Yvonne
SECOND CHANCE AGAINST THE THIRD REICH
Prior to D-Day, Colonel Dirk Hoffman, suffering from shell shock (today known as PTSD), finds out from MI-6 that the Nazis will arrest his estranged daughter.
She married an SS major in 1938.
Hoffman goes behind enemy lines with the aid of the German Resistance to rescue his daughter and lead their escape from Berlin thereby incurring the rage of an SS general who is obsessed with his capture.
Hoffman and his daughter overcome incredible odds and near-death situations to reach the safety of Switzerland only to find that a mole in U.S. Intelligence has set a trap to kill them.
KENT HINCKLEY
Born and raised in Palo Alto, Kent graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Political Science.
After college, he joined the Army and spent one year in Nha Trang, Vietnam, as an Intelligence officer and battalion adjutant.
Following this service, Kent worked for a large bank and eventually spent five years in Asia (Taipei and Tokyo) in International Banking.
He also worked for a stint in the real estate industry.
Kent loves reading especially history, mysteries, and thrillers, and he is now working on a murder mystery set in Nyack, New York, during 1948.
Visit Kent at his website
Follow Kent on Twitter
“I’m a lover of history, non-fiction and fiction, and enjoy how underdogs overcome super odds to succeed. I’ve served in Vietnam in Intelligence, so I have some experience with the military, but WW2 is so different from modern day conflicts. I love the depth of the strategies to defeat the enemies as well as the focus on taking specific targets. Those men and women definitely belong to the Greatest Generation”
FIRST LINES
CHAPTER ONE
MEERSBURG, GERMANY – JUNE 29, 1944
“There’s always a way to do the impossible. After thirty years in the army and three wars, Colonel Dirk Hoffman followed this saying as he braced to attack the Nazis”
MEMORABLE LINES
“Hoffman would receive a demotion to Major subject to army approval and immediate repatriation to the United States for further assignment. His military career, while not over, had ended. One drunken outburst erased his previous achievements, but thoughts about his disgrace went to Kaye, and the shame his behaviour put on his family”
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“No one loved him. He failed as a father, as a husband, as a soldier. He failed his country. He failed his God. He bawled and wailed”
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“War was painful and senseless on both sides”
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“He spent too much time at the firing range to earn a marksman badge instead of time spent with his family to earn a family badge”
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“War can kidnap one’s soul”
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“Honor makes no difference in war. A bullet reaches its target whether one has honor or not”
REVIEW
“U.S. Colonel rescues his daughter from the Nazis”
The outline of this uncompromising, unconventional and unique storyline held great promise, as it in part sought to spotlight a hitherto much closeted, silent illness, which has been prevalent for decades, but is only now being adequately researched, recognised and accepted, for the life-changing mental and physical devastation and destruction it can cause. So whether you recognise it as WWI ‘Shell Shock’; WWII ‘Battle Fatigue’; or modern combat ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’ – PTSD, Kent has set out to make this an affirming, life- changing moment, for his main protagonist, Dirk Hoffman and the rest of the Hoffman family, who are all equally affected.
The chapters are compact and well signposted, which keeps everything moving along in a seamless, fluid way and there is no shortage of action packed sequencing, as having physically survived WWI in the trenches of the French battlefields, and made it through WWII as it begins to reach its climax and the endgame is in sight, Dirk must now go behind enemy lines to rescue his daughter and secure her safe passage out of Germany, to neutral Switzerland. This is only the tip if the iceberg though, as Dirk finds himself working alongside British MI6 to ferret out the double agent they are certain has infiltrated the German resistance, so he is never sure who to trust is really helping him in his quest to save Caroline, and who is out to kill them both in order to protect their identity.
As it turns out, no one is quite who they seem to be and trouble stalks them from the most unexpected direction. There are some wonderfully placed twists and red herrings in this multi-layered, intensely textured storyline, which kept me on my toes, although still so often getting things completely wrong! Whilst metaphorically ‘stabbing Dirk and Caroline in the back’, their most dangerous nemesis is also the person who offers Dirk some very profound and touching advice about his ongoing battle with his second ‘hidden’ enemy. His gradual healing having begun during the course of his treacherous and dangerous assignment, some very poignant scenes take place amongst the remembrance fields of France. An opportunity for closure, to expunge the massive burden of guilt which has engulfed him for so long, a moment for final goodbyes. Will healing the rift and closing the chasm he has created between himself and his family be as cathartic, and might they even dream or begin to think about starting over?
“So why only 3 stars?” I hear you ask…
I’m afraid that for me, neither the plot, characters, narrative or dialogue, ever reached anything like their full potential, which was a real shame, as this could have been one humdinger of a story.
However, reviews and recommendations can be very subjective, as no two people will read the same book, take an identical journey, and leave the experience with exactly the same thoughts; so I suggest that you accept my comments as my personal opinion only, and please decide for yourself if this book is a good fit for your own reading schedule.
A complimentary review copy was supplied by Kent’s marketing representative.
Any thoughts or comments are my own personal opinion and I am in no way being monetarily compensated for this, or any other article which promotes this book or its author.
I personally do not agree with ‘rating’ a book, as the overall experience is all a matter of personal taste, which varies from reader to reader. However some review sites do demand a rating value, so when this review is posted to such a site, it will attract a considered 3 out of 5 stars!
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I always like the stories of WWII, esp. the one when the good conquered the bad….but sometimes the stories could get repetitive and boring. So I am not surprised that this one has let you down. Once again, I appreciate your honest review, Yvonne.
Oh No! This book had the makings of a really interesting and slightly different take on the usual WWII stories.
I don’t like giving slightly negative reviews, but on the other hand, I have to be honest about my reading, so let’s just say it wasn’t one for me!
The ideas were definitely there, it was the technical issues which let this storyline down and made it fall a little flat, you might think completely differently to me however.
Thank you for visiting and have a great start to the week 🙂
I appreciate your interesting, but honest review, Yvonne. It does sound like a unique plot, something necessary given how many WWII stories are out there these days. For now, I have enough of them in my TBR and on my wishlist, but I’ll keep this in mind for future reference.
I tried to be honest, but fair, so I hope that’s how it came across. There was some genuine promise in the storyline and the characters could have been a real force to be reckoned with.
I don’t know about the volume of WWII stories out in the marketplace right now, there seems to be a plethora of books from just about every genre. It must be a nightmare if you run an independent bookshop, just trying to work out what stock to get for the shelves.
It is good that as an author, there seems to be no barrier to entry these days, however I wonder if it will eventually get to the point where readers will revert to the tried and tested authors, who consider editing and grammar to be important to the overall quality of their finished product.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope that all is well with you 🙂
I might give this one a go at some stage. I do read about WW2 but tend towards Home Front stories rather than daring-do tales actually set where the war is. Possibly it’s time I branched out a bit. As you so rightly said, no two people read the same book. Thanks for such an honest review.
It would be really interesting to read a review, or gather the thoughts, of another reader who I know operates on a similar wavelength to myself.
I seem to be quite out of sync with some of the other Goodreads reviewers of this book, however I opted out of the Blog Tour, as by their nature they are promotional posts, and 3 star reviews are not good reference points.
I have read quite a few ‘home front’ WWII stories recently and have a few more in my upcoming schedule, so this one promised something much more out there in the field of action and the premise was really interesting and unique. Alas it was not to be!
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and leave a comment, I appreciate that and I hope that all is well with you 🙂
Interesting take on this one. I’m a WWII book reader and this one would have to compete with some really excellent classics on my shelf; however, I might give it a go and see where it let you down. Thanks for your review today!
I would be interested to hear what you think about it, should the opportunity ever arise for you to read it for yourself.
Reviewing and rating a book, is really so very subjective, as a story which one person enjoys, another may not and vice versa of course!
I get really stressed and upset when a rating for a book I have read is not quite so good, as I think of all the hard work an author has put into getting it to publication. I will always highlight the good things about the writing and storyline, but ultimately I cannot bring myself to give a dishonest review, which in this particular instance, caused me to have to bow out of the Blog Tour.
Thank you for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful comment 🙂
I saw that you marked this book with 3 stars on goodreads, so I was very curious on why. It is a shame, as the plot is so unusual and interesting.
Kent’s representatives were not overly happy that I had decided to only award this book 3 stars. However, whilst there were so many great elements to the unique storyline and interesting cast of characters, which could have really been capitalised upon, the finished result just didn’t quite fulfil on any of them for me, which was a real shame!
Thanks for stopping by to check the book out and please don’t let my reading journey influence or deter you 🙂