Assignment: Casablanca

by Peter J. Azzole

Commander Tony Romella takes a small team on what is expected to be a routine one month trip to Casablanca, Morocco. Their mission is simply to provide a temporary Top Secret special intelligence communications center to support U.S. members of a high level Allied war planning meeting.An easy mission quickly goes awry. Only two months after the Allied assault and occupation of Casablanca (Operation TORCH), the city remains a hotbed of Vichy and German sympathizers and spies. One unexpected event leads to another. Things get dicey, with life threatening situations, shots fired and dead bodies. Tony is diverted from Casablanca on a brief classified fact-finding mission to a neutral country's island. That mission gets complicated and ultimately results in spy catching and another death. Returning to Casablanca, events result in Tony meeting Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.Between "Casablanca's" covers are communications intelligence, counter-intelligence, military politics, diplomatic tension, WWII history, family dynamics, and in the final analysis, a very exciting, twisting and fast moving story.

Genres: Historical Fiction

444 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 9, 2019

About the author

Retired U.S. Navy Officer. Secondary careers in the defense, commercial aviation and healthcare industries.

Currently residing in NC.

Reviews

[Pam Sullivan]

Huh?

This was he biggest waste of time I've read in a long, long time. Run away! It's a schmaltzy story that goes on and on with dialogue out of a 1950's B movie.

[Lisa]

This was a great read! The blending of important historical figures in World War ll with the fictional characters in this series was well done. The amount of research required to bounce Tony Romello in and out of countries is impressive. I particularly enjoyed the photos that were scattered through the book, especially those locations that I have visited. Now I am torn between wanting to move right on to the next book but hating to end the series since there are only two more. With the cliffhanger at the end, I don't imagine I'll wait very long.

[William]

Superb story.

Sorry to see it end there. I would hope there would be at least one more to end the war.

[VAL D]

Needs research

The author makes many small mistakes about item that were not available or invented in the war years. This tends to detract from the historic accuracy of the storey. Needs more research. ie, helicopters where not operational on the USS RANGER during ww2 etc.

[Mike Attwell]

Thin plot development. Simplistic and forced dialogue. Lacked substantive elements of suspense/intrigue normally anticipated in an espionage/military intelligence novel.. For me, a fairly ho-hum read that I considered abandoning (but didn't) and relieved when it concluded....

[Debbie Trammell]

Great book

All these books in this series have been super. The amount of research and pictures are suberb. Cant wait to hear more from Tony.

[Richard Goodman]

I am reading the series and enjoying the narrative? I am not a purist , just hate Nazi's and enjoy a good read!

[Christine Andreason]

Mr. Azalea does it once again in this WWII drama of intrigue taking the reader into the high stakes battle of ASW "hide-and-seek" on the high seas where even a,small.mistAke in judgement cM spell the loss of a number of cargo ships carrying food fuel and munitions to Allied countries helping the U.S. battle the Nazi scourge

in Europe as well as dreaded submarine "Wolf packs" that preyed on Allied cargo ships. Mr. Sample also takes us into the political world of intrigue, as well as the private moments of a unmarried couple trying to start a life together during wartime...a daunting task even in peacetime, but in wartime London is a task a worthy of reading this novel as well as all the others he has written! Well done, sir!

[Bettina Sumner]

I loved these books. I found each novel difficult to put down, life gets in the way of it, but progress of main character is fascinating throughout and topics interesting and intriquing, based on actual episodes and history, realistic pace, rather than wall to wall unrealistic action like so many war novels. I really like the characters, and the realism. It is clear the author did amazing research on the events and locations. I learned a lot while being very entertained. Hoping there is not a long wait for the next in the series.

[Laura Simmons]

Easy read


Too much detail of furniture, surroundings. Good character development and action sequences. Parts of the book felt like it was written for a quite young readership.
Good read though.

[Chaplain Stanley Chapin]

A good one

I have enjoyed this series and author, they have truly developed an interest. the world war two and both England and USA involvement.