Fortunes of War

At Berkeley, California, in 1932, post-graduate students began their doctoral studies at the influential and highly respected Institute for World Economic Studies. By mid-year 1938, 6 doctoral candidates claimed they had

"discovered a pattern that explains and can even predict repeating cycles of the rise and fall of world powers."

The students were the sons and a daughter of highly respected and influential families in the banking and financial world, a son from a family known for fine wine production and a son from a family owning a prestigious auction house.

Unknown to the students, German industrialists were plotting in closed-door meetings to use their connections around the globe to hoard a vast sum of money from illegal war profits, hiding their agenda from those financing the Third Reich.

I have read many riveting WWII historical fiction novels, many of which are based on meticulous research of actual events and people. This novel is gripping in a different way, using the backdrop of World War II to shed light on powerful people using their social status in society in combination with their financial profits to obtain power behind-the-scenes to change the course of history for their monetary gain. Each turn of the page brought new dramatic twists as the scenes changed from the United States to England to Switzerland, including unplanned diversions taken by air, land, and sea.

The scope of political intrigue, greed, secrets, lies, romance, danger, conspiracy, and show more violence illustrate a compelling narrative of good vs. evil. A thought-provoking novel, leaving a reader to wonder if one-day evil will win or if we admit that evil has won many times around the globe and simply wonder what the future might hold. show less

1932: Wealthy German industrialists and bankers decide to back Hitler’s Nazi party, planning to make fortunes in militarization and war if it comes.

1938: Six PhD candidates, all from extremely wealthy families of different countries, believe they have discovered a pattern of economic and political activity and corruption that explain why conflicts come in cycles. They suggest the need for an organization independent of governments to use their findings to forecast coming threats and find solutions.

1943: Of course WWII came about anyway, but now those German millionaires anticipate the need to get their personal wealth out of their country. When our gang of six learn of this, they come up with a plan to help, but with the hidden agenda of making it difficult for the Germans to access their wealth later, capital which would only be used to start yet another crisis. However, they don’t stop there; they also come up with a plan to siphon off (read steal) $100 million of the money to fund the organization of “Sentinels” they had envisioned five years before.

Needless to say, the theft is discovered, the Germans are furious, and a paramilitary group of mercenaries called the Samsons are hired to find and punish the culprits and recover the money. The members of our group go on the run, facing many dangers and escaping many traps. Even with all this going on, somehow romantic interests come into play as well.

One member is abducted with the aim of obtaining information by show more almost any means. One member tries to escape by skiing from the Swiss Alps to German occupied southern France. Two of our group escape one harrowing encounter by boat, passing through a cave to reach a safe house, only to be found again. And so on. But all ends well, almost all anyway, and the stage is set for further books in this series.

I do have a nit to pick, however. Sure, fans of thrillers have to suspend disbelief sometimes. But I believe the author does go a little overboard. Just one example: two of these civilians get RAF pilots to fly them in British Spitfires to Switzerland, crossing hundreds of miles of German occupied France, dodging flak and shooting down a German plane in the process. Really? And would the neutral Swiss actually allow British combat aircraft to land on their soil, drop off two passengers, refuel, then blithely fly off into enemy territory again? But, if you can ignore reality for a while, you are in for an interesting, exciting read. show less

series, historical-fiction, historical-research, thriller, espionage, conspiracy, financial-manipulations, intense, international-commerce, international-tensions, WW2 *****

Kind of an alternate history sort of thing, but a very desirable one. And who knows what the intelligence communities were up to at the time and have kept shrouded in the code of silence. The characters are well developed and personable, the plot a bit twisty--but that's a good thing. Loved it!
I won this book in a LibraryThing Giveaway from Wise Media Group (Publisher). We (me and my local library) win!

This is the first book in The Sentinels trilogy, but does not leave loose threads at the end and works very well as a stand alone novel, as well.

Fortunes of War tells the story of the inception of the International watchdog group, The Six Sentinels: a group of six college friends who all completed the same doctoral program at UC Berkeley. All were specialists in international politics and finance. They devised a theory that effectively predicted the beginning of WWII and watched those events unfold exactly as their prediction had foretold. From that point, they decided to form a group utilizing their special skills to try to prevent future World Wars. Corporations and oligarchs, with no checks and balances, were guaranteed to continually end up starting another international conflict; which was exactly what The Six Sentinels' theory concluded.

Through a brilliant scheme, they found a way to divert billions of dollars from the top German Corporation owners who were trying to safeguard their money to be available to start up a fourth Reich in future. In so doing, they put their lives on the line; and became targets of the most powerful evil men in the world. A series of events worthy of a Bond movie then unfolds that will keep you turning page after page with bated breath.

This was an enjoyable and exciting read and I highly recommend The Sentinels series to anyone who likes a good adventure story full of international intrigue.

This book was received as part of the Library show more Thing Early Reviewers program. show less

A group of German industrialists seize control of their government in the 1920s to 1930s. Due to this action, they are responsible for placing Adolf Hitler in command and their actions lead to WWII. The sentinels have recently discovered that these same industrialists are attempting to smuggle their accumulated wealth out of Germany before the invasion by the Allies. The sentinels realize this must be stopped. There can never be a fourth reich.

There are a lot of moving parts to this novel. One minute it is espionage, money laundering and war…then it is a romance story. It is a bit disjointed in places. But, it is fascinating. I would love to know more about how the author came up with the money laundering scheme. Is it based on actual knowledge or just something he made up?

I also enjoyed the intelligence surrounding this plot. Then we have some major intensity…this story definitely kept me on my toes.

The narrator, Scott Fleming, did a very good job. He could have been better on the female voices…just a thought.

Need a unique look at the money side of WWII…This is it! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel in exchange for a honest review.

Anything to do with WWII is a win for me and thank you for this win. I enjoyed this book all the way through. From the greedy elites to the doctoral students and their families and associates each character was given the descriptive richness they deserved. The added bonus of a romance between the doctoral students was a charm. Money and math are not my forte so I was happy the writer didn't make that part of the story above my head. The story moved along at a steady and interesting pace but I was left still wanting more. A great read.

I received a copy of this book from Librarything for my honest opinion.
When I started reading Fortunes of War, I thought it would be a “what if this happened” type of story, where the author would reimagine World War 2 if something different had transpired. Halfway through the book, I realized that this is a story of something that could have happened, but kept undisclosed to history.
Gordon Zuckerman weaves a wonderful clandestine web, filled with secrecy. He intertwines a true history of the 1930s with a fictional group of powerful, intelligent students who discovers a repetitive pattern to the rise and fall of world powers. Using this pattern, they predict the rise of Nazi Germany and the industrialist who will greatly benefit from the chaos of war. Armed with their predictions, they set out to take down powerful industrialists and foil the Nazi attempt to take over the world.

The story takes place in the mid-1940s and focuses fairly equally on six bright, very wealthy former classmates at Berkely who are now in their mid-thirties. They are trying to prevent German wealthy industrialists from using their money to seize and maintain power. While there are a couple of exciting vignettes, it seemed as if there isn't enough time spent with any one of the six to get to know them sufficiently to care about them. I also found the portrayal of time confusing. Months went by where characters seemed to disappear - nothing happened even though one of them had been left in very difficult circumstances.

I loved the idea of this unusual thriller: Big companies are the big powerbrokers influencing the world stage (specifically World War II in this work.} The Sentinels are a group of young adults, fresh from graduate school with deep insight into this influence over history and they set out to create an organization that will counterweight those big companies in using their resources to fuel war and conflict.

The story reads very well and the pages turn at a rapid pace. The plot is good and I enjoyed getting to know the characters. I look forward to reading the remaining books in the series and see what affects this group of Wiz Kids can have on the world. Recommend for fans of International intrigue and spy dramas.

The first historical fiction novel of a trilogy, “The Sentinels, Fortunes of War” by Gordon Zuckerman, takes place during the last years of WWII. The Sentinels are a secretive group of career diverse individuals intent on shortening or stopping the war, and preventing future wars by disrupting the finance pipelines of wealthy war investors. Nefarious actions erupt as the financiers try to identify and stop the Sentinels who endeavor to hide while attempting to bankrupt the investors.

Zuckerman's book introduces the reader to numerous players located around the world, and it might take the reader several chapters to remember all the names and character positions. The story unfolds in a unique plot complete with international intrigue, adventure, romance, and suspense. However, I did not find the novel to be a “page turner”,and the narrative becomes a bit trite in places. Additionally, there is no clear lead protagonist, making the story-line clumsy.

Criticisms aside, I can recommend the book to those interested in historical WWII fiction and give the novel four stars.

I received this book from Amazon through LibraryThing, in which I am a reviewing member.

For historical fiction this was an interesting and fairy engaging read. I will say aspects of the characters might have been a bit overplayed throughout and could have used less detail on those ancillary love stories and more of the interaction of real world characters. It was suspense filled novel for sure and will keep you turning the pages for sure. As far as historical fiction the setting and subject were not of as intense interest to me as a reader. The prose was good and did keep the reader involved for the most part. A good overall read for an evening reading session.

Claims to the contrary, this book is not a pot boiler unless following the movements of a tangled web of gold bearer bonds around the world can keep you on the edge of your seat. I struggled to keep track of the good guys—were there six or more or, maybe, less—and the heavies who were identified only by the Germanic names or as ‘Sampson Agents’. None of the myriad of main characters were even minimally developed beyond the point that they were all rich kids who graduated from Cal Berkeley where they developed altruistic ideals. (That, in its self, made me suspect the rest of the plot.)
The ’action’ scenes are cold and detached—man hiding behind an overturned table gets shot three times and carted off to the hospital where he recovers in some undefined time frame. The romantic scenes are as unimaginable. The book is replete with trite, cringe-worthy phrases like “. . .their second-story, which overlooked the street below.” (Page 221)
Other than that, I hope you enjoy the book.

Fortunes of War is one of those “what-if” books that will make the reader wish its premise really could happen. What if it were possible to identify a “power cycle” pattern that can accurately predict when a country’s political corruption is close to reaching the point where regional or world war will become inevitable? What if a new watchdog organization could recognize those responsible for this level of corruption soon enough to disrupt it all before another war breaks out?

Fortunately, six Berkley students have done just that. Unfortunately, by the time they announce their findings to the world in June 1938, it is too late to stop the group of greedy German industrialists that is making Adolph Hitler’s aggression possible. The students, however, might still have time to do the next best thing because, now that the war is going poorly for the Germans, these same amoral businessmen want desperately to move their fortunes out of Germany and into Swiss banks. Recognizing their opportunity, the Six Sentinels step in with a plan to make sure that these fortunes will never lead the world to war again.

The Sentinels are a varied group, but they have more in common than just their graduate studies at Berkley. Each of them comes from one of the world’s most powerful and influential families: Mike Stone’s father is head of a huge New York bank; Cecelia Chang is the daughter of one of Hong Kong’s most influential traders; Jacques Roth is heir to the fabulous Roth show more banking fortune; Claudine Demauraux is the daughter of a powerful Swiss banker; Tony Garibaldi springs from one of Italy’s major wine producing families; and Ian Meyer is the son of the founder of one of London’s major auction houses. A group like this one brings major weapons to any battle, but whether or not the six are a match for the Germans who are so determined to kill them is another question.

Like most thrillers, Fortunes of War requires the reader to cut its author a little slack. There are moments when the close calls and near misses begin to get a little predictable but, if one is willing to suspend disbelief for its duration, Fortunes of War can be great fun. Throw in a little romance (some might say, a lot of romance) along the way, and this one has something for everyone.

Rated at: 4.0 show less

A quick read, but I didn't find the story was very captivating. A good group of characters, but I didn't feel I really got to know them. I like the idea of the story, interfering with the transfer of funds out of Germany during the second world war, and the globalism that was captured as the characters moved around the globe trying to accomplish their plan while trying to evade the bad guys, but I felt there could have been more story here. This one didn't convince me I have to read the other books in the series.

The Sentinels: Fortunes of War by Gordon Zuckerman begins with a flashback to a meeting of group of German industrialists who decide to back a new fellow on the scene, Hitler for financial reason. They are concerned about their own pockets, not what is best for the country. Jump forward and it appears that World War II is about to end and these same industrialists want to get their money out of the country safely without Hitler knowing. The want to be able to use their money once the Reich is no more.

Getting in their way are the Sentinels, a group of six very intelligent young people who attended grad school together and were quite a think tank. They have since stayed in touch but each has been involved in their own way changing the world. They realize that if these men get their money out of Germany they will again back someone else and it will only be a matter of time before the cycle begins again. Thus, they develop a plot to stop these men from profiting further. They have financial and business connections and develop a plan to take the industrialists’ money and use it in a more positive manner. They are a likeable group of four young men and two women. As they put their plan into effect it soon becomes clear their lives are in danger. They are hunted down, some kidnapped but they are determined to carry through with their plans despite the danger.

I could not put the book down as there are many plot twists and turns, there is political intrigue, conspiracy, and show more romance. As I finished reading it I realized I really didn’t want to leave the Sentinels and then I read that more books were forthcoming and I was excited. Gordon Zuckerman is in the same class as other thriller writers including Robert Ludlum and David Baldacci. He has a clear understanding of history, creates an interesting page turner and develops likable characters. I am looking forward to the next one in The Sentinel series. show less

I didn't realize this a a work of fiction when I signed up for the Librarythings giveaway for this book, I generally read non-fiction, but I'm glad I received the book in exchange for a review. This is the first in a series of three books, but it is a self contained story, so you don't have to continue on with the whole series. It involves a network of former college classmates from wealthy families who formulate a plan to steal wealth from German industrialists in the name of preventing them from creating another war later on. I'll leave the plot at that. There's also a kidnapping and several love stories running through the book. It was engaging and kept me wanting to find out what happened next. All in all, I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would and I think someone who is more a reader of non-fiction would appreciate it that much more.

This is a combination historical fiction/thriller. During World War II, six students collaborate on a doctoral thesis that quantifies the conditions for concentrated power such as the Nazi regime. Although they are too late to prevent World War II, the students attempt to utilize the precepts of their thesis to prevent wealthy interests from hiding assets and reassembling after the war ends. There are some plot twists and some romantic scenes as the Sentinels, as they call themselves, take on the world. The individual Sentinels all enjoyed privileged upbringings, which they use to access existing powerful institutions, presumably the good guys, to implement their plan. The book moves along and the ending lays the foundation for future Sentinel adventures.

The Sentinels: Fortunes of War by Gordon Zuckerman hit as a mediocre novel for me. I didn’t hate it, but I won’t buy the next two books in the trilogy.
I’m glad the story was always moving forward and there weren’t situations that went on too long.
The characters didn’t have personality or depth beyond their assigned stereotype. They were all brilliant, gorgeous, incredibly skilled, and filthy rich, which got annoying.
The only part I enjoyed was following one of the characters' escape on skis. I don’t know what made that part interesting for me, but I noticed that I was disappointed when she got to her destination. My appreciation to Wise Media Group and author Gordon Zuckerman for the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Giveaway and free printed copy.

This is a sub par story delivered through entirely mediocre writing. I believe the intent was to tell a story about six extremely intelligent people creating an organization that moderates and monitors the wealthy elites to temper their influence on the world and world events through their cunning and intellect. In execution, they fumble through a forgery/theft that seems to go bad almost immediately and then spend the entire book running away and never being in control of the situation or seeming particularly smart. They don't come off intelligent, let alone impressive.
In addition to the story being disappointing and not conveying what I think the author likely intended, the characters and their relationships are entirely lacking. The characters are not original or interesting in any way and by their very concept are unrelatable (they're all bank heirs and wealthy elites, which makes their floundering throughout the story all the less impressive). The relationships, most of which are already established, are throwaway, with the only developments revolving around Jacques. The development of Jacques relationships comes off more like an author's fantasy than genuine development, and at no point elicited any interest from me as a reader.
The idea is decent enough that, having investing enough time into the series to get through the first book, I'm almost curious enough to see if it actually pans out into something interesting in the next entry in the series, but then I have show more to remind myself of the sang, "Don't keep doing the wrong thing just because you've already spent so much time doing it." show less

Review: Fortunes of War by Gordon Zuckerman. 3.5* 12/23/2022

This was an Early Reviewer’s book. It’s the first book of the series of the Sentinels which I thought was well written, great developed characters, and the story flowed right along with little bits of information that the reader had to either assume or fill in the detail themselves. It didn’t slow my reading of this book because there was so little of it. I felt like the story was maybe an alternative “what if” book.

The story was sometime in the 1930’s starting with group of German’s industrialists decided to help Adolph Hitler to be more aggressive before the war was over. Plus, they were also concern about filling their accounts with some of the illegal war profits money without Hitler knowing. Than there are six young advance students at Berkeley University California found out about a plan that German greedy business men were planning to steal hundreds of millions of dollars before Hitler lost the war and sending the money to another country.

This is where the Six Sentinels come to life to obstruct their plans and in case the industrialists plan to send it to help another military conflict in another country. They also discovered the efforts the Germens had that explain the process of predicting cycles of the people of the world powers pushing Europe into war.

Fortunes of War is a political thriller set in the 1930's. A group of recent doctoral college grads ban together to foil a plot involving illegal war profits. Well-written storyline and great character development. Highly recommend!

This historical fiction was set in the 1930s during Hitler’s rise to power. It was challenging at first to understand all the different characters, and the “romance” side-story was not needed. However overall, the book is a suspense filled, fast and interesting read.

I enjoyed this book, especially the beginning and the conversations between the characters. Even though it is fiction, I liked reading this book due to the action and suspense, which made me want to continue reading the series.

This is an exciting and thrilling read for anyone interested in WWII. There were some grammatical and editing errors, but it didn’t take away from the read. I usually don’t read books like this and am not well read on WWII topics, so I did learn a few things, but also had a hard time getting through some sections because it’s not an area of interest for me. With that being said, I thought it was a good book, just not for me.

A fast-paced story about 6 young adults attemtping to shorten a war and prevent similar new regime. Great character development. Good plot. Story skips a lot which tends to leave the impression that something is missing. Will definitely keep the reader interested and wanting to know more.

The oligarchs of the world have not changed. PreWWII the power hungry of Germany see Hitler only as a means to an end. They have no care about the possible consequences of their actions on others. It is an idealistic group of college students who come up with a plan to combat them. The war takes them on a journey through love and world wide conflict to alter the course of the history.

Good story and believable characters. There were times though that I had to go back and re-read because I got lost, but all in all a pleasant read. I won this from LibraryThing Early Reviewers for an honest review.

The Sentinels - Fortunes of War is a great story, very well written, with great characters.

The story takes place during World War II. It is about six people that had a theory about how highly influential and rich people can control governments. These six Sentinels figured out that some of these Germans were planning on taking money out of Germany and keeping the possibility of altering other governments to do things their way. and how these six people stopped them.

Wonderful characters and an exciting story that keeps you entertained

A plausible and credoble fiction around WWII. Story revolves aeound six very bright, and some very wealthy, friends who graduated from a PhD program at University of California- Berkeley. They had come up with a theory that predicted WWII that as the war begins proves they were correct. So they work to prevent future wars and they fight corporations and wealthy individuals. They move around the world staying away from the bad guys.
This is the first volume of a series but, unlike other similar stories which are tightly dependent on the preceding one, this story can stand alone.

A exciting entry into the thriller/alternate history of World War II. We are following 6 people trying to foil the plans of greedy industrialists trying to steal from everyone

Thrilling historical fiction book, though it was a tad slow at times I did enjoy the historical aspect and the plot was interesting.

A fast paced what if story, allowing for political science engineering to control world events. A special organization is to keep things going without world wars and depressions. This group, called The Sentinels, are supposedly going to proceed with the challenge from the close of world war II. An interesting first book, look forward to the sequels.

A good war book on how war is a money making for the rich, Politian. A good fiction story of the war. Is good to have 6 people trying to help stop the madness by taking the money thru bonds.

Unusual story set during WWII about a group of US graduates destabilising the Nazi regime by manipulating gold bonds.

A very intriguing premise ruined by very bad writing. If I hadn't received this book through Early Reviewers, there is no way I would have finished it.

Pros:
• Interesting plot ideas
• …I really feel bad, but I’m struggling to come up with anything else positive to say about this book

Editing and grammar cons:
• Clearly no one copy-edited this book, there are mistakes throughout, starting in the prologue and continuing to the end of the book, many of which make the book confusing to read.
• A common mistake is for the second paragraph of a new chapter to not be indented and be set in a larger typeface than the rest of the book; this happened at least half a dozen times, I eventually stopped counting.
• There are often no spaces placed for time jumps, which means weeks or even months have gone by from one paragraph to the next with no indication, leaving the reader confused until they can divine what has happened.
• Similarly, the author places a thick line between paragraphs to indicate a scene switch – a common occurrence in books – but sometimes the line is placed too early, meaning you read past the line expecting a different scene but there is still a sentence or two until you get to the place where it should have been. Or it is placed too late, meaning a scene just switches from one paragraph to the next, but the line is then placed a paragraph or two after where it should have been placed.
• Grammar and capitalization mistakes throughout the show more book.
• Missed quotation marks which confuses the reader as to who is speaking or if someone is speaking at all, which takes you out of the story. For example, several times the author didn’t close a paragraph with a quotation mark but started the next paragraph with a quotation mark, which would make you think the same speaker is still speaking, but he actually just forgot to close the previous paragraph, which is very confusing until you realize what is happening. Alternatively, sometimes the author will have a new character start speaking in the same paragraph as another character, and the conversation makes no sense until you figure out who is speaking.

Substantive cons:
• Unrealistic conversations for the sake of story exposition: characters who have known each other for eight years or more often have conversations about very basic subjects and aspects of their lives, the only purpose of which is clearly to explain things for the reader. It feels ham-fisted and like the author doesn’t trust me to be able to figure anything out unless the characters explain things in the most basic way possible.
• Alternatively, I think the author is so familiar with the technical details of the plot that he forgot most people aren’t experts in international finance. A major plot point involves gold bearer bonds, I have no idea what those are or why the plot hinges on them. I also don’t know what a gold center bank system is. I don't know why the fact that gold bearer bonds are being forged is such a crisis for the banks. None of these things are explained sufficiently for me to understand and this book is so bad in so many other respects that I wasn’t motivated to look them up and try to understand.
• Unrealistic inner monologue for exposition/story progression: similar to the first point in this section, the characters often have very unrealistic inner thoughts. At one point, a character thinks to himself, “I could be making some of the most important decisions of my life–and my friends’ lives. I can’t screw it up.” This immediately reminded of Kevin McAllister in Home Alone saying, “This is my house, I have to defend it!” In fact, much of the characters’ dialogue and inner monologue sounds like a bad child actor or the stagey overacting of movies from the 1930s and 40s. Another example literally made me laugh out loud when I read it: “Damn it, do you have to control everything, Claudine? Do you really want to go through life as the “Nordic Ice Princess”? You may have the blond hair, blue eyes, and high cheek bones of a Scandinavian, but inside you’re still an affectionate girl from Switzerland.” No normal person actually thinks like this, she might as well have said, “I can’t help it if people hate me because I’m beautiful!”
• One dimensional characters: all of the main characters are wealthy young people from privileged backgrounds. For most of the book, none of them has any greater worry than where their next case of wine is going to come from. They are all attractive, rich, and have seemingly unlimited resources and contacts to call on in order to solve all their problems. While this type of character can be written well and the deus ex machina can be compelling to read, that is not the case in this book; instead the main characters all felt like spoiled rich kids.
• No feeling of danger: none of the danger in the book ever feels even remotely dangerous to the characters. I was never once in doubt they would pull through their various low-stakes trials and tribulations. The characters’ reactions to any sense of danger is equivalent to the meme of Jeremy Clarkson saying, “Oh no, anyway.”
• Characters don’t seem to care about each other: two different characters are kidnapped in this book and their friends/fiancés/lovers – despite professions of love – seem to care more about continuing to go to chorus shows, skiing, making wine, and other activities. We are occasionally given a line or two about how worried they are, but the worry never feels genuine.
• Unlikable characters: fairly quickly, I could not stand any of the main characters. Their idiotic decisions and ridiculous dialogue grated on me and left me desperately hoping one of them would actually show some common sense or say something a normal human being would say. Unfortunately, that did not happen.
• The characters’ exploits feel like what the author wishes his life were really like: despite the supposedly life and death stakes of the situations the characters find themselves in, they spend the majority of their time drinking, eating at restaurants, skiing, travelling, and sleeping with each other. It is a glamorous and carefree way to spend World War II.
• Characters make stupid/unrealistic decisions: Cecilia is a spy during wartime but when she comes home and sees a moved side-table in her apartment, she thinks it is just a coincidence? She doesn’t immediately go on high alert? At another point, two characters are supposed to be hiding out from criminals who want to kill them, so what do they do? They go to bars and jazz shows every single night. When the killers catch up with them and they are forced to relocate to another city, what do they do? Keep going to bars and jazz shows and getting drunk every night. Despite being in hiding and knowing the killers are still after them and knowing he isn’t supposed to contact anyone, one character calls his girlfriend, which allows the killers to find everyone.
• Granular detail unnecessary: the author has confused highly detailed description with good description; instead, it just bogs down the flow of the book. One example is the inordinate amount of time spent describing the wine country of California, the process of making wine, and the business plan one character has for building a wine business. The wine business has almost no relevance to the plot and the detail is pointless. The author name-drops famous California wine regions and grapes in an attempt to show how smart his characters are to buy up this land in the 1940s and give us cheeky nods toward what will eventually be famous names, but it comes off as unrealistic and arrogant. show less

A really good read - I read it twice already. Part of a series that I want to finish.

During WWI a group of people came together to prevent another war from happening. They wanted ensure that those people responsible for causing the first war wouldn't be able to regroup and begin another war. They live their lives as normal people, have regular jobs, have a family of their own. Their children end up meeting while in college. They work together on a project for school. After graduating, they spread out and begin their various professional careers. During WWII, the come together to pick up where their parents left off. Trying to prevent those with power and money from leaving Germany. They were trying to ensure the money that the Germans had would need to be monitored so those in power wouldn't be able to rebuild and come back stronger. Along the way, their plan fails and they end up being hunted by a group of powerful and dangerous people. Each of the six must flee and hide from this group that is hunting them on behalf of the Germans. Believing that the end of the war was near, they tried to hide long enough to leave the Germans powerless and unable to keep the group hunting them employed.

Overall it was a great story that kept me entertained. The only part I didn't really care for was the end of the book when there were stories of couples making decisions about their futures. It seemed like it was thrown in as an afterthought and didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the story.