Toews, Bonnie
Average customer rating:
- Self-Published Soap Opera of WWII
- An extremely well-crafted story.
- Interesting story
- Why is this rated so highly? Are only teens reviewing it?
- How much disbelief are YOU willing to suspend?
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Treason & Triumph
Bonnie Toews
Manufacturer: Authorhouse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1403348693 |
Book Description
A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY IS TRAPPED IN THE BIGGEST DOUBLE CROSS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR.
Lady Catherine Rushmore's life is shattered on the night of her concert performance in Berlin, when she witnesses SS thugs trash Jewish homes and brutally murder a baby on Kristal Nacht—the Night of Broken Glass. With her is hard-boiled journalist, Marla Franklin, who sketches rather than photographs the horrors surrounding them. Catherine is ashamed that they don't do anything to stop the cruelty they witness and joins Churchill's secret group, formed to prevent Hitler from producing the first atomic bomb.
While Catherine can't forget the golden SS officer she has left behind in Berlin, Marla falls in love with the agent training to sabotage the heavy water supply the Nazis are producing in Norway for their nuclear labs in Denmark and Germany. Though the heavy water supply is blown up, someone on the team betrays the agent Marla loves, and the SS executes him in Norway.
But Hitler can still beat the Allies because Dr. Holbak in Denmark can show the Nazis how to unlock the atom's chain reaction in time to produce the first atomic bomb. To get the physicist to defect to London, Churchill and King George VI decide to send in the one person the nuclear scientist trusts most—Catherine, the king's cousin. Both leaders believe she is the only one who can convince Holbak to hand over his atomic formulas to the Allies. When Marla discovers Catherine's mission has also been betrayed, she impersonates her and is captured instead.
Once the Gestapo realizes it has been tricked, however, the hunt to find the king's cousin begins. With the traitor still at large, the biggest double cross of the war continues, while the fate of Catherine and Marla hangs on two men who are sworn enemies.
Customer Reviews:
Self-Published Soap Opera of WWII.......2006-02-15
In chapter two Winston Churchill talks about "the atomic bomb" in 1937 and the book runs downhill from there.
The book is instructive to fiction writers because it contains multiple examples of clumsy and obvious exposition that books of writing instruction suggest you avoid. That no publisher was willing to buy this ms. is a caveat worth heeding.
An extremely well-crafted story........2006-01-30
An extremely well-crafted story that takes the reader into the heart of darkness--the Nazi mind and the subsequent practiced evils. The pages speak for themselves and the author's impressive amount of research. Many of the passages are quite beautiful, for instance that of Marla, and the description of her imprisonment, which was chilling, her own thoughts that one can imagine when confronted with death. The latter brought to mind Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge Of Courage", those passages in the story where the boy questions courage under the confrontation of death.
Interesting story.......2005-03-31
The story started out a bit slow, but once it got going, it really got going! This story will definitely take you on a ride of wide-ranging emotions. The descriptions of life in war-torn Europe are very good; it's clear that Toews has done extensive research. In addition to the wonderful descriptions and emotions there is a well crafted mystery - there are plenty of twists and surprises. This novel will stay with you long after you've finished it.
Why is this rated so highly? Are only teens reviewing it?.......2005-02-19
I admit that I'm only about 80 pages into the book so far, but it reminds me of a Harlequin Bodice Ripper, at least it's written with simpering metaphors like one (I read those when I was 9, but then I grew up).
I've found two glaring spelling and punctuation errors so far, terrible in so few pages. (rings a sparkling on his hands?) a sparkling?? Geez.
I'm tempted to just put it down and go on to another book, but the reviews have been so glowing that I'm wondering if this writer improves later in the book.
I've read many great novels about the Holocaust/WWI era..this definitely isn't going to be one of them.
How much disbelief are YOU willing to suspend?.......2004-07-09
I have very mixed feelings about Treason and Triumph. On the one hand, there are a number of things I liked about this book. On the other hand, the plot pushes credibility to its outer limits.
On the plus side, Toews is at her best when she is describing background events. Her account of Kristallnacht is memorable, and I enjoyed the scene in which a Luftwaffe pilot, flying over England with faltering plane, gallantly struggles to keep it in the air long enough to avoid hitting some stately homes. On a smaller scale, her use of powerful metaphors paints many vivid images of people, places, and events.
On the minus side, there are just too many convenient coincidences and Tartuffian devices driving the plot. A German SS Colonel is a British spy (you couldn't get into the SS without proving you were a fanatical Nazi). What's more, he has perfect pitch, and is able to pass coded messages by playing the piano. But his persona is dwarfed by Lady Catherine's, whose talents know no bounds. At times, this English rose is nurse, radio operator, secret agent, and nun. And also a famous concert pianist (specialty: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on the piano; silly me - I thought Beethoven wrote it for full orchestra and chorus). Oh, and yes - she's King George VI's cousin as well. Her best friend is Marla, an American journalist of Jewish descent, who has or wants to have sex with a large proportion of the male characters, including a Gestapo agent charged with torturing her. Both women, while brave, are none too bright. But by a series of amazing coincidences, the characters always conveniently land right in the right place at the right time. It's as if the whole war had been carried out by just a handful of participants in six countries who keep bumping into each other. And as the novel reaches its protracted and belabored conclusion, it spirals in even larger circles of improbability.
Many technical terms are sprinkled into the text for a suggestion of verisimilitude. But a three-sentence description of the make, model, serial number, and other attributes of an airplane engine does not historical accuracy make, so be advised that there are errors in the telling of the larger tale (for example, in the book Churchill is said to be still opposing a western front seven months after D-Day). Curiously, in the author's note at the end of the book, the only thing Toews claims to have invented is exploding horse manure; the SOE could have used her - according to "Secret War" by Juliette Pattinson, British secret agents did use exploding horse manure.
There is no doubt that Toews has a vivid imagination and the ability to express it, and she is, as the cover of the book says, a master of surprise. So, if you enjoy dramatic scenes and shocking story developments and are not too fussy about whether the plot holds water (or even whether you can follow it), then this could be the book for you.
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Manufacturer: Bedford/St. Martin's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0312443595 |
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Manufacturer: Bedford/St. Martin's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Manufacturer: Bedford/St. Martin's
ProductGroup: Book
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Manufacturer: Bedford/St. Martin's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0312432216 |
Authors:
- Toews, Miriam
- Tolkien, J.R.R.
- Tolstoy, Leo
- Toomer, Jean
- Torres Bodet, Jaime
- Torrington, Jeff
- Trakl, Georg
- Tranter, John
- Traven, B.
- Trent, Gayle
Authors
Authors