Cover Image: The Man from Mittelwerk

The Man from Mittelwerk

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Member Reviews

The Man from Mittelwerk is a historical PI thriller with elements of SF based very loosely on aspects of the some of the scientific experiments carried out by Germany during WW2. Released 6th Sept 2022 through Inkshares, it's 362 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.

This is an eminently readable espionage thriller set in the cold war with a gritty noir feel and with a world-weary protagonist who was a GI during WW2 and now works as a private investigator. The authors have done a good job of conjuring the horror of war and the capacity of humans to harm one another.

In addition to the basic evil-science-world-domination plotline, there's a fair bit of interesting & all too credible political cold war history which gives the whole an unsettlingly realistic vibe. The climax, denouement, and resolution are satisfying and well written and guaranteed to please the LeCarre and Forsythe fans in the audience.

Four stars. Well written and executed. Some of the descriptions are violent and graphic. The violence is not gratuitous, but particularly sensitive readers should be aware.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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In the past we are drawn to a concentration camp and the development of a secret machine. In the present we are drawn to an explosion at a research lab. Scientists from the concentration camp have been smuggled back to work in the US. This is fiction but based around reality. Fascinating, interesting and brilliant. Really really recommend this.

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Historical Fiction is not my cup of tea, but last year I read two books of this genre and I liked them a lot (Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway) that's why I thought that mixed with some thriller I was going to love it, but I didn't. I don't know how to explain it, it was one of those frustrating reads, because it's not a bad story, but it was mostly boring and seemed endless.


We have the story of Jack Waters a captain in the US army, who is in Mittelwerk, Germany in search of his twin brother, who has been arrested by SS soldiers to be used in their experiments. After these events Jack returns to the USA and is then involved in the investigation of a murderer, and this fact leads him to remember and relive what happened in Mittelwerk.

The book has too many unnecessary plots, filler chapters which add nothing to the story and it is not until the last quarter of the story where the book comes to life, giving us a successful and rounded ending.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to receive eARC of this book.

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I liked this overall. I usually think of Blade Runner when I hear sci fi noir. This has a good premise, along with interesting characters and plot. I stayed mostly engaged, and while I could tell this wasn't from a more experience author, I think it was well constructed.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

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Very interesting story with intriguing characters. Not what I expected but really interesting premise and story.

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I had hoped that a novel with Mittelwerk in the title would focus a good bit on the infamous production site of the V-2 rocket. Instead, this novel follows the story of a former soldier, turned noir-style detective who is hired to investigate a death at a laboratory in California. Turns out, he encounters people here he once encountered in the depths of the Mittelwerk, which have something to do about the death of his twin brother and a secret science project born in Nazi Germany. The Noir style holds up pretty well throughout. I found the science aspect left too many questions unanswered, and there was too much was unexplained at the end. All in all, it was an interesting concept, but you'd probably need to be a noir detective fan to really embrace it.

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