End of Spies (The Richard Prince Thrillers 4)
Richard Prince was a spy in the Second World War, but it is 1945, so that’s over now. He is back working as a police officer and has just married Danish fellow spy Hanne Jakobsen. She wants to spend time recovering from surviving incarceration in a concentration camp. But then the pair are offered a little job, just a week or two, to find a psychopathic Nazi nicknamed The Ferret. He’s wanted for murdering British SOE agents in France, so they accept. They discover that The Ferret’s high-ranking Nazi father has a link to Hitler’s deputy Martin Bormann and the Kestrel Line, an escape route for Nazis heading to South America funded by British traitors. That’s when their adventures really start.
End of Spies is the fourth, and said to be final book, in the popular Richard Prince series, which has followed his adventures throughout the war. Here the British, German, American and Russian characters’ stories all interconnect tightly back and forth through a devastated Europe. We have fleeing Nazis, British Nazi sympathisers and rivalry between the major powers in the divided city of Berlin, foreshadowing the Cold War to come. Amongst the shifting loyalties, who can Prince and Hanne trust, and will they be able to bring The Ferret and Martin Bormann to justice?
Alex Gerlis obviously knows his history and writes with great attention to detail. The book is firmly plotted and an easy read, although I would have liked more depth to Prince and Hanne’s relationship. Ideal for fans of John le Carré.
