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Brandenburg
60 years ago, the greatest crime against humanity was committed. Today it's only a heartbeat away from happening again.
In the pulse-pounding tradition of Robert Ludlum, John Le Carre, and Frederick Forsyth, Glenn Meade, the acclaimed, bestselling author of the blockbuster thriller Snow Wolf , delivers unrivaled suspense, unforgettable characters, and a brilliantly absorbing story with a mind-blowing surprise ending.
In Paraguay, a young reporter is found brutally murdered. In Berlin, a political activist is gunned down in the street. In Strasbourg, an international policeman is given the name of a beautiful young German woman-- and the first key to an extraordinary plot...
Joseph Volkmann knows that a string of killings around the world are linked by a single purpose. And he knows that Erica Kranz, whose journalist cousin had stumbled on the story, is linked to the plot. Haunted by the ghosts of the past, driven by the specter of the future, Volkmann and Kranz are about to plunge through a realm of terrorism, fanaticism, and deception-- as they stare at the true face of evil...
In the pulse-pounding tradition of Robert Ludlum, John Le Carre, and Frederick Forsyth, Glenn Meade, the acclaimed, bestselling author of the blockbuster thriller Snow Wolf , delivers unrivaled suspense, unforgettable characters, and a brilliantly absorbing story with a mind-blowing surprise ending.
In Paraguay, a young reporter is found brutally murdered. In Berlin, a political activist is gunned down in the street. In Strasbourg, an international policeman is given the name of a beautiful young German woman-- and the first key to an extraordinary plot...
Joseph Volkmann knows that a string of killings around the world are linked by a single purpose. And he knows that Erica Kranz, whose journalist cousin had stumbled on the story, is linked to the plot. Haunted by the ghosts of the past, driven by the specter of the future, Volkmann and Kranz are about to plunge through a realm of terrorism, fanaticism, and deception-- as they stare at the true face of evil...
514 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 17, 1994
38 people are currently reading
1457 people want to read
About the author
Glenn Meade
34 books397 followersGlenn Meade was born into a working-class family in Dublin, Ireland. After finishing secondary school he had a tough time choosing between studying theology or engineering, but eventually engineering won out and he studied telecommunications. Soon after graduating, he lived and worked in New Hampshire. He worked as a specialist in the field of pilot training—having had a life-long interest in aviation—and has also been a journalist for the Irish Times and the Independent.
While living in New Hampshire, he persistently tried to interview the famously reclusive author of CATCHER IN THE RYE, J.D. Salinger, an effort that only served to vex Salinger, who set his dogs on Meade, who luckily managed to outrun Salinger’s hounds and survive.
He began writing in earnest in the late eighties, when he wrote and directed his own plays, mostly for the Strand Theatre in Dublin, but Meade decided to turn his efforts to thriller writing in the mid-nineties.
His novels to date—SNOW WOLF, BRANDENBURG, THE SANDS OF SAKKARA, RESURRECTION DAY, WEB OF DECEIT, THE DEVIL’S DISCIPLE, THE SECOND MESSIAH—have been translated into twenty-six languages, and have enjoyed critical and commercial success.
His first novel, BRANDENBURG, about a neo-Nazi resurgence in present-day Europe, came about when he travelled to Germany to write an article for the Times on the billions in Nazi gold that went missing at the end of the Second World War. Quite by accident, he met an elderly former SS officer who told him a remarkable and highly personal tale about his part in keeping a disturbing war-time secret. That story became the inspiration for BRANDENBURG.
Several of his novels were also inspired by his journalistic work but inspiration only takes you so far and Meade claims that to produce anything of worth it always comes down to the same three constants: hard work, prayer, and putting your imagination through the wringer.
Critics have compared the standard of his work to that of Frederick Forsyth, John le Carre, and Tom Clancy, and his stories have tended to be a tantalising blend of fact and fiction. SNOW WOLF won the prestigious thriller of the year award by the Japanese Writer's Guild (second place went to Stephen King's THE GREEN MILE).
He has also worked on several Hollywood scripts but Meade confesses that employment in Tinsletown was not a pleasant experience and he has learned to stick to the golden rule for novelists whose work is bought by Hollywood—gratefully accept the pay check, walk away and just pray that they don’t turn your treasured story into a musical.
Meade has earned a reputation for meticulously researched stories and has travelled extensively—to Russia, the Middle East, Europe—to research his novels. For RESURRECTION DAY, a highly realistic thriller about a dramatic attack on the US capital by an Al Qaeda terror group armed with a chemical weapon of mass destruction, and completed three weeks before the events of September 11th, he spent many months in Washington DC. He interviewed senior White House staff, former Secret Service agents, US Federal emergency planners, and senior FBI terrorist experts, some of whom were later involved in the hunt for Al Qaeda terrorist suspects on US soil. One former senior FBI source, John O’Neill, who helped Meade, was killed in the September 11th attacks, having resigned from the bureau only months prior to taking up a new post—as head of security at the Twin Towers.
RESURRECTION DAY was published internationally but Meade’s then New York publisher considered it too raw a subject for the US, coming so soon after 9/11, and they parted company. However, the work garnered rave reviews and much media attention in Europe.
Having read the book, Newt Gingrich, then a member of the Hart-Rudd commission (set up post 9/11 by President George Bush with responsibility for determining future likely terrorist threats against the US) was so impressed that he contacted Meade and kindly offe
While living in New Hampshire, he persistently tried to interview the famously reclusive author of CATCHER IN THE RYE, J.D. Salinger, an effort that only served to vex Salinger, who set his dogs on Meade, who luckily managed to outrun Salinger’s hounds and survive.
He began writing in earnest in the late eighties, when he wrote and directed his own plays, mostly for the Strand Theatre in Dublin, but Meade decided to turn his efforts to thriller writing in the mid-nineties.
His novels to date—SNOW WOLF, BRANDENBURG, THE SANDS OF SAKKARA, RESURRECTION DAY, WEB OF DECEIT, THE DEVIL’S DISCIPLE, THE SECOND MESSIAH—have been translated into twenty-six languages, and have enjoyed critical and commercial success.
His first novel, BRANDENBURG, about a neo-Nazi resurgence in present-day Europe, came about when he travelled to Germany to write an article for the Times on the billions in Nazi gold that went missing at the end of the Second World War. Quite by accident, he met an elderly former SS officer who told him a remarkable and highly personal tale about his part in keeping a disturbing war-time secret. That story became the inspiration for BRANDENBURG.
Several of his novels were also inspired by his journalistic work but inspiration only takes you so far and Meade claims that to produce anything of worth it always comes down to the same three constants: hard work, prayer, and putting your imagination through the wringer.
Critics have compared the standard of his work to that of Frederick Forsyth, John le Carre, and Tom Clancy, and his stories have tended to be a tantalising blend of fact and fiction. SNOW WOLF won the prestigious thriller of the year award by the Japanese Writer's Guild (second place went to Stephen King's THE GREEN MILE).
He has also worked on several Hollywood scripts but Meade confesses that employment in Tinsletown was not a pleasant experience and he has learned to stick to the golden rule for novelists whose work is bought by Hollywood—gratefully accept the pay check, walk away and just pray that they don’t turn your treasured story into a musical.
Meade has earned a reputation for meticulously researched stories and has travelled extensively—to Russia, the Middle East, Europe—to research his novels. For RESURRECTION DAY, a highly realistic thriller about a dramatic attack on the US capital by an Al Qaeda terror group armed with a chemical weapon of mass destruction, and completed three weeks before the events of September 11th, he spent many months in Washington DC. He interviewed senior White House staff, former Secret Service agents, US Federal emergency planners, and senior FBI terrorist experts, some of whom were later involved in the hunt for Al Qaeda terrorist suspects on US soil. One former senior FBI source, John O’Neill, who helped Meade, was killed in the September 11th attacks, having resigned from the bureau only months prior to taking up a new post—as head of security at the Twin Towers.
RESURRECTION DAY was published internationally but Meade’s then New York publisher considered it too raw a subject for the US, coming so soon after 9/11, and they parted company. However, the work garnered rave reviews and much media attention in Europe.
Having read the book, Newt Gingrich, then a member of the Hart-Rudd commission (set up post 9/11 by President George Bush with responsibility for determining future likely terrorist threats against the US) was so impressed that he contacted Meade and kindly offe
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
August 27, 2023
I am giving this thriller by Glenn Meade 5 stars. It did everything a thriller is supposed to do, mainly, keep me totally engaged with the story. Although the book was over 500 pages, the pace never let up and it only intensified in the last 100 pages.
The story involves a Nazi plot, which an international cop begins to uncover. Needless to say, the cop's life is endangered, as well as those working for him. There are a lot of twists and turns without the story becoming too complicated ( in my opinion), with the action jumping mainly between South America and Europe.
This is the third thriller by Irish author Meade that I've read and all three are outstanding, with my favorite being "The Sands of Sakkara."
The story involves a Nazi plot, which an international cop begins to uncover. Needless to say, the cop's life is endangered, as well as those working for him. There are a lot of twists and turns without the story becoming too complicated ( in my opinion), with the action jumping mainly between South America and Europe.
This is the third thriller by Irish author Meade that I've read and all three are outstanding, with my favorite being "The Sands of Sakkara."
April 30, 2013
Brandenburg was first published in1994, and it shows. There is a 1998 edition also for sale on Amazon, and the reviews are extremely mixed, with the same number of 1-star reviews as 5-star. It’s now been republished by Howard Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster that publishes Christian crossover fiction.
The cool 2013 cover disguises the fact that the book is set in 1994 and hasn’t been updated either in content or in writing style. In a way that’s good—the story just wouldn’t add up if it was set in 2013—but in some ways it’s bad. It would have been easier to get into the plot if it was made clear the book was set in 1994, rather than leaving the reader to work it out through clues like references to CD’s, tape recorders, phones with cords and the Times Atlas (no Google Earth or Wikipedia in this universe). And how do I know the book was definitely set in 1994? It opens on Wednesday, November 23, and it only took a couple of minutes on my phone’s calendar app to work out that November 23 was a Wednesday in 1994, 2005 or 2011. And 2005 and 2011 are too late for the technology described in the book.
And what’s Brandenburg about? The blurb describes it as “a British agent and a German woman find themselves unraveling a plot to bring about the Fourth Reich”. Maybe so, but Joseph Volkmann and Erika Kranz don’t discover what the plot is until past the halfway point—until then they are merely trying to discover who killed Erica’s cousin, a South American journalist who was chasing a story that had German connections.
My main problem with the plot is that it just wasn’t thrilling. I finished reading at the 80% mark when I realised I really didn’t care enough about any of the characters to want to find out what happened at the end (at a guess, given that this was set in 1994 and Berlin is still standing, the good guys won). A reviewer on Amazon said “Meade doesn’t give anything away until the last quarter of the book and this is what makes it intriguing”. Each to their own, but I kept waiting for something to happen, and I kept being disappointed. On the plus side, my housework got done.
Meade’s writing is compared to Dan Brown, which should have warned me off. I don’t like Dan Brown’s writing, and I don’t like Meade’s. It goes against all the guidelines of modern fiction (possibly because it was written before the guidelines were). It’s full of uninteresting narrative and long dumps of information that don’t really seem in character (the first conversation between Volkmann and Kranz was a case in point). There is a lot of violence, some of which is gore for the sake of it as it serves little or no purpose in forwarding the plot. The third-person point of view flips between characters so much as to be confusing. And not making the time period clear didn’t help. It has no Christian content at all, despite being published by Simon & Schuster’s Christian imprint.
On a more positive note, Brandenburg is tightly-plotted, although the profusion of cardboard characters that only manages to avoid complete confusion by focusing mostly on Volkmann. If you’re looking for a good modern Christian thriller I’d sooner recommend Noel Hynd, Don Brown (who writes US Navy legal thrillers, and shouldn’t be confused with Dan Brown) or Richard L Mabry.
Thanks to Howard Books and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
The cool 2013 cover disguises the fact that the book is set in 1994 and hasn’t been updated either in content or in writing style. In a way that’s good—the story just wouldn’t add up if it was set in 2013—but in some ways it’s bad. It would have been easier to get into the plot if it was made clear the book was set in 1994, rather than leaving the reader to work it out through clues like references to CD’s, tape recorders, phones with cords and the Times Atlas (no Google Earth or Wikipedia in this universe). And how do I know the book was definitely set in 1994? It opens on Wednesday, November 23, and it only took a couple of minutes on my phone’s calendar app to work out that November 23 was a Wednesday in 1994, 2005 or 2011. And 2005 and 2011 are too late for the technology described in the book.
And what’s Brandenburg about? The blurb describes it as “a British agent and a German woman find themselves unraveling a plot to bring about the Fourth Reich”. Maybe so, but Joseph Volkmann and Erika Kranz don’t discover what the plot is until past the halfway point—until then they are merely trying to discover who killed Erica’s cousin, a South American journalist who was chasing a story that had German connections.
My main problem with the plot is that it just wasn’t thrilling. I finished reading at the 80% mark when I realised I really didn’t care enough about any of the characters to want to find out what happened at the end (at a guess, given that this was set in 1994 and Berlin is still standing, the good guys won). A reviewer on Amazon said “Meade doesn’t give anything away until the last quarter of the book and this is what makes it intriguing”. Each to their own, but I kept waiting for something to happen, and I kept being disappointed. On the plus side, my housework got done.
Meade’s writing is compared to Dan Brown, which should have warned me off. I don’t like Dan Brown’s writing, and I don’t like Meade’s. It goes against all the guidelines of modern fiction (possibly because it was written before the guidelines were). It’s full of uninteresting narrative and long dumps of information that don’t really seem in character (the first conversation between Volkmann and Kranz was a case in point). There is a lot of violence, some of which is gore for the sake of it as it serves little or no purpose in forwarding the plot. The third-person point of view flips between characters so much as to be confusing. And not making the time period clear didn’t help. It has no Christian content at all, despite being published by Simon & Schuster’s Christian imprint.
On a more positive note, Brandenburg is tightly-plotted, although the profusion of cardboard characters that only manages to avoid complete confusion by focusing mostly on Volkmann. If you’re looking for a good modern Christian thriller I’d sooner recommend Noel Hynd, Don Brown (who writes US Navy legal thrillers, and shouldn’t be confused with Dan Brown) or Richard L Mabry.
Thanks to Howard Books and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
March 2, 2013
This is my second Glenn Meade book and I enjoyed it very much. I really enjoyed The Romanov Conspiracy. This one takes place in present day but draws from the events of German WWII. The evidence is sparse in the beginning and early leads seem to dry out. The protagonist is not a Jason Bourne type but a son of immigrants who lived through the Holocaust. He learned little from his father who was a young Jewish teen at the beginning of the war. What he did learn was mistrust of Germans but particularly children of former SS officers. Which is where Erica enters.
Erica is a beautiful German woman whose first cousin was recently murdered in Paraguay. He had hinted before her departure that he was working on a big story. What she nor Joseph Volkman know is that eventually Erica would have become part of the mystery whether she had contacted the international police or not. The players in the mystery are children of those who had made a pact years before. There is a shocker in the story that the reader might see coming. I did. What I did not know until the end was if Erica was part of the plan or not.
It is a carefully laid out spy thriller. Enjoyable read.
Erica is a beautiful German woman whose first cousin was recently murdered in Paraguay. He had hinted before her departure that he was working on a big story. What she nor Joseph Volkman know is that eventually Erica would have become part of the mystery whether she had contacted the international police or not. The players in the mystery are children of those who had made a pact years before. There is a shocker in the story that the reader might see coming. I did. What I did not know until the end was if Erica was part of the plan or not.
It is a carefully laid out spy thriller. Enjoyable read.
January 18, 2013
This book re-opened a lot of doors about Hitler's indiscretion and love interest. It's an adventure that kept me turning page after page. I'm a history buff and make a point of studying WWII because I believe that period in human history was the most significant in all our time. The characters in Glenn's book are realistic and his writing style keeps getting better. The subtle hints about who is in the torn picture have stayed with me all these years since I read this book, and I've kept it in my collection to read again as I do all my favorites. I highly recommend this book. It'll be time well-spent.
February 22, 2014
I thought the plot was clever and story line quite entertaining. I liked the character who turned out to be the protagonist, although it took a while to establish his role in the story. However, the book could have been so much more.
The book was too long. There were to many inconsequential characters which made keeping people straight difficult. The author employed considerable violence and gun play in the story. Unfortunately, he knows nothing about either subject which causes his violence scenes to fall flat. . . and that is being kind. The firearm related passages are so unrealistic that they border on the juvenile. His dialog is reminiscent of Joe Friday speaking to people in the original Dragnet series. It becomes so stilted in places that it's humorous.
Still, the story was entertaining and worth the read if you can get passed the shortcomings.
The book was too long. There were to many inconsequential characters which made keeping people straight difficult. The author employed considerable violence and gun play in the story. Unfortunately, he knows nothing about either subject which causes his violence scenes to fall flat. . . and that is being kind. The firearm related passages are so unrealistic that they border on the juvenile. His dialog is reminiscent of Joe Friday speaking to people in the original Dragnet series. It becomes so stilted in places that it's humorous.
Still, the story was entertaining and worth the read if you can get passed the shortcomings.
September 15, 2019
Meade’ın Brandenburg’u, 1990’ların Soğuk Savaş sonrası Almanyası’nda darbe planlayan Neo-Nazi bir çetenin hikayesi. Meade her kitabında olduğu gibi bunda da tarihsel gerçeklikleri kurgusal öğelerle başarılı bir şekilde harmanlıyor. II. Dünya Savaşı sonrası Güney Amerika’ya kaçan ve gizli örgütler kurarak varlığını sürdüren, bir yandan da sağcı örgütler aracılığıyla Almanya’da etkin olan Naziler, Hitler’in gizli oğlu Schmeltz öncülüğünde ve nükleer başlıklı füze kozuyla, uluslararası bir komploya girişir.
Ancak Meade, bütün bu gizli hikayenin ortaya çıkarılmasını, AB bünyesindeki ortak güvenlik-istihbarat örgütü DSE’nin Britanyalı dedektifine, onunla işbirliğini aşırı sol bir Alman örgütüne, Nazilere lojistik desteği G.Amerikalı sağcılara, sahnenin finalinde Şansölye suikastini de karısı Neo-Nazilerce öldürülen bir Türk’e havale eder. Alman bürokrasisi ve güvenlik kurumlarını ise Nazi sempatizanlarıyla dolu ve felç halde kurgular. Avrupa ülkeleri arasındaki tarihsel bagaj ve güvensizlikler, ekonomik kriz, yabancı düşmanlığı ve göçmenler sorunu da darbe senaryosunun sosu-biberi olur.
Fena bir polisiye/gerilim değil ama gereksiz detaylarla 700 sayfalık kitap, şişirme olmuş biraz; üstelik asıl hikaye tüm kitabın ancak beşte birlik son kısmına sıkışmış. Sakkara’nın Kumları, Kar Kurdu, Romanov Komplosu gibi daha başarılı kitaplarının gerisinde kalsa da yine de okunası bir Meade kurgusu...
Ancak Meade, bütün bu gizli hikayenin ortaya çıkarılmasını, AB bünyesindeki ortak güvenlik-istihbarat örgütü DSE’nin Britanyalı dedektifine, onunla işbirliğini aşırı sol bir Alman örgütüne, Nazilere lojistik desteği G.Amerikalı sağcılara, sahnenin finalinde Şansölye suikastini de karısı Neo-Nazilerce öldürülen bir Türk’e havale eder. Alman bürokrasisi ve güvenlik kurumlarını ise Nazi sempatizanlarıyla dolu ve felç halde kurgular. Avrupa ülkeleri arasındaki tarihsel bagaj ve güvensizlikler, ekonomik kriz, yabancı düşmanlığı ve göçmenler sorunu da darbe senaryosunun sosu-biberi olur.
Fena bir polisiye/gerilim değil ama gereksiz detaylarla 700 sayfalık kitap, şişirme olmuş biraz; üstelik asıl hikaye tüm kitabın ancak beşte birlik son kısmına sıkışmış. Sakkara’nın Kumları, Kar Kurdu, Romanov Komplosu gibi daha başarılı kitaplarının gerisinde kalsa da yine de okunası bir Meade kurgusu...
February 21, 2014
2,5'tan 3. Nazi Almanya'sı, sonrasında Avrupa'da yaşanan paranoya, Güney Amerika'ya saklanmış eski naziler, Hitler'in klonları olduğu gibi bir çok varsayımı defalarca filmlerde, kitaplarda görmüş biri olarak bu kitabı yaratıcı bulamadım her şeyden önce. konu sevdiğim bir konu olmasına rağmen, sarmadı beni. Ana karakterin kadınları tasviri, uzun bir çift bacak ve meme olarak tanımlaması kitaba sevgimi daha da azalttı. kısacası sevmedim sevemedim ama yazarın bendeki kredisinden dolayı 3 yıldız verdim.
September 23, 2017
Ein Stern für die Story - die Idee war echt nicht schlecht, wenn auch ein bisschen weit hergeholt. Aber mit so einen grottenschlechten Schreibstil war ich schon lange nicht mehr konfrontiert. 700 Seiten (wär mit 300 besser geworden) lang werden Stereotypen (deutsche Frauen sind blond und blauäugig, hässliche Männer sind intelligent) und Sexismen (alle Frauen sind auf Aussehen reduziert) ausgebreitet, dass einem schlecht wird. Alle Charaktere sind flach Ende nie, und werden nur übers Aussehen definiert. Und dann kommt noch hinzu, dass die Übersetzung mies ist - so wird zB aus Kirschlikör zehn Sätze später zum Kirschschnaps. Wer kein sprachlicher Masochist ist, sollte von diesem Geschreibsel Abstand halten!
August 20, 2023
The plot is super interesting and continues to unfold as you read. Starts as a slow burn but the last 100 pages are fast paced and thrilling.
Even more interesting and disturbing because of the facts the story is based on.
Even more interesting and disturbing because of the facts the story is based on.
March 2, 2019
Yazarın, okuduğum 9. kitabı ve rahatlıkla diyebilirim ki diğer 8 inin de üstünde bir eser. Ama kitap -nasıl denir- biraz rahatsız edici, sert bir kitap.
April 15, 2016
I can't say I really enjoyed this book, to be honest. First off, the writing style and use of language drove me insane. One thing I kept encountering were sentences like, "Tell me what you intend doing." (That's one's from page 360 of the edition I read.) While this may be correct in British English, it sounds so jarringly wrong to my ear that I kept getting annoyed by it.
The next issue was with the dialogue. It was so stilted and characters kept addressing each other by name. In general, people don't actually use each other's names a lot when they speak, which is why beginner writers are usually cautioned against this. Apparently whoever edited this book hasn't heard of that rule before.
Warning: some spoilers ahead!
Now, for the plot-related issues. The plot started off really interesting. I liked the first bit that took place in Paraguay. But then it just got boring, mainly because I didn't really like or care about the main character, Joseph Volkmann. I get the idea he was supposed to be this somewhat troubled intelligence agent, but the author didn't fully pull that off.
Seriously, this book is a bit long. Save your time and read something else. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. I was so disappointed in this one that I don't know if I'm going to read the other Glenn Meade book I got from the library, The Romanov Conspiracy. (And anyone who knows me will know I'm a sucker for anything Russia- and Romanov-related. Something has to be pretty bad to make me contemplate passing up a book involving Russia and the Romanovs.)
The next issue was with the dialogue. It was so stilted and characters kept addressing each other by name. In general, people don't actually use each other's names a lot when they speak, which is why beginner writers are usually cautioned against this. Apparently whoever edited this book hasn't heard of that rule before.
Warning: some spoilers ahead!
Now, for the plot-related issues. The plot started off really interesting. I liked the first bit that took place in Paraguay. But then it just got boring, mainly because I didn't really like or care about the main character, Joseph Volkmann. I get the idea he was supposed to be this somewhat troubled intelligence agent, but the author didn't fully pull that off.
Seriously, this book is a bit long. Save your time and read something else. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. I was so disappointed in this one that I don't know if I'm going to read the other Glenn Meade book I got from the library, The Romanov Conspiracy. (And anyone who knows me will know I'm a sucker for anything Russia- and Romanov-related. Something has to be pretty bad to make me contemplate passing up a book involving Russia and the Romanovs.)
May 16, 2008
Very good read, fans of Allan Folsom would like this author - international thrillers.
November 26, 2016
2.5. A long build to what felt like a fizzle at the end. None of the characters really stood out to me and the randomly added sex scenes made the book feel trashy. Was not impressed with this one.
February 21, 2022
There are parts of this book I like very much and other parts that didn't age well at all.
Brandenburg was an enjoyable historical fiction thriller. The plot moved along well and, for the most part, was plausable enough to keep me engaged. Being from the United States, I enjoyed being transported to Germany, Paraguay, and other far off locations.
The political intrigue at the center of this book is particularly poignant given world events now in 2022 (this book's copyright is 1997). I'm not going to spoil it for you, but suffice to say, thoughts of the presence of shadow activities like those described in this book don't make me sleep better at night!
Where the book absolutely doesn't age well is the overt sexism throughout the book. First, in the way the male characters talk and think about women (which one "might" chalk up to being true to the period). But mainly in the flat portrayal of Erica Kranz. Bad enough that her own cousin is portrayed thinking of her as a sex object, but absolutely unforgivable that this woman went from a smart, resourceful and courageous journalist to a shadow of herself willing to hole up in the apartment of a man she just met and remain on the sidelines. Not to mention how she somehow "falls in love" while bodies are literally falling around them. All of it so implausable! How much better this tale would have been had she been fleshed out to be the badass she could have been.
I suspect that men reading this book will have a much better experience than women.
Brandenburg was an enjoyable historical fiction thriller. The plot moved along well and, for the most part, was plausable enough to keep me engaged. Being from the United States, I enjoyed being transported to Germany, Paraguay, and other far off locations.
The political intrigue at the center of this book is particularly poignant given world events now in 2022 (this book's copyright is 1997). I'm not going to spoil it for you, but suffice to say, thoughts of the presence of shadow activities like those described in this book don't make me sleep better at night!
Where the book absolutely doesn't age well is the overt sexism throughout the book. First, in the way the male characters talk and think about women (which one "might" chalk up to being true to the period). But mainly in the flat portrayal of Erica Kranz. Bad enough that her own cousin is portrayed thinking of her as a sex object, but absolutely unforgivable that this woman went from a smart, resourceful and courageous journalist to a shadow of herself willing to hole up in the apartment of a man she just met and remain on the sidelines. Not to mention how she somehow "falls in love" while bodies are literally falling around them. All of it so implausable! How much better this tale would have been had she been fleshed out to be the badass she could have been.
I suspect that men reading this book will have a much better experience than women.
August 11, 2019
Ben bezig om mijn boekenkast uit te mesten met ongelezen boeken en daar was deze een van.
Op zich een spannend geschreven verhaal, met enorm veel verschillende personen, dat ik af en toe moeite had om wie dit nu weer was, ook veel geweld, heb het aantal doden niet geteld, maar veel.
Doet mij denken aan de Boys of Brazil, min of meer hetzelfde thema. Boys of Brazil gaat dan over gekloonde Hitlers, en hier over een nakomeling van Hitler die blijkbaar dezelfde opvatting heeft. Maar toch, wat de schrijver over de toenmalige gemoedstoestand schrijft in Duitsland t.o.v. immigranten, is anno 2019 niet echt veel veranderd.
Op zich een spannend geschreven verhaal, met enorm veel verschillende personen, dat ik af en toe moeite had om wie dit nu weer was, ook veel geweld, heb het aantal doden niet geteld, maar veel.
Doet mij denken aan de Boys of Brazil, min of meer hetzelfde thema. Boys of Brazil gaat dan over gekloonde Hitlers, en hier over een nakomeling van Hitler die blijkbaar dezelfde opvatting heeft. Maar toch, wat de schrijver over de toenmalige gemoedstoestand schrijft in Duitsland t.o.v. immigranten, is anno 2019 niet echt veel veranderd.
December 5, 2021
Glenn Meade is an author who seems to have disappeared from bookstores much too soon , This one is a long entertaining read and a real puzzler . About 80 % through the story and it is still not clear what is happening . The book is for those who like a puzzle and are happy to combine it with the disappearance of so many Nazis after WW2 . One of several intriguing features of the book is that the German government are said to have paid former SS soldiers their pensions until they eventually died . I suppose the writer is no longer on the shelves because he is politically incorrect - what a shame .
March 27, 2024
Glen Meade'nın henüz sadece bu kitabını okudum. Kitap beni aşırı tatmin etmedi doğrusu, bazı yerlerde tempo artıyor ama bazı yerlerde inandırıcılık kayboluyor.
Mesela eski bir resimde yer alan bir kadının kim olduğunu teşhis etmek için bir çok Nazi dönemi uzmanına danışılıyor ama kimse bulamıyor sonra Hanah Richter adlı başka bir bilirkişi kadının Adolf Hitler'in yeğeni olduğunu söylüyor ve kadına dair epey sağlam bir hikaye anlatıyor. Adolf Hitler'in yeğeni gibi önemli bir karakterin üstelik Adolf'la olan karmaşık ilişkisi de bilinirken kimsenin tanımaması bence olmamış. Polisiye romanlarda bu tür detaylara dikkat etmek lazım...
Mesela eski bir resimde yer alan bir kadının kim olduğunu teşhis etmek için bir çok Nazi dönemi uzmanına danışılıyor ama kimse bulamıyor sonra Hanah Richter adlı başka bir bilirkişi kadının Adolf Hitler'in yeğeni olduğunu söylüyor ve kadına dair epey sağlam bir hikaye anlatıyor. Adolf Hitler'in yeğeni gibi önemli bir karakterin üstelik Adolf'la olan karmaşık ilişkisi de bilinirken kimsenin tanımaması bence olmamış. Polisiye romanlarda bu tür detaylara dikkat etmek lazım...
March 27, 2024
I loved this book. I've read some books on similar material in the past but this by far has been the best. This book was truly a page turner, and definitely informative as it spoke about a period of history that still remains somewhat secretive and unresolved. The characters were real people, the wonderful ones being the heroes and heroines who did their utmost to save the Tsar's family. The bad ones were real people too and a few were the personification of pure evil.
There were some surprise twists at the end of the story.
There were some surprise twists at the end of the story.
January 20, 2025
What a great read.. the characters are wonderful and complex.. the storyline, although easy to follow is substantial and the book hard to put down..
It’s a shame that books by Glenn Meade are now almost impossible to get in Australia.. my son in Canada bought this for me…
I fail to see what the date t was written has to do with how good a book is..
It’s very worth a read in my opinion.. this is the second time I have read it…
And in another 20 years I may read it again..
Cheers Glenn Meade… now please send your books to Australia again…
It’s a shame that books by Glenn Meade are now almost impossible to get in Australia.. my son in Canada bought this for me…
I fail to see what the date t was written has to do with how good a book is..
It’s very worth a read in my opinion.. this is the second time I have read it…
And in another 20 years I may read it again..
Cheers Glenn Meade… now please send your books to Australia again…
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August 10, 2025This is an embarrassing exercise in lazy storytelling. The plot is a painfully predictable slog, devoid of any real suspense or originality - like a bad fanfiction masquerading as a novel. His characters are embarrassingly flat, as if created by someone who’s never met a real person. The historical setting is slapped on with all the care of a high school project. Meade’s prose lacks polish, insight, or heart-making this book a transparent cash grab that insults readers and showcases an author resting on hollow, inflated ego rather than talent.
May 6, 2017
Daha önce Glenn Meade'in Kar Kurdu'nu okumuş ve çok beğenmiştim. İlk kitabı olan Brandenburg ise açıkçası pek sarmadı. Çok fazla isim var, kurgu birbirine giriyor, bazen takibi zorlaşıyor. Karakter tanıtımı diye bir şey de yok gibi.
Ancak gazeteci geçmişinden dolayı yine çokça araştırma yapmış. Hatta gerçek olmadığı ispatlanamayan kısımları da gerçekmiş gibi kurgusuna yedirmeyi bilmiş. O yüzden özellikle Nazi Almanya'sı ve Hitler'e ilgisi olanların hoşlarına gidebilir diye düşünüyorum.
Ancak gazeteci geçmişinden dolayı yine çokça araştırma yapmış. Hatta gerçek olmadığı ispatlanamayan kısımları da gerçekmiş gibi kurgusuna yedirmeyi bilmiş. O yüzden özellikle Nazi Almanya'sı ve Hitler'e ilgisi olanların hoşlarına gidebilir diye düşünüyorum.
October 31, 2017
Wow...Ohh....So....Jesus had children. ....,
Female Pope ......
Colombus was a Jew ....
...now Hitler son and grandson !
Was a well written, enjoyable work of fiction. ..??.....OHhh..Don know. ...
Thanks Laszlo
Female Pope ......
Colombus was a Jew ....
...now Hitler son and grandson !
Was a well written, enjoyable work of fiction. ..??.....OHhh..Don know. ...
Thanks Laszlo
December 4, 2018
İlginç bir konu, oldukça merak uyandırıcı. Kitap edebi ve tarihsel açıdan doyurucu, film gibi gözünüzün önünde akıyor. Ortasına doğru temposu ve sürükleyiciliği biraz azalıyor ama sonunda tekrar hız kazanıyor. Çok fazla karakter olduğu için zaman zaman ‘bu kimdi? Bu hangisiydi?’ diye bocaladığım oldu, yer yer kitaptan koptum. Yine de beğendim , Glenn Meade okumalarına devam.
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October 16, 2021It has a lot of great ideas, but oftentimes it moves too slowly. The mystery portion drags. But when it gets going, it's a thrill ride.
Also, as a side note, my edition used what appears to be single space for the text. I don't like it. At all. It hurts my eyes. This might have informed my opinion on the text.
Also, as a side note, my edition used what appears to be single space for the text. I don't like it. At all. It hurts my eyes. This might have informed my opinion on the text.
August 28, 2017
İlk Meade kitabım. Aslında kurgusu çok iyi. Ama karakter sayısının çok olması, sanki biraz fazla uzatılmış olması ve kadınlar için kullanılan ifadeler çok hoş olmamakla birlikte kurulan komplo başarılıydı. İnsanın acaba? mı diyesi bile gelebiliyor :) Başka Meade kitaplarında buluşmak dileği ile...
August 8, 2018
I particularly love books that make an important point. This one does. Besides that it is very interesting, taking the reader to various locations in South America and Europe. There is a lot of mystery and suspense, all of which is skillfully resolved at the end, and a little romance to boot.
May 2, 2019
200 pages into the novel with nearly no development or progression in the story. It simply could not contain my interest any more. Very slow going. Very disappointing. And, one reviewer stated this was a nail-biting page turner? Are we reading the same book?
July 23, 2020
Güzel ve çok dolu bir macera. Hitler zamanında yaşanmış bazı olaylar üzerine günümüzde geçen kurgusal bir hikaye. Gizem ve heyecan sürekli mevcut hikayede. Böyle bir gelişme olamaz dediğiniz anda kurgu ayaklarını sağlam bir şekilde yere basabiliyor.
September 24, 2017
Awesome
This book was great. It's twists and turns made me reluctant to set it down. I highly recommend it. This story was well researched and written.
This book was great. It's twists and turns made me reluctant to set it down. I highly recommend it. This story was well researched and written.
July 7, 2019
Tarantino filmi izler gibiydi. Ben keyif aldım. Olay yeri incelemeleriyle değil kişilerin bağlantılarıyla örülmüş bir polisiye. En zayıf yani betimlemeler hep aynı hep aynı olmasıydı.
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