The story grabs at your sense of morality as you and this grief stricken daughter realize that what police are slowly unraveling is not mere murder. It was a kill to silence the only remaining man who had leads to the mole and his Nazi accomplices about to murder Churchhill. Now, the reader and she are equally at risk in what information you are privy to. Are new found friends really spies? Allies? Whom can you trust? Are you also expendable?
Early on, the characters in Orders from Berlin quickly develop, including the nefarious Hitler who thinks only of himself and world conquest for his Third Reich. So often we’ve seen film clips of him delivering impassioned ranting pleas to the German people about how great a nation they will become under his dictatorship.
But author Tolkien’s thoughtful dialogue also makes Hitler sound illogically more evil—if that is even possible. “That fool Churchill will not give in … he wants this war … you can’t reason with a man like that.”
I would highly recommend this unique spy story to readers seeking fast paced intrigue, with which you will experience the helplessness about whom to trust or who is your enemy. Author Simon Tolkien has a keen knack for disclosing enough bits of information at just the right time to make you feel—first one way, and then the other—about trust and fidelity. Orders from Berlin is a relatively quick read, but not one easily forgotten.
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