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Time Reich
What if your father lied about what he did in World War II? What if he was actually a war criminal? History professor Bram McCoy always believed his German father's story about being held in a concentration camp for refusing to work as an engineer for the Third Reich. He even wrote a best-selling book about it. But that story begins to unravel when he is called upon to help U.S. Justice Department Special Agent Kate Crockett solve a series of unusual murders related to war crimes in World War II. What Bram and Kate discover will make them question everything they know about the final days of the Third Reich. The key to solving the murders lies in Bram's past and his father's journals. Together, they must stop a killer before he can harness the energy of an increasingly right-wing Europe. The future is at stake, and time is not on their side.
350 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
128 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
David Healey
58 books90 followersDavid Healey made his publishing debut with SHARPSHOOTER, a what-if historical thriller about an attempt to assassinate Union General Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War, published by an imprint of Penguin Putnam. That novel was the result of years of research into the Civil War that included time as a reenactor at Gettysburg and other battlefields.
In its review, the Civil War News wrote: “SHARPSHOOTER has the feel of a techno-thriller, the kind offered by Tom Clancy or Dean Koontz ... SHARPSHOOTER moves quickly and is filled with all manner of intrigue."
Healey has brought that same passion for research and history to his World War II novels, GHOST SNIPER, ARDENNES SNIPER, and RED SNIPER. During a 21-year career as a journalist, he was fortunate enough to interview many veterans of the 29th Division who landed at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Some of the events and characters in these novels were inspired by their stories.
He loves the idea of a character like Micajah Cole, a self-reliant backwoods hunter who turns out to be unrelenting and ruthless as a sniper, especially against a skilled adversary, in the pages of these books.
In addition to fiction, he has written books on regional history, including 1812: REDISCOVERING CHESAPEAKE BAY'S FORGOTTEN WAR and GREAT STORMS OF THE CHESAPEAKE.
A graduate of Washington College and the Stonecoast MFA program, he was recognized in 2011 as a Chaney Scholar in history by St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Visit him online at www.davidhealeyauthor.com or follow him at Facebook at facebook.com/david.healey.books
In its review, the Civil War News wrote: “SHARPSHOOTER has the feel of a techno-thriller, the kind offered by Tom Clancy or Dean Koontz ... SHARPSHOOTER moves quickly and is filled with all manner of intrigue."
Healey has brought that same passion for research and history to his World War II novels, GHOST SNIPER, ARDENNES SNIPER, and RED SNIPER. During a 21-year career as a journalist, he was fortunate enough to interview many veterans of the 29th Division who landed at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Some of the events and characters in these novels were inspired by their stories.
He loves the idea of a character like Micajah Cole, a self-reliant backwoods hunter who turns out to be unrelenting and ruthless as a sniper, especially against a skilled adversary, in the pages of these books.
In addition to fiction, he has written books on regional history, including 1812: REDISCOVERING CHESAPEAKE BAY'S FORGOTTEN WAR and GREAT STORMS OF THE CHESAPEAKE.
A graduate of Washington College and the Stonecoast MFA program, he was recognized in 2011 as a Chaney Scholar in history by St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Visit him online at www.davidhealeyauthor.com or follow him at Facebook at facebook.com/david.healey.books
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 20, 2023
This review is from: Time Reich: A World War II Novel (Kindle Edition)
Poorly written and not a World War II novel
This book suffers from poor editing, stereotyping, preudice, & careless and/or lazy writing and research. Perhaps this should come as no surprise as the author was a journalist. Here are a few examples:
"Nan had a frank manner that I liked, looking right at me when she spoke. I knew from experience that meant she had nothing to hide." Really? I wish I had known that when I was an investigator. Seriously, if Mr. Healey really believes that a person looking right at him means that person has nothing to hide, then he is, at best, incredibly naive. He certainly knows very little about interview and interrogation.
Then there is this outrageous example of prejudice and foolishness: "There was also an oddly Southern flavor to the place. "We serve grits" a sign in a diner window had noted. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen so many Confederate flags and pickup trucks. Now I had seen swastikas as well. The more I thought about it, the more North Bay seemed like a good place for a Nazi to hide." The only swastikas he saw in North Bay were those in a hidden room kept by a Nazi war criminal and former member of the SS. How's that for sterotyping and exhibiting prejudice? Grits, pickup trucks and Southern mean Nazi sympathizers.
"The interior (of the North Bay Police Department) was neat and sterile, full of echoes from the expanses of glass, steel and tile floors. Many of the cops had shaved heads, and I had a disconcerting image of them shouting "Ja vol!" and goose-stepping down the hallways when none of the civilians was around. In most police agencies, the days of kindly Officer Malarkey walking the beat were long gone. Now, the ranks of small-town police were often filled with paramilitary types who subscribed to Guns & Ammo magazine." If you don't see what's wrong with this other than misspelling jawohl, I don't think any comment from me will help.
"Apparently he's not much on the whole idea of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice." 'I have to admit he sort of has a point. Why are we chasing down old Nazis who are just going to be dead soon enough?" In the book this statement and question are made by Kate who has passionately devoted her career to apprehending Nazi war criminals. Apparently Mr. Healey threw this in so that he could answer the question. He couldn't be bothered to have a more appropriate character ask it.
How did these Nazis get into the U.S.? "Working in their favor had been the fact that back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, our immigration officials had not been all that vigilant. Besides, we were suddenly more worried about communists than Nazis, one bogeyman replaced by another at the outset of the Cold War." A bogeyman is a fictitious monster or threat. Communists and Nazis are real.
"I often liked to pretend that I was a first time visitor to the United States... What would be my impression of America? Massive highways, gas-guzzling SUVs, litter-strewn roadsides, swampy winter fields beyond, tract housing, gloomy warehouses. Hardly encouraging sights." All right! We can fix those things! Forget the environment, let's drain those swamps. We can also tear down those warehouses and stop building highways and housing. (He does have a point about the roadside litter. Maybe we should start jailing litterbugs or at least suspending their drivers' licenses.) I can only guess what Mr. Healey would do with people who drive SUV's.
"You know, in my opinion as someone of the Hebrew persuasion, we should have dropped the nuke on Berlin, not Hiroshima. But we wouldn't do that because the Germans were too much like us. So we went after the yellow people." On that note, he went back to his post out front." This sentiment is expressed in more than one place in the book. In fact many of the people working on the bomb project were doing so to drop it on Germany. When GERMANY SURRENDERED BEFORE THE BOMB WAS READY, some of them did not want to continue with the project. The truth is that we dropped the bomb on Japan because Germany had already surrendered, Japan would not surrender and the projected allied and JAPANESE casualties resulting from an invasion were in the millions.
These ae just a few samples. There are also factual errors such as an iron cross being worn at the throat, an ordinary original Nazi German flag being worth $20,000, and a genuine Confederate sword selling for a mere $2000. There are strange adjectives and descriptions such as swarming shards of glass. rubber wires and a sticky smell. There are continuity errors such as Kate calling the bronze disk a beacon long before she could have known that. These examples are by no means exhaustive.
Based upon Mr. Healey's biographical information, he should be a real humdinger of a writer. Instead, he is a humbug.
Poorly written and not a World War II novel
This book suffers from poor editing, stereotyping, preudice, & careless and/or lazy writing and research. Perhaps this should come as no surprise as the author was a journalist. Here are a few examples:
"Nan had a frank manner that I liked, looking right at me when she spoke. I knew from experience that meant she had nothing to hide." Really? I wish I had known that when I was an investigator. Seriously, if Mr. Healey really believes that a person looking right at him means that person has nothing to hide, then he is, at best, incredibly naive. He certainly knows very little about interview and interrogation.
Then there is this outrageous example of prejudice and foolishness: "There was also an oddly Southern flavor to the place. "We serve grits" a sign in a diner window had noted. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen so many Confederate flags and pickup trucks. Now I had seen swastikas as well. The more I thought about it, the more North Bay seemed like a good place for a Nazi to hide." The only swastikas he saw in North Bay were those in a hidden room kept by a Nazi war criminal and former member of the SS. How's that for sterotyping and exhibiting prejudice? Grits, pickup trucks and Southern mean Nazi sympathizers.
"The interior (of the North Bay Police Department) was neat and sterile, full of echoes from the expanses of glass, steel and tile floors. Many of the cops had shaved heads, and I had a disconcerting image of them shouting "Ja vol!" and goose-stepping down the hallways when none of the civilians was around. In most police agencies, the days of kindly Officer Malarkey walking the beat were long gone. Now, the ranks of small-town police were often filled with paramilitary types who subscribed to Guns & Ammo magazine." If you don't see what's wrong with this other than misspelling jawohl, I don't think any comment from me will help.
"Apparently he's not much on the whole idea of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice." 'I have to admit he sort of has a point. Why are we chasing down old Nazis who are just going to be dead soon enough?" In the book this statement and question are made by Kate who has passionately devoted her career to apprehending Nazi war criminals. Apparently Mr. Healey threw this in so that he could answer the question. He couldn't be bothered to have a more appropriate character ask it.
How did these Nazis get into the U.S.? "Working in their favor had been the fact that back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, our immigration officials had not been all that vigilant. Besides, we were suddenly more worried about communists than Nazis, one bogeyman replaced by another at the outset of the Cold War." A bogeyman is a fictitious monster or threat. Communists and Nazis are real.
"I often liked to pretend that I was a first time visitor to the United States... What would be my impression of America? Massive highways, gas-guzzling SUVs, litter-strewn roadsides, swampy winter fields beyond, tract housing, gloomy warehouses. Hardly encouraging sights." All right! We can fix those things! Forget the environment, let's drain those swamps. We can also tear down those warehouses and stop building highways and housing. (He does have a point about the roadside litter. Maybe we should start jailing litterbugs or at least suspending their drivers' licenses.) I can only guess what Mr. Healey would do with people who drive SUV's.
"You know, in my opinion as someone of the Hebrew persuasion, we should have dropped the nuke on Berlin, not Hiroshima. But we wouldn't do that because the Germans were too much like us. So we went after the yellow people." On that note, he went back to his post out front." This sentiment is expressed in more than one place in the book. In fact many of the people working on the bomb project were doing so to drop it on Germany. When GERMANY SURRENDERED BEFORE THE BOMB WAS READY, some of them did not want to continue with the project. The truth is that we dropped the bomb on Japan because Germany had already surrendered, Japan would not surrender and the projected allied and JAPANESE casualties resulting from an invasion were in the millions.
These ae just a few samples. There are also factual errors such as an iron cross being worn at the throat, an ordinary original Nazi German flag being worth $20,000, and a genuine Confederate sword selling for a mere $2000. There are strange adjectives and descriptions such as swarming shards of glass. rubber wires and a sticky smell. There are continuity errors such as Kate calling the bronze disk a beacon long before she could have known that. These examples are by no means exhaustive.
Based upon Mr. Healey's biographical information, he should be a real humdinger of a writer. Instead, he is a humbug.
August 29, 2012
Time Reich was my second David Healey book. I read the e-book version, and again, was very impressed.
The story started out with a fantastical hypothesis that Hitler and all high ranking Nazis escaped capture in a time machine. Then, murders start being committed around the United States by men in SS uniforms. The main character, which is a famous modern day war historian and author, is hired as an advisor by the OSI to look into what could possibly be going on. At the same time he is soul searching for answers to questions he still has about his Holocaust survivor dad, who has since passed away.
The book gets off to a fairly quick start and keeps the action up at fairly decent intervals. At first there are many mysteries for the reader, but as the story progresses, it becomes more and more believable.
As they investigate each of the murders they start discovering that all of the victims were former SS officers and their uniformed attacker seems to be desperately hunting something that the victims may have.
The main character and his female OSI counterpart, who share a growing sexual tension as the story goes on, travel the Country and the World on their quest for answers.
As many questions that get raised during the excitement, the author does a very nice job of tying them all together in the end; in a very believable and down to earth culmination.
In all, it was very hard to put down and I read it in about four or five sittings. It was like a movie that keeps you up past when you know you should go to sleep, but you are dying to see what happens next.
The story started out with a fantastical hypothesis that Hitler and all high ranking Nazis escaped capture in a time machine. Then, murders start being committed around the United States by men in SS uniforms. The main character, which is a famous modern day war historian and author, is hired as an advisor by the OSI to look into what could possibly be going on. At the same time he is soul searching for answers to questions he still has about his Holocaust survivor dad, who has since passed away.
The book gets off to a fairly quick start and keeps the action up at fairly decent intervals. At first there are many mysteries for the reader, but as the story progresses, it becomes more and more believable.
As they investigate each of the murders they start discovering that all of the victims were former SS officers and their uniformed attacker seems to be desperately hunting something that the victims may have.
The main character and his female OSI counterpart, who share a growing sexual tension as the story goes on, travel the Country and the World on their quest for answers.
As many questions that get raised during the excitement, the author does a very nice job of tying them all together in the end; in a very believable and down to earth culmination.
In all, it was very hard to put down and I read it in about four or five sittings. It was like a movie that keeps you up past when you know you should go to sleep, but you are dying to see what happens next.
November 3, 2022
I’ve traveled considerably (all 50 states and over 30 countries) and like the most that Author Healey’s research of locations is excellent. I can often visualize the location described in the script and it always brings a smile to my face. In this particular book the research of the SS and Nazi treatment of the Jews was spot-on. Thus the reader was not only entertained but educated on that disturbing period of world history. I love well documented historical fiction!
July 20, 2024
Not the best.
It’s a little hard to enjoy a book when one finds the main character to be a rather repulsive predatory creep. I do wish I didn’t always feel compelled to finish a book despite how much it might be irritating me.
Mediocre read that had a promising premise but whose characters left a lot to be desired. Wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re really desperate.
It’s a little hard to enjoy a book when one finds the main character to be a rather repulsive predatory creep. I do wish I didn’t always feel compelled to finish a book despite how much it might be irritating me.
Mediocre read that had a promising premise but whose characters left a lot to be desired. Wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re really desperate.
February 5, 2020
Interesting. A bit far fetched. It is really an investigative book of WII.
August 12, 2016
Not as good as the first two books that I read from this author
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews