Amongst my Enemies by William F. Brown

Genre: Thriller
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Source: I received an ecopy from the author

Inside an old German U-Boat rusting on the bottom of the Baltic are millions in gold bars, stolen art, and a secret that could tear NATO apart. The only one who knows the truth is Mike Randall, a battle-scarred American who survived four months in the frozen Hell of northern Germany at the end of the war. When he does speak up, he puts a target on his own forehead, one which the Russians, the West Germans, the U-boat’s former owners, the Israeli Mossad, and even his own government quickly take aim at. Some want the gold, some want him dead, and some want proof about a high-ranking spy inside NATO itself. Randall’s wants are much simpler. Caught between the Kremlin and a new, deadly, 4th Reich, he wants revenge and to satisfy some old debts with a steel-jacketed bullet.

Mike Randall ends up in the hands of the Germans after his bomber goes down. He and his friend Eddie survive the crash but Eddie does not survive the war. After several months Mike takes a chance and hides in a U-boat to try and get out of the hell he's been in. He's found on the U-boat but the captain lets him go at the coast of (neutral) Sweden. But before the captain and his crew are able to return to the safety of the sea they get hit twice by a English bomber and are lost. And so is the cargo that was on the sub and Mike is now the only person who knows what happened to this U-boat and what it's cargo was.

This is a very well writen novel.  There was a lot of attention for the different characters in it and they all get their own voice in this story. Everyone of the characters that comes along in this story is as important as the next. Because the story is told from more then one perspective you get a better overview of the whole story. It is not only Mikes side of the story, but you get the Germans and Russians side too. At the moment Mike finally decides it is enough and tells his story you see all these different voices come together in their search for the U-boat and all with their own motives. Because every character has his own strong voice the switching between perspective doesn't slow this story down a bit.

It is  not really hard to figure out who are the good guys and who the bad guys and eventhough there were no huge surprises in the plot, the way this story was told was so strong that neither does any harm to this story.

This is not an easy read, but Brown has a great way of storytelling and this combined with an intriguing and captivating story full of engaging and unique characters, makes this book hard to put down.


My rating: 4/5