THUNDER POINT - Book review

 

Jack Higgins’s thriller Thunder Point was published in 1993 and is a credible page-turner.

It concerns serious incriminating documents from 1945 locked away in a metal Nazi briefcase located in a sunken U-boat in the Caribbean.

The U-boat is discovered by accident in 1992 but when the diver learns of the contents inaccessibly locked in a watertight compartment he consults friends in London. This escalates, ultimately involving Brigadier Ferguson who runs a clandestine unit only answerable to the PM. Ferguson inveigles Sean Dillon, Irish assassin and hard man to penetrate the submarine and recover the briefcase.

Other people learn of this and want the contents either to be destroyed or for potential leverage in a political power-game.

It’s colourful, well-researched and the reader becomes invested in the characters.

A first-rate fast-paced Higgins thriller.

Editorial comment:

In most cases my comments are not criticisms but hints about writing.

There are a couple of contrived episodes involving imprisonment in Yugoslavia and a nun outside Paris, the latter of no real relevance; nothing to spoil the reading experience, however,

This section is from Dillon’s POV:

‘... He recognised Algaro at once... and then Santiago came out of the wheelhouse. “Who’s the guy in the blazer and cap?” Dillon enquired.

“That’s Max Santiago, the owner...”’

Instead of ‘Santiago came out...’ it should have read ‘a man in a blazer and cap came out’. (p179)

Several characters sit or lie and ‘think about things’...

Dillon’s favourite handgun – Walther PPK with a Carswell silencer...

Fact:

The skeletal remains of Martin Bormann were discovered in the 1960s and identified in the 1970s, though not conclusively until 1998 following genetic testing.

Book review - The Interrogator

Andrew Williams’ debut novel The Interrogator (2009) boldly tackles a tense period in the Second World War (or as we now must refer to it, WWII). Thanks to the predatory U-boats, Britain is suffering heavy losses from the Atlantic convoys. Lieutenant Douglas Lindsay, a survivor from a torpedoed ship, is working in London with the Admiralty Operational Intelligence Centre, The Citadel. They track U-boats, thanks to Bletchley cracking the Enigma codes. Even so, the attrition rate is devastating…

While interrogating captured German sailors and officers, Lindsay latches onto the idea that the Royal and Merchant Navy codes have been cracked by Donitz’ codebreakers. But, typically, Admiralty representatives are in denial and require proof. Lindsay, becoming obsessed with his theory, jeopardises not only his new love Mary, but also the lives of prisoners in a cat-and-mouse attempt at unearthing the truth.

Williams evokes the tense atmosphere in the Admiralty Tracking Room, and in a U-boat under attack from depth charges, and in a torpedoed warship.

Inevitably, moral ambiguity raises its head; what can be justified for ‘the greater good’? Yes, but it’s war.

The images of London in the Blitz are well done, and the characterisation of Lindsay, Mary and the German prisoners hold the reader’s attention.  As a bonus, there’s Mary’s friend from Eton, Ian Fleming, who is pulling a few strings – and slowly smoking himself to death.

It’s obvious that a great deal of research has gone into the novel; fortunately, there are no info-dumps and the fascinating material emerges as part of the story. 

If you enjoy period pieces about WWII, then you should find this a satisfying read.