Black Cross
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4.5 • 621 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Penn Cage series comes a gripping World War II thriller that “vaporizes almost every cliché about the limits of the genre...[it’s] good enough to read twice”(Kirkus Reviews).
It is January 1944—and as Allied troops prepare for D-Day, Nazi scientists develop a toxic nerve gas that will repel and wipe out any invasion force. To salvage the planned assault, two vastly different but equally determined men are sent to infiltrate the secret concentration camp where the poison gas is being perfected on human subjects. Their only objective: destroy all traces of the gas and the men who created it—no matter how many lives may be lost...including their own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Henceforth, any recommended reading list of thrillers about commando raids behind enemy lines will have to include this second novel by Iles (Spandau Phoenix), who has come up with an action-packed yet thoughtful yarn about a mission to stop the Nazi development of two new poison gases, Sarin and Somin, in a small concentration camp. Mark McConnell, a pacifist American doctor and poison-gas researcher, and Jonas Stern, a Zionist assassin, are chosen by the British to attack the camp. They are instructed to kill all its occupants (including the inmates) by unleashing Britain's own meager supply of Sarin, and to return with information about the manufacture of the gases. The story of McConnell and Stern's training and raid alternates with that of several people interned in the camp, among them Stern's father. The two strands come together in a swift and moving story about mercy, sacrifice and the horrors of war. The mission's purpose is problematic: Would Britain's use of Sarin to kill everyone at the camp really have convinced Himmler to discontinue further research and to persuade Hitler never to use poison gas for fear of Allied retaliation? But Iles builds suspense around the mission itself, not its aftermath, and winds up with an unusually resonant, gripping thriller that's a strong bet for bestsellerdom. Literary Guild alternate; audio rights to Penguin HighBridge; author tour.
Customer Reviews
Boomer,
Loved the book. Though fiction, a great and important read.
I write this as Hamas just massacred 1400 babies, moms and dads. Beheaded the babies.
And yes, less than 70 years ago, and now again.
A fantastic read.
I couldn’t put it down.
A hard read
This is a riveting read, but so hard to read as I visualized the conditions, the people and the atrocities described. Chilling and unimaginable but connected to the reality of Nazi Germany.