A disgraced agent. A missing battle plan. Will he find redemption or damage the Allies beyond repair?
London, 1942. OSS Agent Conor Thorn is desperate for a second chance. After a botched mission in Tangier, Thorn knows failure is not an option. When confidential directives for Operation Torch go missing, the agent must recover the plans before the the Nazis thwart the crucial mission…
Thorn teams up with MI6 agent Emily Bright to seek out the traitor in their midst. Untangling the web of suspects leads them to Nazi sympathizers, double-crossing Soviet spies, and Vatican clergymen with motives of their own. As their mission grows more and more dangerous, Thorn and Bright have one chance to retrieve the document before it falls into enemy hands, leaving countless Allied troops in danger…
The Torch Betrayal is a high-stakes World War II thriller inspired by true events. If you like historical fiction, charismatic characters, and full-throttle action, then you’ll love Glenn Dyer’s high-octane espionage story.
Plot/Idea: 8 out of 10
Originality: 7 out of 10
Prose: 8 out of 10
Character/Execution: 7 out of 10
Overall: 7.50 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot: This is a well-written espionage tale with cameos by real-life historical heavyweights like Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill, and Hedy Lamarr that give the story historical context.
Prose: Dyer’s skillfully-crafted prose flows naturally and conveys time and place effectively. Works of historical espionage need the right balance between historical context, action, and intelligence— and the author manages to find the right balance between all three elements.
Originality: The premise of this book will be nothing new to readers. However, what sets Dyer’s book apart from the others in the genre is his unfailing attention to historical detail and great writing.
Character Development: There are a lot of characters in this book and sometimes it’s difficult to keep track of all of them. However, the main protagonists are fully developed and entirely believable.
Date Submitted: July 11, 2018
Reviews
The disappearance in 1942 of a page from a secret document concerning Operation Torch—the Allied plan to invade French North Africa—drives Dyer’s suspenseful espionage thriller, a series debut. The prologue depicts an unknown man’s theft of page 117 from the U.S. Army Air Forces Film Lab in London, where the document was to be transferred to microfilm. The crime threatens the Allies’ grand plan to divert German military resources from the Eastern Front, thus easing pressure on the Soviets. Its discovery leads OSS founder Wild Bill Donovan to tap Conor Thorn, an operative whose superior is unsure whether he’s an “asset or liability,” to recover it, in partnership with an attractive MI6 agent, Emily Bright. Dyer’s plausible portrayals of such historical figures as Winston Churchill, Hedy Lamarr, Ian Fleming, and Kim Philby are a testament to the diligence of his research and a good indicator that he’ll successfully develop his main character in future books. Jack Higgins fans will find a lot to like. (BookLife)
