Operation Storm King

A first-rate alternate history! I will be adding Elliott Sumers to my watch list.

A West Point professor and an ambitious cadet are looking for a way to make a big splash in academia and archaeology, hoping to find a forgotten Revolutionary War relic in the Hudson River's waters near West Point. They find something else, a sunken submarine that no one knows about. It looks Russian, but cadet Dhao points out that it also looks like a German boat.

Trying to do research on the boat rattles a lot of cages, and the professor finds himself tangled in a web dating back to WWII. The cadet is also in deep trouble. The career she was building is now in ruins. In fact, everyone is in trouble.

They've stumbled on something that's been a secret since WWII. President Roosevelt didn't die in Warm Springs. The real story is very different.

Germany is on its knees. They are desperate for a last victory to turn the tide. Shellenberg comes up with the idea to use a new type of submarine, Type XXI U-boat, to go up the Hudson River and kidnap FDR. Then America and Germany can come together to fight the soviets. A former West Point man who has returned to fight for Germany will be the front man in this effort.

In Operation Storm King, Elliot Sumers, explores a "What if" FDR was kidnapped instead of dying at Warm Springs. Through chapters set in the present day where the U-boat is discovered in a dive, in Germany during the last throws of the WWII, and in West Point in 1937 when Cadet Karl Krause is treated horribly by his other cadets, the reader can imagine the possibility of one of the greatest coverups of all time.

There is language in the book that may be offensive to some. I was able to read an ARC on #NetGalley.

Alternative history stories have to blend enough of the realistic and the fantasy to be believable and Sumers does so here in his book. The story is not as grand in scope as, say, Widowland, but its premise works well because it is focused and has the air of "it could have happened" (unless it did, but that's a whole other story). The characters seemed genuine and their motivations connect with the reader. An entertaining read to be sure.

I just completed my read of Elliot Summers' "Operation Storm King" (provided to me in the form of an ARC by the publisher, The Book Whisperer). This novel belongs firmly to the genre of action/adventure as well as alternative history. It is structured around events in 1945 as the war in Europe was drawing to its conclusion, but in this story one major historical event is changed; nonetheless, damage to the existing timeline is minimized because the events in the text, revolving around very real historical personages as well as fictional ones, are lost to history due to circumstances beyond the characters' control. If all of this seems convoluted, blame that on me for trying not to reveal too much and thereby ruin some of the delight the book provides (and it does). It is a fast read and is one of those books I find it hard to put down. I find the author's knowledge of technical detail and the characters and their motivations both fascinating and convincing. If it is flawed, it is in its tendency to sink into caricature when dealing with Nazis and to create a somewhat overwrought and nearly unbelievable conspiracy and coverup (the deliberate suspension of disbelief is definitely called for on more than one occasion), but like the best of its genre, it can provide hours of delight if accepted on its own terms. Enjoy!

A truly spellbinding book which has a plausible theory. The story and the characters are well done. The plot is well done with plenty of action and suspense. The end provides a neat twist. This is a great read, that could have happened under different circumstances.

I went into this book, not sure if I would enjoy it, and I am glad I did!


Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Mr. Sumers has concocted a very imaginative view on the death of President Franklin Roosevelt and by doing so transports us on a heart-stopping journey through times. All along the way our view of reality will be challenged.

It opens in January 1945 with a small team of Nazi commandos penetrating New York Harbor then up the Hudson River in a XX1 U- Boat. Their mission is to kidnap the American president and force the United States into an alliance with Germany.

75 years later. A hard driving woman a West Point cadet discovers the shattered U-Boat wreck in the Hudson River and uncovers its shocking secrets.

The story goes back and forth between times and is very exciting. This alternative to history is very good and is full of intrigue. We have plenty of action and suspense to keep us engaged till the very end and enough twists to derail us. It is a fast read and I found it hard to put down I was so involved in the coming and going I didn’t see the time go by. The characters were well drawn and their motivations in their tasks were quite convincing. I like this alternative view “what if FDR died this way in lieu of Warm Springs...”Of course reading this novel we have to suspend what we believe in. This blend of reality and fantasy is well said and well done.

Such great detail about history woven into a tale of counter-intelligence and espionage. The two timelines play out in tandem. The characters are so richly described that they come alive, and you can't help but believe that this could have actually occurred. The hateful characters were no more brutal than those that actually existed, so this just worked to support the possibility of truth. I found all of the supporting information about tactical weapons fascinating ... the tale so engrossing that I barely wanted to put it down - and I'm not a history buff. Incredible story!

Operation Storm King by Elliot Sumers tells the story of what if this didn’t happen this way? And there was a cover up?? This story involves West Point. Also FDR. And also German Nazis. A very creative story. It kept me reading and learned a lot about West Point and some German history. Don’t want to give away any spoilers. I highly recommend this read. Thank you to NetGalley for letting me review this book.

West Point Mystery

An interesting story about a mysterious German submarine found by two divers from West Point. How they were silenced because of their discovery and how it tied in to a German plot during the last hours of WWII.

When the history teacher and one of his students at West Point find a German sub they never dreamed that it was tied to a seventy five year old mystery. Nor did they dream of the trouble it would bring them from those that wanted to keep it secret.

The story tells of the plot seventy five years before and those that tried to carry it out. The story of the German submarine that traveled to New York to kidnap president Franklin Roosevelt and take him back to Hitler. The story of how it went down and how the sub came to be at the bottom of the sea for divers to find all those years later.

I like how they conveyed the characters in the story, even to making one of the Germans a kinder man, although violence prevailed at the end I think he really was repentant of what he was doing. It was a bit sad in spots and a bit fantasy like in others. Some parts I believed could actually happen and others not so much. The characters were well portrayed and fit their parts in the story. . The story kept my attention. It was quite a story and I did enjoy reading it.

Thanks to Elliott Sumers for writing a great story, to The Book Whisperer for publishing it and to NetGalley for providing me with a copy to read and review.

The Past….Bullied and shunned first year Cadet Karl Krause is lonely and shocked at the amount of anti-German sentiment at 1937 US Military Academy. His parents emigrated to Kansas in 1919 it escape the vast deprivation in post WW1 Germany. Unfortunately, the depression and Dust Bowl results in the Krause family farm to be repossessed and, after summoning Karl back from West Point, they return to German where Karl becomes a loyal German and fights with the Nazi’s. In 1945, German is almost defeated and some members of the high command want to settle their war with America and have both of them to unite to fight communist Soviet Union. To force this crazy idea along, an audacious plan to kidnap FDR and being him to Berlin. Karl, now a battle weary soldier who speaking’s native English, is commanded to participate, along with a rabid and delusional SS officer and a submarine commander. A new super-secret Nazi sub design, built with slave concentration camp laborers, may allow the sub to breech New York harbor defenses, sail up the Hudson and apprehend FDR at West Point. This audacious plan has far reaching consequences.
The Present….West Point History Professor Tom Goldstein is unhappy and thinks he should be teaching at a more prestigious college. He’s not a “gung ho” Army guy and doesn’t have a lot of prospects. Mia Zhou is a senior Cadet who’s smart, brave, strong and beautiful. Her delusion with the Army is driving her to achieve something “big” to win a Rhodes Scholarship. She proposes a project that will get the the Rhodes and elevate Tom from academic purgatory. What they discover will have a profound impact on them and the US.
A unique and intriguing rewrite of history.

Operation Storm King tells an interesting story about an alternative way things could have gone differently with FDR. Sumers did an amazing job of blending enough of history to make it believable with even of fantasy to keep it intriguing. The characters were well developed and made me connect with their purpose. If you are a fan of The Man in the High Castle and like those alternative look at history this is a must read.

Thank you to the publishers and to Netgalley for allowing me to read this advnaced copy.