tight and interesting WW2 thriller. Has the most stomach-twisting scene involving a testicle I've ever come across!!
June 2, 2015
Well written and researched. Plausible story line with relatable characters. Just the type of book to read while it rains outside
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews