The Quisling Factor

by J.L. Oakley

Treason. Espionage. Revenge. In the aftermath of WWII, ex-intelligence agent Tore Haugland tries to adjust to life in his newly freed country with the woman he loves. But he still has to testify against a Norwegian traitor—one of the monsters of the German occupation—whom he helped to capture. When mysterious notes threaten Haugland and his family, he must choose between protecting them or bringing to justice the man who tortured him and destroyed the village that hid him. Challenged by injuries and recurring nightmares, he will have to rely on his former training and old Resistance friends to rescue his wife from the traitor who will do anything to keep Haugland from testifying.

Genres: Historical Fiction

427 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 24, 2020

About the author

BIOGRAPHY

Award-winning author J.L. Oakley writes historical fiction that spans the mid-19th century to WW II with characters standing up for something in their own time and place. Her writing has been recognized with a 2006 Surrey International Writer's Non-fiction award. 2013 Bellingham Mayor’s Arts Award, the 2013 Chanticleer Grand Prize, the 2014 First Place Chaucer Award, the 2015 WILLA Silver Award for Timber Rose and the 2016 Goethe Grand Prize for The Jøssing Affair. When not writing, she demonstrates 19th century folkways.

Her other writings appear in various magazines, anthologies, and other media including the Cup of Comfort series and Historylink.org, a “cyperpedia of Washington State history.”

Reviews

[Taury · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Quisling Factor by JL Oakly. This book was up and down to me. Very engaging. Full of action and adventure to waiting to pick up or DNF. I finished the book. Quisling aka Nazi Collaborators in Norway. One particlar being tried for war crimes. He hunts the primary victim and his family. Nothing will stop him except an 18 yo girl, a 7 yo and a baby. Their adventure to save her family and get help from this hunting monster. Action and adventure throughout this book. Wonderful research which really made these characters come alive.

[James Martin]

J. L Oakley’s "The Quisling Factor" is a meticulously researched, exciting and informative novel about Norway during the post-Nazi days. Norway, like quite a few other countries whose citizens were repulsed by the Nazi takeover, did have a share of collaborators. Beneath the title is written “Not everyone is a hero,” and the book bears out that truism. The Norwegian term “Quisling” means traitor or collaborator and traces back to Vidcun Quisling, who was installed as by the Nazis as Norway’s puppet premier. This novel, however, is about other Quislings.

The story, full of interesting heroes and villains, brings to light the aftermath of World War II and how Norwegians were set one against another. The heroes and heroines are especially realistic and well-drawn, eliciting empathy while the movement of the Quislings still at large threaten their safety and account for the turning of the pages. It makes you realize the lasting effects of the Nazi conquest. History and drama is perfectly aligned, and I highly recommend "The Quisling Factor."

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite reading genres is World War II. Fiction and nonfiction. I have read many books that describe that war in France, Italy, Germany, central Europe, England, the Pacific theater. My “expertise” includes naval operations, land-based activities and aviation adventures. I knew about some of what happened in Norway but not much. I had heard about “heavy water” used in atomic weapon development being researched in Norway by the Nazis. I knew a little about England’s attempts, via The Shetland Bus, to supply arms and food to the Norwegian Resistance. Most of all, I knew the term “quisling” that translates to traitor. “The word [quisling} originates from the surname of the Norwegian war-time leader Vidkun Quisling, who headed a domestic Nazi collaborationist regime during World War II” (from Wikipedia).
In the book, THE QUISLING FACTOR, the author, J.L. OAKLEY describes life in that magnificent country, during and post WW II. The primary focus is during the war crime trials of 1946-47. When I bought the book, I did not realize it was book two in a series. The author spends a lot of time telling the back-story from book one so I have a good idea about what transpired during the war and Nazi occupation.
At the center of the story is Tore Haugland and his American-born wife Anna. During the war, Tore was a leader of the Norwegian Resistance based in the fishing village of Fjellstad (2005 population about 930). The Nazis had killed Anna’s husband early in the war. To the villagers, Tore had been a deaf/mute commercial fisherman. To some, he was a Resistance leader.
For several years, he and his team were very successful until he was betrayed. During his imprisonment, Tore was beaten, tortured and left for dead in an open field. However, he did not die. He ended up marrying Anna (the most hated woman in Fjellstad), a widow with a daughter. As the story opens, they are going to Maryland (United States) and Johns Hopkins University Hospital for surgery to repair some of the damage inflicted by his torture. The time is just after the war’s end.
Anna and Tore return to Norway where he is about to testify in the War Crimes Trial of Henry Rinnan a Nazi gang leader and torturer. Rinnan’s top aide is Odd Sorting. Sorting, along with Gunnar Skele (evil personified), escapes prison and is looking to kill Tore before he can testify. Sorting and Skele enlist unwilling participant Professor Aage Pilskog, a geologist and former mine operator for the Nazis.
Tore and Anna are helped by Lars, Tore’s older brother, and Captain Tommy Renvik a friend from the Resistance. Also playing a major role is Kjell Areneson another commercial fisherman from Fjellstad (with whom Tore had worked) and part of Tore’s Resistance group. Margit, Tommy’s wife and former S.O.E. operative during WW II (British Special Operations Executive, read spy) joins defense team around Tore and Anna.
The first half of the book moves slowly as the back-story is filled in. The second half races at breakneck speed as Tore and Anna try to stay alive long enough for him to testify. Would it help to read book one, THE JOSSING AFFAIR, first? Probably. Is it necessary? No.
The history is real. Some of the characters are real. The story is first rate. If you want to learn about a little-known part of WW II, this book is for you. If you want to meet strong female characters (March is National Women’s Month), this book is for you. If you like to read about strong, resilient people, this book is for you. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
GO! BUY! READ!

[Julie Ferguson]

The Quisling Factor is the post-WW2 sequel to the award-winning novel, The Jossing Affair. Both are based on true events in Norway and the Nazi occupation of a fiercely independent nation which the Norwegian Resistance is constantly attacking.
The key characters are well-drawn and believable, and the protagonist is the same in both. The plot and pace are tense and fast-paced which results in a very gripping read. I could not put the book down and read late into the night to finish it.
Highly recommended for readers who love military historical fiction.

[Military Writers Society of America (MWSA)]

MWSA Review
The Quisling Factor by J. L. Oakley is set in Norway, as the title clearly suggests, both during and after World War II, with locations around Norway but focusing on the small fictional village of Fjellstad near Trondheim, some 300 miles northwest of Oslo. The 443-page story richly shows how difficult it was to recover from five years of German occupation while also offering some glimpses into wartime hardships and cruelties. Various viewpoints are offered: resistance members, quislings, those just trying to survive. After the war, Norway chose to reestablish a system of law and order, so trials were held for those accused of cooperating with the Nazis, with the main trial centering around the tortures and murders of residents of Fjellstad. But the trials meant that the residents had to relive the atrocities of the war. Some residents had physical scars; some had mental scars. Some were able to rebuild their lives; some could not. Suspicions of neighbors remained. All have a place in this story. The on-going suspicion of who else might have been cooperating is the quisling factor of the title.

To aid the reader, maps and a list of characters are included at the beginning of the book, and a partial Glossary of Norwegian words is included at the back. To experience the full richness of the story, it is suggested that you have a device ready to look up the Norwegian words.

Review by Nancy Kauffman (March 2021)

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy action and do not mind staying up till you need to finish a book, then here is a novel for you!

The Quisling Factor, by J.L. Oakley .

Norway, 1946, Tore, an ex-Intelligence agent, thought he might live on happily with his wife and children. He only needs to testify in court against Norwegian traitors, Nazis collaborators (quisling). However, this will not happen in a peaceful way. Someone wants to stop him from appearing in court and will endanger his family.....
What I loved about this thrilling and suspenseful novel, is the on-going action where plot meets real historical events and characters in an exciting way! I loved reading about the community of fishers who were resistants during the war and how ready they were to support Tore further in this new peril.
Good characterisation, meticulous historical research. Highly recommended!
(I have just seen there is actually a book 1 about Tore's resistance work in Norway which I have just bought 😁😁😁)

[Cindy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

True story of courage and compassion in the face of humanity lost. Just as I thought it was as bad as possible, it got worse. Some intimate moments are uncomfortable (you don’t know if they’re going to live or die). In the end decency and honorable ethics come thru. Love the author’s realistic (sometimes graphic) representation. The narrator is excellent and adds to readers interest with his well-placed vibrancy.

[Diane Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the war

This book is difficult to read and comprehend the evil of the Germans in Norway. Even harder is comprehending the evil and hate of Norwegians to each other after the Nazi's left. Well written and very authentic in every way I appreciate the knowledge and history.

[gj indieBRAG · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are proud to announce that THE QUISLING FACTOR by J.L. Oakley has been honored with the B.R.A.G.Medallion (Book Readers Appreciation Group). It now joins the very select award-winning, reader-recommended books at indieBRAG.

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it's my technical writing background where succinctness is desired but this book and book one are just too wordy for me. This book is half as long as the first book and still twice as long as is needed. It is a good story but the amount of unnecessary dialog killed the intrigue.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with another review that this book is too wordy. Almost stopped reading but wanted to know what happened in the end.

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuing the story from The Jossing Affair, The Quisling Factor picks up as Haugland and Anna have begun a new life, with a new baby, and Norway attempts to recover from the Nazi occupation. The book explores the complex process of coming to terms with traitors, or Quislings, and recovering from the mental, emotional, physical, and economic destruction caused by the Nazis.

As with The Jossing Affair, Oakley's extensive historical research is clearly apparent in the story. The author weaves together historical fact and fiction, and tells a thrilling tale of family, friendship, the bonds of war, and those who desperately sought to avoid punishment for their Nazi cooperation during the war. The Quislings must be brought to justice, however, and even as the traitors would do anything to escape justice, Haugland and his fellow Resistance fighters are equally determined that the traitors will not escape.

Oakley has a talent for creating interesting, complex characters whom we grow to know and about which we care. The antagonists receive equal treatment and are never simply the "bad guys". Oakley's sense of place and culture are excellent as well; we clearly see the differences between post-war Norway and America, where the war had far less of an impact.

This book goes beyond the usual historical fiction genre in that it also leads us to better understand the consequences of invasions and how difficult recovery can be; in that sense, the book leans more toward nonfiction. Most Americans never understood how the effects of WWII lingered through the lives of the generation it nearly destroyed. I highly recommend this book and The Jossing Affair.

[Joannaandrosmsw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the sequel to The Jossing Affair. It is an historical novel which takes place in Norway after WWII when Nazis and Nazi sympathizers are being brought to Justice. The story deals with the legacies of a war, when so many lives were lost and trauma lives on in the survivors. Strong relations were forged during the resistance and helped some to rebuild after losing homes, family and livelihood. Others were unable to overcome their trauma. After the Germans left, tensions and conflict continued between resistance fighters and quislings (those who collaborated with Nazis). I learned a lot about how Norway was affected by the war, which I had not known before.