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Let Us Do Evil
'Excitingly told, moving and rather chilling' - The Sunday Times.
Palestine, June 1942.
As the atrocities of World War Two start to make front page news across Europe, another battle is playing out in the Holy Land.
British trained commandos have assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, Reich Protektor of Bohemia and a founder of the SS intelligence service.
One of the Protektor’s disciples is an Anglo-German SS officer who was raised in Palestine as part of its affluent Templer community, descendants of Bavarian evangelicals who often embraced Hitler as firmly as their grandfathers embraced God.
The Templer decides to avenge Heydrich by killing Sir Henry MacMichael, Palestine's High Commissioner.
But after The Templer attempts, and fails, to assassinate MacMichael, Palestine police detective Walter Calderwell begins to hunt him down.
Calderwell relentlessly pursues the Templer from Jerusalem to the Egyptian border and on through the Nile Delta to the El Alamein front line itself.
But can he stop him in time?
Or will he become the means to let him do evil?
‘Let Us Do Evil’ brilliantly blends fact with fiction in a novel that will appeal to fans of Alan Furst and and John Le Carre.
Praise for Colin Smith’s
'Excitingly told, moving and rather chilling' - The Sunday Times.
'A rumbustious thriller-spy-war story set in Palestine 1917, culminating in the cavalry charge by the Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry against Austrian artillery…his wide panorama is consistently interesting.' - The Financial Times.
'He has captured marvellously well the atmosphere as well as the reality of the Middle East in 1917…As for the description of the famous charge at Huj, I defy any reader to control a rapid beating of the heart.' - The Daily Telegraph.
'An excellently researched and well written saga…' - Yorkshire Evening Post.
“A work of fiction cleverly woven around a cast of real-life characters and historical events... a good read.” - Coventry Evening Telegraph
“Colin Smith brings two special talents to his recreation of Allenby’s Palestine he was once a soldier and writes of the Other Ranks with insight and authenticity; and he spent much of his working life as The Observer’s Middle East correspondent... more than an immensely readable tale, a vivid reminder that the countries of the Middle East have been formed in the crucible of treachery as well as battle.” Esmond Wright. Contemporary Review.
Colin Smith lived in Jerusalem and Cairo as The Observer’s Middle East correspondent, and his military histories include the widely acclaimed ‘ War Without Hate’. His fiction includes ‘Spies of Jerusalem’ and ‘Collateral Damage’.
Palestine, June 1942.
As the atrocities of World War Two start to make front page news across Europe, another battle is playing out in the Holy Land.
British trained commandos have assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, Reich Protektor of Bohemia and a founder of the SS intelligence service.
One of the Protektor’s disciples is an Anglo-German SS officer who was raised in Palestine as part of its affluent Templer community, descendants of Bavarian evangelicals who often embraced Hitler as firmly as their grandfathers embraced God.
The Templer decides to avenge Heydrich by killing Sir Henry MacMichael, Palestine's High Commissioner.
But after The Templer attempts, and fails, to assassinate MacMichael, Palestine police detective Walter Calderwell begins to hunt him down.
Calderwell relentlessly pursues the Templer from Jerusalem to the Egyptian border and on through the Nile Delta to the El Alamein front line itself.
But can he stop him in time?
Or will he become the means to let him do evil?
‘Let Us Do Evil’ brilliantly blends fact with fiction in a novel that will appeal to fans of Alan Furst and and John Le Carre.
Praise for Colin Smith’s
'Excitingly told, moving and rather chilling' - The Sunday Times.
'A rumbustious thriller-spy-war story set in Palestine 1917, culminating in the cavalry charge by the Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry against Austrian artillery…his wide panorama is consistently interesting.' - The Financial Times.
'He has captured marvellously well the atmosphere as well as the reality of the Middle East in 1917…As for the description of the famous charge at Huj, I defy any reader to control a rapid beating of the heart.' - The Daily Telegraph.
'An excellently researched and well written saga…' - Yorkshire Evening Post.
“A work of fiction cleverly woven around a cast of real-life characters and historical events... a good read.” - Coventry Evening Telegraph
“Colin Smith brings two special talents to his recreation of Allenby’s Palestine he was once a soldier and writes of the Other Ranks with insight and authenticity; and he spent much of his working life as The Observer’s Middle East correspondent... more than an immensely readable tale, a vivid reminder that the countries of the Middle East have been formed in the crucible of treachery as well as battle.” Esmond Wright. Contemporary Review.
Colin Smith lived in Jerusalem and Cairo as The Observer’s Middle East correspondent, and his military histories include the widely acclaimed ‘ War Without Hate’. His fiction includes ‘Spies of Jerusalem’ and ‘Collateral Damage’.
358 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 3, 2014
12 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Colin Smith
16 books5 followersColin Smith, author of ’England’s Last War Against France', ‘Singapore Burning’ and most recently collaborator in Andrew Borowiec's Warsaw Boy,was brought up in the British Midlands.
At 18 he had the chance to join the Guernsey Evening Press as a cub reporter.
Jobs on several other provincial newspapers followed and in 1968, after working on the Birmingham Post and the Daily Sketch, he joined David Astor’s Observer.
Smith lives with his wife Sylvia in Nicosia where, in the late 1970’s, he was first based as The Observer’s Middle East correspondent. In more recent years he has concentrated on writing books, both fiction and non-fiction but mostly the same school of narrative history.
Smith's first book was Carlos - Portrait of a Terrorist, which came out of a three part Observer series following the Venezuelan’s 1976 raid on OPEC’s Vienna headquarters and the kidnapping of the oil ministers. Revised after Carlos’ capture in 1995 and published as a Mandarin Paperback, in 2012, after a Paris court sentenced the terrorist to a second term life imprisonment for bombings in France in the 1980's, it was revised yet again.
He has pubished three novels, all with Palestinian themes. Spies of Jerusalem is set in the Ottoman Palestine of 1917 as outnumbred Turkish and German forces do their best to thwart Britain's General Allenby as his army advances on Jerusalem; Let Us Do Evil takes place in Mandate Palestine during World War Two where some Jews see the British as their main enemy and make a pact with the Devil; his thriller Collateral Damage sees a vengeful widower on the trail of the man who killed his wife as the Cold War terrorism that plagued Western European capitals in the 1970's becomes a very hot war indeed in Beirut and southern Lebanon.
At 18 he had the chance to join the Guernsey Evening Press as a cub reporter.
Jobs on several other provincial newspapers followed and in 1968, after working on the Birmingham Post and the Daily Sketch, he joined David Astor’s Observer.
Smith lives with his wife Sylvia in Nicosia where, in the late 1970’s, he was first based as The Observer’s Middle East correspondent. In more recent years he has concentrated on writing books, both fiction and non-fiction but mostly the same school of narrative history.
Smith's first book was Carlos - Portrait of a Terrorist, which came out of a three part Observer series following the Venezuelan’s 1976 raid on OPEC’s Vienna headquarters and the kidnapping of the oil ministers. Revised after Carlos’ capture in 1995 and published as a Mandarin Paperback, in 2012, after a Paris court sentenced the terrorist to a second term life imprisonment for bombings in France in the 1980's, it was revised yet again.
He has pubished three novels, all with Palestinian themes. Spies of Jerusalem is set in the Ottoman Palestine of 1917 as outnumbred Turkish and German forces do their best to thwart Britain's General Allenby as his army advances on Jerusalem; Let Us Do Evil takes place in Mandate Palestine during World War Two where some Jews see the British as their main enemy and make a pact with the Devil; his thriller Collateral Damage sees a vengeful widower on the trail of the man who killed his wife as the Cold War terrorism that plagued Western European capitals in the 1970's becomes a very hot war indeed in Beirut and southern Lebanon.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 24, 2019
An excellent thriller set in Palestine and Egypt during the Alamein campaign in 1942; it features some of the same characters from the author's Spies of Jerusalem, but twenty years on. A German assassin from a sect based in Palestine, the Templers - note the spelling - combines with Zionist extremists in an attempt to avenge the assassination of Heydrich. Their target is the British governor of Palestine. The narrative really conveys the imminent sense of defeat on the British side in the wake of Rommel's advance as well as the apparent incompetence of the British command. There is a wonderful irony in the ending.
January 19, 2020
This is a pretty good book. With some editing it could be great.
November 30, 2022
A bloomin’ good story to pass an evening or two…
What an author! The style and structure he uses is perfect. I feel it would be fantastic if he’d written more books on this very ‘under written’ area of WW2. (Compared to Europe)
Reading the two books on this theatre, I’ve learnt so many things I’d no idea about, the compliment to the author is most highly offered.
Do take the time to read it.
What an author! The style and structure he uses is perfect. I feel it would be fantastic if he’d written more books on this very ‘under written’ area of WW2. (Compared to Europe)
Reading the two books on this theatre, I’ve learnt so many things I’d no idea about, the compliment to the author is most highly offered.
Do take the time to read it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews