What do you think?
Rate this book
Potsdam Bluff
Alex Lukas, an undertrained agent in love with Gretl, a beautiful communist spy, becomes the key to Truman's plan to save Western Europe from Stalin via a huge bluff during the waning of World War II.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
Paperback
First published December 1, 1989
7 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 28, 2022
Jack D. Hunter wrote a considerable number of thrillers over a considerable number of years; some sold very well, one was made into a movie. I read one of them perhaps 40 years ago; now I have read a second published back in 1992.
Normally I do not write descriptively about the plot of a book-I let the many other commenters do that but here I'm the only reviewer. So I'll just write this: the plot is grossly over plotted, much too long, totally lacking in what moviemakers call "continuity" which means people and things in one chapter bear bear no resemblance whatsoever to what's been written about them earlier. The plot is
convoluted, hard to follow, in plenty places simply unbelievable, and if all that is not bad enough, the characters are also in many cases, not remotely believable. The plot deals with a time period right before and after the German defeat in World War II wherein the Soviets will not stop at the agreed-upon demarcation line between the eastern and western fronts but plan to march on conquering all of Western Europe. I simply will not describe any more except this takes place right before and during the forthcoming July, 1945 big three conference of Stalin, Truman and Churchill at Potsdam with Truman and Stalin being characters in the book.
I will add that the ending is so preposterous; so ludicrous and absurd that I guess it's a fitting finale to the awfulness of this novel. (In the ending Josef Stalin has a good deal of dialogue that is so utterly unlike anything he would ever say to a foreign leader, even one he intensely disliked, I had to shake my head-Mr. Hunter obviously never read a single biography of Stalin.)
This book is dreadful.
Normally I do not write descriptively about the plot of a book-I let the many other commenters do that but here I'm the only reviewer. So I'll just write this: the plot is grossly over plotted, much too long, totally lacking in what moviemakers call "continuity" which means people and things in one chapter bear bear no resemblance whatsoever to what's been written about them earlier. The plot is
convoluted, hard to follow, in plenty places simply unbelievable, and if all that is not bad enough, the characters are also in many cases, not remotely believable. The plot deals with a time period right before and after the German defeat in World War II wherein the Soviets will not stop at the agreed-upon demarcation line between the eastern and western fronts but plan to march on conquering all of Western Europe. I simply will not describe any more except this takes place right before and during the forthcoming July, 1945 big three conference of Stalin, Truman and Churchill at Potsdam with Truman and Stalin being characters in the book.
I will add that the ending is so preposterous; so ludicrous and absurd that I guess it's a fitting finale to the awfulness of this novel. (In the ending Josef Stalin has a good deal of dialogue that is so utterly unlike anything he would ever say to a foreign leader, even one he intensely disliked, I had to shake my head-Mr. Hunter obviously never read a single biography of Stalin.)
This book is dreadful.
Displaying 1 of 1 review