Reviewer Dr. Wesley Britton: Dr. Britton is the author of four non-fiction books on espionage in literature and the media. Starting in fall 2015, his new six-book science fiction series, The Beta-Earth Chronicles, debuted via BearManor Media.
In 2018, Britton self-published the seventh book in the Chronicles, Alpha Tales 2044, a collection of short stories, many of which first appeared at a number of online venues.
For seven years, he was co-host of online radio’s Dave White Presents where he contributed interviews with a host of entertainment insiders. Before his retirement in 2016, Dr. Britton taught English at Harrisburg Area Community College. Learn more about Dr. Britton at his WEBSITE
Author: Samuel Marquis
Publisher: Mount Sopris Publishing, January 24, 2017
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B01NCWYIH1
Author: Samuel Marquis
Publisher: Mount Sopris Publishing, January 24, 2017
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B01NCWYIH1
To date, I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing two previous Samuel Marquis novels: The Coalition, a political assassination thriller, and Bodyguard of Deception: Volume One of his World War II Trilogy.
Now, I’ve read Altar of Resistance, the second book in that trilogy. Without question, Marquis has really upped his game with this one. In Bodyguard, much of the setting was in the Rocky Mountains where two escaped Nazi POW brothers with very different attitudes try to send secret information back to Germany. One is a die-hard, ruthless Nazi; the other is a loyal German whose patriotism does mean national pride but doesn’t extend to Hitler. In the mix, their Americanized mother tries to make sure law enforcement and counter-espionage entities chasing her sons capture and not kill them.
While we see Bridger go behind enemy lines and narrowly escape torture and death before joining the Allied invasion, we also witness Teresa and her resistance compatriots trying to fight their oppressors. We see Hollman interact with a large number of German and Italian fascists engaged in savage reprisals and cruelty of every variety. We also see Pope Pius XII wrestling with what his proper role should be in protecting the Jews and his people. Perhaps it’s the story of the Pope that could be the most controversial element of the novel.
For decades, the Pope’s role during the war has been debated with no easy resolutions. Did he do enough to protect the Jews? Why didn’t he be more public in denunciations of Hitler? In Marquis’s portrayal, the Pope wanted to preserve the Vatican’s neutrality, feared there would be harsher reprisals if he said much publicly, felt he couldn’t fairly denounce Hitler without doing the same to the Russians, and seemed very concerned about his august presence being forced out of Rome. He’s described as a secret agent for the allies, supporting three assassination attempts on Hitler, and he made all Catholic institutions in and around Rome safe havens for Jews for as long as he could before German betrayal.
With such a complex tableau with many significant players, no synopsis can possibly do the book justice. It’s more than evident considerable research went into establishing the events, settings, and especially the characters. In several appendices, Marquis spells out the biographies of the actual personages that populate his novel and explains who the models were for his fictional characters. For me, it’s astonishing how much went into this book that was published so quickly after his other recent novels. The man is prolific as well as deep. I look forward to volume three of the trilogy which, no doubt will come our way sometime in 2017.