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Goering's List
"Art thieves aren't usually associated with this type of violence," observes an art squad detective in J. C. Pollock's new thriller when three wealthy New Yorkers are brutally murdered and specific works from their collections are stolen. Similarly, neither would any of the murdered men - a famous philanthropist, a former ambassador, and an influential industrialist - usually be associated with art of questionable provenance: paintings taken from Jews by the Nazis in the early 1940s and sold secretly in Switzerland from a list kept by Reich Marshal Hermann Goering. Though these murders are tied to secrets kept buried since World War II, they instantly ring alarms with the CIA, with Israel's Mossad, and with the SVR, the newly created successor to the KGB - all of whom identify the vicious German terrorist Dieter as being behind the killings and all of whom have their own reasons for wanting him stopped. Or so it seems. The CIA brings in disgruntled operative Mike Semko, who is dismayed when his employers at Langley Pair him with Rachel Sidrane, an art historian and Mossad agent who may have orders and loyalties of her own. These unlikely partners pursue Dieter across two continents until the conflicting agendas of the three secret services and a bizarre connection between the art collectors and the United States, Nazi Germany, and the former USSR force Semko to make up his own rules in what becomes a deadly high-stakes duel. From the gleaming exclusivity of New York's Sutton Place, to the mysterious remains of the KGB, to the Parisian cafes and English safe houses where international terrorism plots its advance, Goering's List is J. C. Pollock at his absorbing, suspenseful best. Hailed for his insider's knowledge of military hardware and espionage technology, J. C. Pollock brings the reader inside the cramped confines of a surveillance van, into Berlin's Nazi War Crimes Document Center, behind the doors of a brutally effective Mossad interrogation, and through
423 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1993
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About the author
J.C. Pollock
24 books27 followersJ.C. Pollock is a mysterious figure who wrote several strong selling adventure/action novels over an eleven-year period (1982-1993) and then abruptly dropped off the radar. He is a topic of speculation on the Internet and many suspect that he was a CIA agent attached to the SOG during the Vietnam War, but this has had not been confirmed or denied. It appears that his life is like the novels he wrote.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 9, 2011
This is J.C. Pollack's last novel. He wrote several between 1982 and 1993 then stopped. They all had a military slant. Typically there was a mix of special forces types and goverment agents. For the most part his books always entertained. but as the years went by it did seem that he was starting to run out of inspiration and his last few books took on a paint by numbers feel. Goering's List isn't terrible. It's just tired. In my opinion Mr. Pollack had run out of ideas, but he was committed to one more book. All the cliches are here. Nazis, stolen artwork, former East German secret agents in business for themselves, brave intrepid heros and so on. This is a story that has been getting recycled for the past sixty years and by the mid-90's was wayyy past it's prime.
I picked up my copy in a twenty-five cent box at a local second hand store. I read it in about four hours and put it back in the box the next day.
I still like Mr. Pollack's novels. It's been over fifteen years since this book was published. Perhaps the sabbatical has recharged the old creative batteries and another novel is one the way?
I picked up my copy in a twenty-five cent box at a local second hand store. I read it in about four hours and put it back in the box the next day.
I still like Mr. Pollack's novels. It's been over fifteen years since this book was published. Perhaps the sabbatical has recharged the old creative batteries and another novel is one the way?
January 8, 2013
I don’t read many thrillers, but when I do, J. C. Pollock is going to be at the top of my list. IMHO, Goering’s List out-Bonds Bond (James Bond) and out-Bournes Bourne. Goering’s List has it all: the tradecraft, the counter-espionage, the action scenes, the double-crosses, and the screw-ups. It has everything but the requisite sex scenes one would expect in a Bond novel (though the implications may be there) and it has a post-WWII mystery-conspiracy to play with, as well. The only problem I had with the book was the fact that someone saw me reading this paperback with a huge swastika on the cover and thought I was apparently Lincoln Rockwell ready to march his American Nazi Party into Skokie again (I was only about a half-mile from Skokie, IL when I was reading this in a Starbucks).
Goering’s List, of course, is nothing like Schindler’s List. The latter was about saving people and the former was about making money by selling purloined treasures of the great Masters on the black market. Since Goering was a master logician, one would expect that, possibly somewhere and somehow, there might be a painstaking account of the people to whom he sold some of the paintings that are still missing today. So, when a former SS officer, who had been at Berchtesgaden in the last days of the Third Reich, decides to transfer to his son the war souvenir he has carried with him throughout his secret post-war life, things begin to happen.
Frankly, when I picked up this novel, I really expected it to be a case of a modern investigator trying to trace the conspiracy surrounding the missing works of art. I truly received more than I expected.
Imagine the SVR (the new Russia’s External Intelligence Service), the Mossad (Israel’s elite intelligence forces), and the CIA all converging together upon the same point. Imagine further that even though certain agencies might work together, they have to protect themselves against the other. It really provides an interesting atmosphere. As one veteran says to a newer agent, “When you are sitting with your friend, he is not sitting with his friend.” (p. 193)
The truth is that my favorite line was when certain guards were described as being “…as nervous as a chicken at a voodoo ceremony.” (p. 252) Another delightful line occurred when two agents were discussing the efficacy of torture. One asks if the other’s mother didn’t teach him that one would draw more flies with honey than with vinegar and the other replies, “She did. But when I got a little older, I learned that if you pull the wings off the little suckers, they’ll pretty much eat whatever you give them.” (p. 298) If those lines don’t express some of the delightful discovery to be found in Goering’s List, you won’t like the rest of the book.
Goering’s List, of course, is nothing like Schindler’s List. The latter was about saving people and the former was about making money by selling purloined treasures of the great Masters on the black market. Since Goering was a master logician, one would expect that, possibly somewhere and somehow, there might be a painstaking account of the people to whom he sold some of the paintings that are still missing today. So, when a former SS officer, who had been at Berchtesgaden in the last days of the Third Reich, decides to transfer to his son the war souvenir he has carried with him throughout his secret post-war life, things begin to happen.
Frankly, when I picked up this novel, I really expected it to be a case of a modern investigator trying to trace the conspiracy surrounding the missing works of art. I truly received more than I expected.
Imagine the SVR (the new Russia’s External Intelligence Service), the Mossad (Israel’s elite intelligence forces), and the CIA all converging together upon the same point. Imagine further that even though certain agencies might work together, they have to protect themselves against the other. It really provides an interesting atmosphere. As one veteran says to a newer agent, “When you are sitting with your friend, he is not sitting with his friend.” (p. 193)
The truth is that my favorite line was when certain guards were described as being “…as nervous as a chicken at a voodoo ceremony.” (p. 252) Another delightful line occurred when two agents were discussing the efficacy of torture. One asks if the other’s mother didn’t teach him that one would draw more flies with honey than with vinegar and the other replies, “She did. But when I got a little older, I learned that if you pull the wings off the little suckers, they’ll pretty much eat whatever you give them.” (p. 298) If those lines don’t express some of the delightful discovery to be found in Goering’s List, you won’t like the rest of the book.
February 1, 2017
I first read this book in the mid-90s after buying a copy in a Used Bookstore (an author has hit it big when his book ends up there, right). I loved it! It was suspenseful, full of action, and quite a page-turner. I kept my copy for years, planning on reading it again, but never got around to it. I saw the book again online and added it to my Goodreads collection as a reminder I'll have to read it again soon.
When a prestigious art collector is found murdered in his New York apartment, and an expensive painting stolen, an investigation finds that a ruthless terrorist known as 'Dieter' is the culprit. This Dieter finds a list of stolen art, stolen by Hermann Goering during the war from Jews sent to the gas chambers. The art was never made public and found its way in the hands of greedy art collectors who don't want to part with the goods.
The CIA and Mossad go after Dieter across 2 continents and the hunt is on as Semko, an American agent known to get the job done, and his Mossad partner, a beautiful and highly trained agent, go after this terrorist who plans on using the stolen art to finance his own operations that threaten world stability.
Pollock wrote this book as a page-turner using historically correct issues about stolen art, and a high knowledge of weaponry and tech. Despite being written in 1993, this book holds its own even by today's standards.
When a prestigious art collector is found murdered in his New York apartment, and an expensive painting stolen, an investigation finds that a ruthless terrorist known as 'Dieter' is the culprit. This Dieter finds a list of stolen art, stolen by Hermann Goering during the war from Jews sent to the gas chambers. The art was never made public and found its way in the hands of greedy art collectors who don't want to part with the goods.
The CIA and Mossad go after Dieter across 2 continents and the hunt is on as Semko, an American agent known to get the job done, and his Mossad partner, a beautiful and highly trained agent, go after this terrorist who plans on using the stolen art to finance his own operations that threaten world stability.
Pollock wrote this book as a page-turner using historically correct issues about stolen art, and a high knowledge of weaponry and tech. Despite being written in 1993, this book holds its own even by today's standards.
December 3, 2018
It got better the farther you got into it
January 28, 2010
Nazi art looted from the Jews is fought over in more modern times.
March 7, 2016
Started a little slow, but got better as the story progressed.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews