This fascinating historical-fiction novel is about the Battle of The Bulge. Germany amassed a 500,000-man army under
Oberstűrmbannfűhrer Otto Skorzeny to burst through Allied lines in November, 1944. Prior to Skorzeny’s attack, two thousand hand-picked German soldiers, dressed as Americans and using captured American vehicles and tanks crossed the front line to disrupt the Americans, cause confusion, sever communication wires, and secure several bridges needed by Skorzeny’s troops.
A select group of twenty English-speaking German
commandoes, divided into five groups of four men each, were all given the same mission, “The Second Objective,” which was a daring and desperate attempt to end the war quickly. Eighteen of the men were killed or captured. Two were never accounted for.
Mark Frost builds on this historical
background to add more detail about the operation and supply a fictionalized story about the two men who were not accounted for. Frost cleverly describes how the commandoes might have been screened for fluency in English. Some commandoes were fluent in American English, some in British English. Those fluent in British English were trained in American English and American swear words. Frost was good at making this believable.
The commandoes bluffed their way behind the Allied front trying to achieve their objective. An American military police office, with some prior police training in New York, pursues the two men who were unaccounted for. Frost then develops a fast moving, very cleverly plotted cat-and-mouse game that keeps you in suspense untill the final page.
The main characters are the two German commandoes and the American military policemen. Frost is very good at characterization. He uses his skills to penetrate into the personality and background of his main characters and give the reader some insight into what things were like during the Battle of the Bulge.