Book Review: The Katyn Order - excellent follow up to Night of Flames

The Kaytn Order

Douglas W. Jacobson

ISBN-13: 978-1590136478

Publisher: McBooks Press (May 1, 2011)

Print: $16.95

Kindle: $9.95

 

From the publisher: The German war machine is in retreat as the Russians advance. In Warsaw, Resistance fighters rise up against their Nazi occupiers, but the Germans retaliate, ruthlessly leveling the once-beautiful city. American Adam Nowak has been dropped into Poland by British intelligence as an assassin and Resistance fighter. During the Warsaw Uprising he meets Natalia, a covert operative who has lost everything—just as he has. Amid the Allied power struggle left by Germany’s defeat, Adam and Natalia join in a desperate hunt for the 1940 Soviet order authorizing the murders of 20,000 Polish army officers and civilians. If they can find the Katyn Order before the Russians, they just might change the fate of Poland.

 

My review: Jacobson’s second novel suffers no hint of sophomore syndrome; The Katyn Order is more mature and even better than Night of Flames. Carrying on from Night of Flames with the fate of Poland at the end of World War II and the months afterward, the author tells the story of the resistance movement and how the obliteration of Poles didn’t stop with the Nazis, but continued on after the ceasefire with the Russian NKVD. The book is unflinching in the detailed extermination efforts and I found the details amazing. True, there is a lot of description, again some of which I leafed through, but those who want a vicarious adventure through historical Poland will get what they want.

 

It’s not until nearly half-way into the story that the title quest is explained. Jacobson takes an event from history and evolves a scenario of deceit, betrayal, murder, and a thrill ride in an attempt to save Poland. History knows that attempt failed. Adam Nowak, a resistance operative, meets and falls in love with Natalya, another operative whose family was captured and brother killed in the Forest of Katyn in 1940, toward the end of the war. Eventually Adam learns that his law professor uncle who raised him and was sent to a death camp is not dead after all, but a founder of the resistance. The uncle is also a keeper of a dire secret, the only copy of the order signed by Stalin to murder thousands of soldiers and officers in the Forest of Katyn. The Russians then blamed the Nazis when the massacre came to light. If, perhaps, this document can be found and shown to the world, Stalin and the Soviet Union might not be able to get their hands on Poland if international outrage holds sway.

 

So, I admit I read the end of books upon occasion; I didn’t here. But I did stop and read some of the reviews. I fully expected the story to fall apart after reading several of them, one of whom apparently didn’t actually read the end. Instead I found Jacobson’s resolution of the events to be multi-layered, thoughtful, brilliant; the kind of ending that stays with a reader for days. 

 

The Katyn Order is ultimately a story of trust and faith, and lack thereof, of choosing sides and fighting for what you believe in. Highly recommended for those who love World War II gritty fiction. It is fiction, by the way, steeped in recorded events. The only reason I would consider giving less than a perfect review is because of the excessive blood and gore. That is war, and my slight squeamishness is too subjective to downgrade. Although I was provided a review copy of this novel, I purchased a copy for a gift. I majored in Russian studies in college, visited the Soviet Union, and have a smattering of Polish-area genes. Remembering my visit to Leningrad, to Moscow, seeing and walking among the constant presence of soldiers at that time, hearing the stories of World War II, even in the early 1980s--I have to say that the era has never been fogotten in Europe as its all too easy to do here in the States.

 

Douglas W. Jacobson is an engineer, business owner and World War Two history enthusiast. Doug has travelled extensively in Europe researching the courage of common people caught up in the most catastrophic event of the twentieth century. His debut novel, NIGHT OF FLAMES: A Novel of World War Two was published in 2007 and released in paperback and Kindle in 2008. NIGHT OF FLAMES won the "2007 Outstanding Achievement Award" from the Wisconsin Library Association. He is the author of THE KATYN ORDER, 2011. Doug has also published numerous articles on underground resistance actions in Europe and is currently working on his third historical novel set in Europe during World War Two. Doug and his wife Janie live in Elm Grove, Wisconsin.

Book Festivals - Updates and News

Fox Cities Book Festival

April 17 - 24

The 2013 Fox Cities Book Festival has been set for April 17 through April 24 at venues from Kaukauna to Neenah and all points in between. This year’s Festival will feature nearly 65 writers and more than 75 events, including book talks, readings, poetry panels and writers workshops. The Festival will again run from a Wednesday through the following Wednesday, encompassing eight nights and a full weekend for author visits.




AND

SAVE THE DATE: September 14, 2013 for the Southwest Wisconsin Book Festival. Attend workshops, meet great authors at the book signing and participate in the networking event. We hope you can attend!

The Call to Authors for the 2013 Southwest Wisconsin Book Festival is now open. The deadline to submit is May 17, 2013. To apply visit www.swwibookfestival.com.

WWII Novel review: Night of Flames by Douglas Jacobson

Night of Flames A novel or World War II by Douglas W Jacobson

 

 

Paperback: 384 pages

Publisher: McBooks Press (October 1, 2008)

ISBN-13: 978-1590131664 

List print: $16.95

List electronic $9.95

From the Publisher:

Painting a vivid and terrifying picture of war-torn Europe during World War II, this tale chronicles the lives of Anna, a Krakow University professor, and her husband Jan, a Polish cavalryman. After they are separated and forced to flee occupied Poland, Anna soon finds herself caught up in the Belgian Resistance, while Jan becomes embedded in British Intelligence efforts to contact the Resistance in Poland. He soon realizes that he must seize this opportunity to search for his lost wife, Anna.

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My review:

Major Jan Kopernik of the Polish Cavalry Brigade, the 29^th Uhlans, says it best: “The German blitzkrieg was not just a military strategy – it was an all-out campaign of terror intent on the total destruction of his homeland.”

 

Night of Flames is a well-detailed fictionalized account of the Nazi campaign in Poland, and the eventual resistance. Anna Kopernik, an associate university history professor in Krakow, her husband Jan, a major in the army, and Anna’s father, Thaddeus Piekarski, give their first-hand account of life during this terrible time. From being front and center when Warsaw is bombed, to watching the Luftwaffe bomb farmers on the roads and rural villages, to the occupation of Krakow, to joining the resistance, each of them deal with the tragedy.

 

Thaddeus decides to be patient at home, believing the Allies will rescue the city soon. Jan leads his brigade into battle trying to defend a poorly prepared country that still depended on civilian telephone lines and beasts of burden to move equipment on their poor roads; Anna and her Jewish friends return to Krakow from a visit to Warsaw where the Nazi occupation edicts put them all in danger.

 

Anna and Jan do the best they can to live long enough, fighting for their homeland, to find each other again. Anna gets involved in the resistance when she escapes to friends in Belgium just before Jan comes to Krakow on business for the exiled government because of his ability to speak German. She's captured later, and Jan uses his connections, even his military orders, to try to find her.

 

Jacobson’s attention to detail shows his respect for the era, for the events, equipment, geography and technology of the time, even weather patterns and clothing and food. While perhaps circumstances seem aligned in perfect favor for the characters, the account is fiction, and fiction asks for the ability to take a leap of faith upon occasion.

 

Realistic to the point that I occasionally buzzed through detailed battle accounts, Jacobson’s Night of Flames will offer readers who enjoy well-documented World War II history a great few hours back in time. Some brutality, on graphic rape.

 

About the author:

 

Douglas W. Jacobson is an engineer, business owner and World War Two history enthusiast. Doug has travelled extensively in Europe researching the courage of common people caught up in the most catastrophic event of the twentieth century. His debut novel, NIGHT OF FLAMES: A Novel of World War Two was published in 2007 and released in paperback and Kindle in 2008. NIGHT OF FLAMES won the "2007 Outstanding Achievement Award" from the Wisconsin Library Association. He is the author of THE KATYN ORDER, 2011. Doug has also published numerous articles on underground resistance actions in Europe and is currently working on his third historical novel set in Europe during World War Two. Doug and his wife Janie live in Elm Grove, Wisconsin.

Naomi Musch, Empire in Pine

The Black Rose, book 3 in the Empire in Pine series

By Naomi Musch 

Desert Breeze Publishing

July 2012

ISBN: 9781612521923

$6.99 Kindle

 

From the publisher:

Despite the panic of 1893, logging reaches its golden era in the growing state of Wisconsin, and twins Jesilyn and Corianne Beaumont enjoy a comfortable life with family in the bursting Great Lake city of Superior. But when jealousy incites Jesi to seduce Cori's fiance, a flight and fall from grace lands her in a boomtown brothel, where a fresh start is denied her.

 

My review:

Naomi ends the Kade family saga, Empire in Pine, with the last of the trilogy in this story named for a rose in Lainey's garden in Superior WI. Grandma and Grandpa Kade have come to live with Lainey and Zane. At one point the whole family is called back when they wonder if Grandpa will make it. It's a too-brief family reunion of old friends mentioned in the other stories.

 

Lainey and Zane's twin daughters are eighteen and feeling it. They've let a man come between them, and everyone loses when Jesi confesses to Cori that she made the hugest mistake of her life out of desire for the man Cori thought she would marry. But just like the rose that is so dark-colored it's called black, it's still a rose, and eventually the girls must hit the blackest depths before crawling back into the light.

 

The first book of the series showcased the early years of Wisconsin's lumber barons; the second and third deal with the results of those years - the terrible fire that consumed Peshtigo in 1871, and the bawdy towns and services to the roughneck lumbermen: Hayward, Hurley, and Hell... Jesi runs away and finds herself in both Hurley and hell before a camp preacher and his sister pick her up and dusts her off.

 

At home, Cori is reunited with a family friend who encourages her to make something of herself. She goes to college to become a teacher, but she isn't done re-creating herself yet. There's a lot of self-examination to be done, and Jamie painfully helps her do that.

 

While the first two books were pinned on defining events in Wisconsin history, The Black Rose brings to light some of the more tawdry aspects of history. A few formatting issues and editing glitches didn't detract much from my Kindle version. Told in the richest detail, period-perfect as always, beautifully written, The Black Rose is a fitting end to the series. I'm sad to see it go.

 

Highly recommended for Wisconsin history lovers.

 

About the author:

Naomi loves stories rich in American history, but writes in several other genres as well. Naomi's aim is to surprise and entertain readers while telling stories about imperfect people who are finding hope and faith to overcome their struggles, whether the setting is past, contemporary, or even fantastic. 

She and husband Jeff have five adult children, and enjoy epic adventures with them around their home in the Wisconsin woods. She invites readers to say hello and find out more about her stories, passions, and other writing venues at http://www.naomimusch.com or look her up on Facebook (Naomi Musch - Author) and Twitter (NMusch).