Patton Mountain eschews traditional spy heroics, instead charting the careers of Horst and others over a decade of scheming and eventually war with striking and persuasive detail, attentive to inner-Reich politics and culture, military tech, and affairs of the heart. As Hitler and Himmler pressure subordinates to develop the war-changing bomb, Horst falls for a young “Valkyrie” of German espionage, Heidi, on assignment in a Nazi-run nightclub in Tennessee, near a plant connected to the Manhattan project. Horst’s journey will, eventually, find him taking bold action to save many lives, but he does so for his own reasons, including love, betrayal, and “to assure a future for my homeland and that of Aryan Europe.”

Feldman complicates his lead Nazis—Heidi comes to love swing music and befriends Count Basie—without whitewashing beliefs or deeds. Vicious acts by less prominent villains, like several graphic rapes including one of a Jewish teen in a camp, are harrowing and outraged but also queasily detailed. Feldman’s prose rarely cues readers to sympathize with Horst, but Patton Mountain still spends its many hundreds of pages in the minds and hearts of Nazis, limiting its appeal to general audiences.

Takeaway: WWII espionage epic of a Nazi who betrays the Reich.

Comparable Titles: Hans Fallada; V.S. Alexander’s The Traitor.

Production grades
Cover: B-
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-