HITLER'S SECRET

Two teenagers are recruited to infiltrate Nazi Germany to retrieve a valuable package that might end World War II.

It is 1941. The United States has yet to enter the fray, and the British government is quickly becoming aware that they are losing the war. However, the defection of Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer of the Third Reich, gives them information that they might use as leverage against Hitler. Located deep behind enemy lines is a young girl being held in a monastery; Hess claims she is the daughter of a high-ranking Nazi official. While it is never confirmed, it is thought that her father is Hitler himself. Officials determine that the best plan for extraction rests on two teen refugees from Germany, code named Otto and Leni. After only two weeks of intense training, the two are dropped behind enemy lines with the order to retrieve the girl. The fast-moving plot is populated by both real and fictional characters. Stock characters, familiar tropes and scenes that seem lifted straight from the silver screen are clear evidence of Osborne’s career as a blockbuster screenwriter (according to the jacket flap, his credits include The Mummy and GoldenEye). Unfortunately, the nonstop action shortchanges both plot and readers; danger only makes for good fiction when readers care about the characters.

Explosive but lacking depth.