I enjoyed An Affair of Spies. This bit of WWII is often overlooked, especially the OSS and the women involved. Well done.

I normally love this authors writing, but unfortunately I only got 53% in on this one and had to call it quits. This story had the opportunity to be a great book but I do not why the main character started doing things that no soldier would do. The storyline could have taken a different path and this would and could have been a bombshell story. Soldiers do not sacrifice the mission by giving out information that is confidential. I got so upset that I lost complete interest and could read no more.
Best I can do is 3 stars since the first 1/2 of the book was great!
Thank you to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this story, only requesting an unsolicited review.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. The book moved far too slow and continously made me lose focus. This was not a book that would.have held my interest.

Great thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's press for the ARC in return for an honest review.
What can I say? Thrilled, and blown away by this one.
This book hit multiple bullseyes for me personally. I've always been obsessed and fascinated by that particular episode of history that deals with the formulation and creation of the atomic bomb and all the participants involved,......I've pounced on and devoured every book and film on the subject, both fiction and non-fiction.
And there's nothing I enjoy more than a behind-enemy-lines, suspense filled World War 2 spy thriller. Any novel that involves courageous, daring spies going into the heart of occupied Europe to thwart the Nazis becomes an automatic 'must read' for me.
"An Affair Of Spies" combines both those things together - American's desperate race to achieve an atomic bomb before Hitler''s Germany and a breathless, impossibly dangerous mission to to find out how far along the Nazis nuclear program has progressed, as well as help a German scientist escape to work on the Manhattan Project.
Nathan Silverman, a German refugee, whose parents arranged his own escape to the U.S. as a child is now a trained U.S. army soldier, preparing' for the eventual European invasion. But Silverman, the son of a brilliant physicist still trapped in Berlin with the rest of his family, is selected for a mission by no less than Gen. Leslie Groves, who's overseeing the race for an atomic bomb.
Silverman's 'mission impossible - penetrate occupied Europe, bring the defecting scientist back to the U..S., discover the current status of the Nazis atomic efforts and learn the fate of his father, mother and sister..
(I think the only thing missing from this mission was asking Nathan to cure cancer along the way...._)
Since Silverman has little or no knowledge of nuclear physics, he's accompanied by Dr. Allison Fisher, a young scientist who's been working within the Manhattan project and will know what vital data to collect and bring back with them.......if they can avoid relentless Gestapo agents who excel at hunting down and torturing spies.
I wouldn't dare spoil all of the non-stop excruciating suspenseful episodes that follow Nathan and Allison as they plunge into the lion's den of Berlin. Of course, nothing goes as planned and the surprises and sudden reversals-of-fortune thrown into their path really dial up the anxiety. As if there already wasn't enough nail-biting scenes packed into the book,, this dynamic duo's attempts to pull off an outrageous plan to gather the top secrets they've been tasked with stealing had me squirming in fear for them.
Unquestionably a stay-up-all-night thriller for me, one of the best 5 star page-turners I've lucked into this year so far.

A good book about people in wartime
The publisher’s description gives a good summary of the intelligence mission that young Jewish refugee Nathan Silverman and physicist Allison Fisher undertake to get intelligence about Nazi Germany’s progress in building an atomic bomb and to escort a defecting German physicist to the US. However, to me stressing the aspect of “an action-packed tale of heroism and love” misses what was the most enjoyable feature of the book, which was the emotional experiences of good normal people to war.
There are very compelling passages in the book depicting ordinary people living through a bombing, and a lot of warmth and humanity even in the face of massive destruction of lives, homes, and institutions. Nathan has escaped to America, but his family remained in Germany, so his concerns for them are expected. Allison is a scientist who wants to do science to expand knowledge and improve the world, and she worries about the use of her work to help build a nuclear weapon. She says, “It is a massive weapon without a conscience, and it haunts my sleep.” Allison was my favorite person in the book overall, with a well-developed personality. She muses about the incongruity of families going out to enjoy the zoo or the park with the possibility of bombing hanging over them. As might be expected of a woman who had the strength to go into a field like physics in the 1940s, she has guts, and there is an excellent scene where a German soldier tries to rape her.
I also enjoyed the very credible gradual development of emotional attachment and then love between Nathan and Allison, but if you are looking for a romance novel , do note that this is An Affair of Spies, not of lovers. With the right expectations, though, there is a lot to like in An Affair of Spies.
I received an advance review copy of this book frommNetGalley and the publisher.

This book is about some of the scientists who were instrumental in creating the atomic bomb. We know it’s the bomb that the US dropped on August 6, 1945 instantly killing 80,000 people and three days later, dropped another bomb on Nagasaki killing 40,000 civilians. In the dedication, Balson says: “Unfortunately, history does repeat itself.” He takes us into the past.

The story starts in 1943 during WWII when nuclear physicists from Germany and the US were scrambling to get this deadly weapon ready to use. Nathan Silverman, a German immigrant in the US, became a soldier and was assigned to go back to Berlin along with a physicist, Dr. Allison Fisher. Dr. Fisher’s assignment was to meet with the scientist Gunther Snyder in Berlin to find out more details of Germany’s nuclear program and help him defect. Nathan’s job was to accompany and protect her. He also wanted to find out about his Jewish parents and sister with the hope they were still alive. They were aware of the dangers of this task and if they made one wrong move, they would be tortured and killed.

The story is full of twists and turns which can make one wonder how the people in Germany were able to survive with constant lies, propaganda and the fear tactics from soldiers. Unlike a movie where one can close their eyes in hard-to-watch parts, the reader has to look at every word on the page. Just when you hoped that the intense part was over and things were good, then something else would occur. It showed how people were beaten, abused, depressed…and killed.

Everyone should read and learn from this book. It's a lot to think about.

My thanks to Ronald H. Balson, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy with the expected publication date of September 13, 2022.

Camp Richie was a special military training camp for German expats (some Jews) during WWII. Nathan Silverman escaped Nazi Germany when it was still possible for Jews to leave. . Nathan comes to the Us, joins the Army and because of his nationality, German Language skills, the fact his father is a prominent Physicist he is selected to find out how close the Germans are to building a nuclear bomb. Also by helping his father’s protégée to defect and join the American nuclear building team. He is given a young female Physicist to help him infiltrate and evaluate Germany’s progress. He is torn because he has no idea if his father and family are still alive. This book was well researched, unfortunately some of the ver bad decisions Nathan makes while on this mission is hard to believe coming from a trained special operations serviceman. That is we’re this novel disappointed me. I would have expected the author to come up with a much more believable plan. Thanks to St Martins Press and Netgalley for an ARC of this book for an honest review.

I received a free advance copy of the from Net Galley, the author and publisher. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read this novel. My review follows:


An Affair of Spies” is a novel set in the mid 1940’s just as the Allies were beginning to plan how to bring the war to Germany. At the same time the US had began another great effort called The Manhattan Project- the Atomic Bomb. It was known , or surmised, that Germany had its own nuclear project going. The question in Washington was: how far along had German research progressed?
In his novel, Ronald Balson presents a fiction based on facts and his imagination in a romantic spy escapade . It begins as Army Sgt. Nathan Silverman , a Jew who joined the Army to fight the Nazis, is training in a unit whose purpose is to have German speaking GIs attached to invasion forces to interrogate German prisoners to obtain intelligence. Suddenly, he is detached from that unit and put in a car on his way to a secret location. Arriving in New York City he is escorted to an obscure office in an obscure skyscraper where he is welcomed by a three star General and a hard- faced civilian.
The officer is Gen. Leslie Grove,head of the Manhattan Project, and the man is the head of the OSS,William Donovan. The mission handed to Nathan is to infiltrate into the Reich and arrange the escape of a nuclear scientist working on the German atomic bomb. He will be accompanied by Allison Fisher , a physicist who will check out Germany’s ’ stage of building an atomic weapon.

Of course if it it all seems a bit melodramatic, it is. “An Affair of Spies” reminds one of the kind of a romantic spy thriller novel or movie where a rookie soldier turned secret agent is saddled with a glamorous , but necessary assistant to do a dangerous job behind enemy lines. They face the Wehrmacht , Gestapo, suspicious German civilians, Allied bombing raids - can they do it?
Mr Balson has the tendency to explain and the re- explain things; for example, in the office of General Grove, the process of splitting the atom is described. Then whenever a new character enters the plot, explained again - to scientists who should already know what it is. He also has the woman going to New York department stores to buy clothes- how would she explain the labels to the Gestapo,I wonder? He refers to iconic scenes from the movie Casablanca, as if it would be as familiar to everyone then as it is to movie lovers today after repeated showings. Furthermore, though Nathan who has been instilled with the necessity for stealth secrecy and obeying orders, he is remarkably neglectful to do so when his own agenda takes precedence over the secret mission he has just explained for the umpteenth time.

“An Affair of Spies” is not a bad book, and it has a few taut moments and some romance. Truthfully , you have read and/ or seen this sort of tale before. Nevertheless, I applaud any author with an idea he brings to print. His research is detailed in the epilogue and the real scientists on the Allied and German sides are listed.
Nothing objectionable. Rating : somewhere between Fair and almost Good.

Ronald Balson is a good writer This is not my first time reading his books. They are all excellent reads and this is no exception. The main theme of this story is to find out how far along the Germans are in making an atomic bomb. Nathan Silverman, a soldier in a specialized branch of the Army, and having been born in Germany, is requested to go to Berlin with a scientist, Allison Fisher, to find out just how far the Germans have gotten in making the atomic bomb, and to find and bring a scientist who is ready to defect to the US.. How they get to Germany, find out what is needed and their problems being there, and in returning to the US makes a very good story.. It is one you will enjoy.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. To be a Jew and to return to Nazi Germany for your job. To not know what happened to your family that you left behind there. To know that every move you makes puts the life of the women who is with you in jeopardy. Every time the science got a little heavy they went back to the story line and saved the plot. Defiantly a different take on the Jewish experience during the Holocaust.

I will be recommending this to my followers who are obsessed with thrillers. This will be a good beach read

4.5/5
This book made me feel like I was sitting in my 9th grade physics class and wasn’t that time just the best?
In this story, set against the backdrop of WW2, we follow Nathan – a Jewish man who escaped from Germany in the early 1930s and joined the US military. He is suddenly transferred and given an unusual assignment - go to Germany and smuggle out a nuclear scientist (but not before getting information about the German nuclear program out of him). In this mission Nathan is accompanied by Allison Fisher – an American nuclear scientist, who agreed to this mission in order to prevent mass destruction.
The book has a really interesting plot with a lot of unpredictable plot twists. What I liked is that it doesn’t follow the blueprint of a usual WW2 novel.
As to what I didn’t quite like was that the dialogues (especially in the beginning of the book) seemed a little bit too un-human, as in, too perfected and edited, it just didn’t sound the way real people actually talk. Also, I felt like the relationship between Allison and Nathan developed a bit too quickly in the beginning.

Historical fiction is one of my favorite sub genres of fiction, especially WWII, and An Affair Of Spies didn't disappoint! This is a page turning thriller filled with suspense set during the Allies (US) & Axis (Nazi Germany) powers nuclear race to create the atomic bomb, and can be appreciated by both histfic fans and history buffs alike.

The story was a good one for me. I do adore a WWII-themed novel and this one integrated science which is another one of my loves. The race to a nuclear bomb is part of our history and this title presents some of the facts of what happened, although the main characters of this novel did not exist.

Plenty of suspense to keep you hooked.

My only struggle at times was that the writing seemed much like a reporter and not as much a story being woven. That didn't keep me from enjoying and finishing the novel. Just an observation.

4.0. A WWII thriller relating to the extraction of a nuclear physicist from Germany written by Ronald Balson who wrote the award winning The Girl from Berlin and Once We Were Brothers. In this novel, Nathan Silverman, a German born Jewish US Army military spy with the help of a young woman physicist, Dr. Allison Fischer, travel to Germany under difficult circumstances in war torn Europe to assist in the defection of a German physicist who has been working on a nuclear bomb. Different plot twists, such as Nathan’s attempts to find his father who was also not surprisingly a physicist. Not an easy task and of course many twists and turns. The book weaves in many known events and individuals involved in the pursuit of a nuclear weapon which makes it more realistic. Good character development. An interesting and easy read but in my view, extremely predictable. I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased and candid review.

It was a fast paced spy story during world war 2. A soilder and a phyysist were sent into Nazi Germany to extract a German physiatrist to leave Germany and help the Allie’s win the warm.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book. Let me begin by saying WOW! This book was amazing! I am a huge fan of Ronald Balson and this book, in my opinion, is his best work. This is an edge of your seat, white knuckle the whole way thriller. The characters are so well written, so relatable, you can't help but root for their success. This is a story for any history buff. A book not to be missed

Einstein warned of the nuclear experiments happening on both sides of the Atlantic which would become a race to build a bomb that could annihilate. Ignoring the warning, the world found itself entrenched in World War II. In 1943 an American soldier and German expatriate, Nathan Silverman, is sent to his homeland on a mission to rescue a defecting scientist who will provide strategic information to the Manhattan Project. Accompanying him is Allison Fisher, a physicist whose job is to quiz the defecting Dr. Gunther’s knowledge and motives. It becomes a mission that finds life-threatening danger at every juncture. They are bombarded by British planes and continually discovered by Gestapo agents, forcing constant changes in route and identity. Ronald H. Balson’s occasional scenes where Nathan meets his past and both he and Allison weigh the onus of enabling this weapon to be developed are moving. Despite these, his storyline does not engage me as other World War II novels have. In this instance I prefer the espionage rather than the romance it becomes

This historical novel weaves together the actual figures of the Manhattan Project with the fictional protagonists who become spies to find out what Germany is doing in trying to build its own atomic weapons. The weaving is expert, the characters interesting, and the situations all seem very real and period-appropriate. If you know something about the origins of the bomb and the US effort in making it happen you will find the novel fascinating. If you are a WWII buff you will also enjoy the period settings and the wartime challenges of moving around Europe and trying to stay one step ahead of the Nazis. I really enjoyed the story and the situations that the characters found themselves in and highly recommend this novel.

This book was a complete surprise, very original and very fast moving. Great characters and a truly believable but unpredictable story, much like these past couple of years. I thought the author handled the conflicting realities of war and ordinary life realistically; balancing fear, anxiety and purpose, commitment and courage. Looking forward to new stories from Mr Balson!