Publisher's Weekly Review
This mildly diverting first in a new thriller series from bestseller Griffin and son Butterworth charts the birth of the CIA in the fall of 1945. When 2nd Lt. James D. Cronley successfully secures a half ton of uranium oxide carried by a German U-boat that might have been sold to Soviet agents in Argentina, he's promoted to captain by Harry Truman, awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, and given command of Operation Ost, which sneaks Nazis out of Germany into Argentina. Maj. Gen. Reinhard Gehlen, "the German intelligence officer who ran Abwehr Ost," trades all the files and assets of his spy organization in return for protecting his men from the Soviet Union. Those readers expecting action will be disappointed as a host of characters make plans, read secret memos, and engage in interior monologues. Those who are happy with lots of interesting period history, dry humor, and clever scheming will be amply rewarded. Agent: Robert Youdelman, Rember & Curtis. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Opening his Clandestine Operations series, Griffin (Empire and Honor, 2012, etc.) drafts warriors from his Honor Bound series to confront post-World War II communist aggression. It's late 1945. Army Lt. James Cronley, scion of a Texas ranching family, has played a significant role in frustrating die-hard Nazi attempts to cache bomb-grade uranium in Argentina. By direct order of President Harry S. Truman, Cronley's promoted to captain for his exploits. He returns to Germany and his Army assignment at a Counterintelligence Corps project wringing intel out of "good German" remnants of Abwehr Ost, an intelligence unit that developed critical information about the Soviet Union. Cronley's soon trapped in a bureaucratic knife fight among veterans of the Office of Strategic Services (covert operations warriors), CIC loyalists, other Army units and the FBI. Set mostly at an isolated and abandoned Bavarian monastery and elsewhere in Germany, the narrative's ripe with meetings, confrontations, lies and subterfuge rather than gunplay. The dialogue is standard Griffin sarcasm and one-upmanship, driving a plot which requires getting a captured Russian agent from the Abwehr Ost camp to Argentina. Back in the U.S., Cronley elopes with a young American woman he met during his Argentine expedition, but his bride is killed in a car wreck a day later. Less than a week later, he sleeps with a colonel's wife, and it becomes clear that Griffin's male-female interactions will be sex rather than romance. The Griffin style remains immutable: short chapters, macho attitudes, stiff upper lip when threatened, no-sweat heroics, much love for military equipment and weaponry and protocol. That familiarity makes the occasional minor error more notable, and it makes one good-guy escape from the hangman problematic. In keeping with Clandestine Operations' raison d'tre, Griffin's sketch of the immediate post-WWII bureaucratic territorial clashes has purpose; it's an outline of how the demobilized OSS hot-war heroes became passionate CIA cold warriors.G-fans will not be disappointed. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The first novel in a new series from this reliable team is guaranteed to garner interest, and the subject the beginnings of the Cold War and the CIA will only add to the appeal. Just after the end of WWII, newly married second lieutenant James Cronley receives the assignment to go to Germany. He ends up becoming involved in a top-secret mission in which Nazis are sent to Argentina. Matters are complicated by the fact that Cronley's commanding officer doesn't like him (perhaps because Cronley is having an affair with the commander's wife). The time period and the characters feel authentic, and the authors clearly did their research to get the feel of how the world was changing after the war was over. Sex scenes aren't the strong suit for these military-fiction veterans, however, and the surfeit of groping distracts from the otherwise intriguing story line. Still, Griffin and Butterworth's devoted readers will relish the Cold War landscape and look forward to the second book in the series.--Ayers, Jeff Copyright 2014 Booklist