Death and Honor (HONOR BOUND Book 4)

Typical Griffin. Not one of his most action packed, so it moved along kind of slow and was redundant at times. I like Griffin 's work and recommend this read, but I was a little disappointed when the big finish came in with a thud.

W.E.B. Griffin continues his great traditional of military storytelling. This is another fine example of his ability to weave a compelling story around a little know aspect of WWII. His characters and writing style always leaves me waiting for the next novel.

This installment continues with the themes of honor previously established. Peter Von Wachstein pursues honor in opposing Hitler by continuing his links to the Americans. Cletus Frade continues his honor-bound pledge not to reveal von Wachstein's identity even on orders from FDR. Enrico Rodriguez pursues family honor in protecting Frade and continuing to seek vengeance against the Germans. Other Germans, like naval captain Karl Boltitz, start following Von Wachstein's lead.

The Germans finally land war loot in Argentina to secretly establish postwar getaways for Nazi leaders. Frade tries to ease strained relations with his powerful godfather Colonel Juan Peron. FDR orders that Frade launch an Argentinian airline, and Frade wonders how to do this while keeping his relationship to the OSS secret.

And he finds himself on the spot when a German attaché and his wife defect to the Americans when threatened by the SS. It is up to Frade to convince their son, a German POW in American hands, to convince them in turn to spill what they know about Nazi operations in South America.

This series could easily be called "Blood and Honor" - not "blood" in the violent sense, but in that referring to consanguinity. The main characters are tightly intertwined by blood, marriage, friendship, and feudal loyalty, factors Frade can bring to bear as he continues to establish himself in Argentina, but that he must continually juggle. His late father's mistress and de facto wife has two daughters, one now married to a German (Von Wachstein) and the other with eyes for one (Boltitz); these families encountering each other socially while America and Germany are at war, while Frade and Von Wachstein struggle to keep their relationship secret, while Frade struggles to keep close to the pro-Axis Peron. There's a great scene where Von Wachstein, Boltitz and the SS man Cranz encounter Frade and the various women at an intimate dinner. Neutral countries probably harbored many a situation as surreal as this one.

One really enjoyable part of these books is Griffin's background on the war, its intrigue and its leaders. His recap of the war's progress up to mid-1943 at this book's outset puts things in a big picture perspective even those knowledgeable about the war may find enlightening. This book has a surprising amount of detail war buffs may find enlightening:

--The first U.S. battles in the Western Theater were against the French, when the US landed near Casablanca in November 1942. The US had to deal with Vichy French forces effectively split between those who loyal to Vichy and Germany and those who wanted to join the Allied cause. OSS agents working ahead of the invasion convinced pro-Allied French officers to respond slowly to mobilization orders meant to counter the invasion.

--Churchill regarded Charles De Gaulle as enough of a problem to consider eliminating him.

--FDR's enmity to Charles Lindbergh, for having pronounced the German Luftwaffe the best air force in the world (which was true when he said it), actually hurt the Allied cause when FDR refused to let Lindbergh, arguably the best single aviation mind in the world at that time, be commissioned as an officer when Lindbergh tried to join up the day after Pearl Harbor. Lindbergh nevertheless contributed to the U.S. effort: he was the mastermind responsible for shooting down Japanese Admiral Yamamoto's plane near Bougainville, by figuring out how to extend the range of the Lockheed P-38s used in the attack.

--The top American source on the Nazis was Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, a well-bred socialite, friend of numerous Ivy Leaguers including FDR, and an early admirer of Hitler, who fell out with him during the the 1930s and fled to the West. Griffin portrays him being secretly interned in a Washington hotel - with his own son one of the American soldiers guarding him - with easy access to Roosevelt. This touches on the not-well-understood phenomenon of how and why fascism grasped the imagination not just of Germans and Italians but of prominent Westerners variously taken by its vision of progress or mesmerized by Hitler's persona.

--Howard Hughes, who appears here as a character, was a key figure in wartime aircraft development, including the huge four-engine Constellations, and Griffin suggests he had a hand in intrigue as well.

This is a very difficult review, The Honor Bound series is possibly my favorite WEB Griffin series, comparable to the first few Corp books. I enjoyed reading this book, but... Well, the spark has gone, the excitement and dashing characters have dulled and become cardboard. The plot is not tight, it wanders looking for direction, and logic as left the room. Also the vivid detail of locations and atmosphere is completely absent.

Logically, the idea of a junior officer casually being given the great military secret of the war the Manhattan Project, is so ludicrous so wreck the believability in the story. Added to the impossible secret meeting with the president in hotel rooms, being palls with Howard Hughes, getting away with defying the orders of the President and OSS Chief's at will without ramifications, it's just getting silly at that point.

Also this "Life Styles of the Rich and Famous", plot element that Griffin uses in EVERY book is getting tired. Its not so bad as His new Presidential Agent series, which pushes believability off a cliff.

This book is not terrible, its not even just fair, its good, just not GREAT, and great is what I am used to from Mr. Griffin.

If you are into geo-political WW2 fiction which moves along at a snail's pace then this is the book for you. Meaningless travel information, verbal intrigues which lead to little action, airplane description which becomes tedious after a certain point, Germain hierarchical command which becomes confusing due to command changes. But the big disappointment is how little action there really is other than moving people around to interact as OSS and Gestapo.

When you read this book, the author's thorough knowledge of WWII history and military culture becomes quite apparent. Details of military protocols, fighter planes both German and American, civilian planes, the various levels of officers both German and American, types of armament, etc, are all penned down in meticulous detail. For the most part the plot takes place in South America in Argentina where the Americans have a contingent of OSS officers and the Germans have their own spies all pretending to be someone other than who they are and doing something other than what they are doing. Everyone is suspicious and distrustful of the other guy and his motives. There are powerful German plots among those who believe in the failure of the war effort, and I don't want to give these away. The Americans have their own aims. Most of the book takes place through conversation. There is not much action but lots of intrigue. The Griffon Trilogy (Pt. I)

Death and Honor (Honor Bound)

several years have passed since WEB Griffin has written a book that I truly enjoyed. The Presidental Agent series apes Tom Clancy too much, and the Men at War series has been pretty flat to my tastes since it resumed a couple of years ago.

The present volume is the 4th book in the Honor Bound series of novels, and although I didn't think it would be continued, here it is --back in full force. To be honest, a couple of the other installments in this series were a bit disappointing, the present work makes up for previous shortcomings very well.

The protagonist--Major Cletus Howell Frade, exhibits a lot more depth of character than before. The plot revolves about a scheme that the sinister characters within the German SS have hatched to provide themselves with, what today would be called a "golden parachute", when the Third Reich eventually crumbled. "Special shipments" were being transferred to Argentina by submarine, consisting of gold, jewels, and currency extorted from the families of concentration camp inmates to effect a ransom release of loved ones. Criminal elements within the SS have chosen to divert these assets to themselves, rather than to the Reich.

The list of truly despicable characters is too long to enumerate here, but the steps taken by "Don Cletus" Frade, the son of an Argentine military officer, who is a Marine aviator cum OSS agent, are very interesting and entertaining in the way the plot unfolds.

There are some colorful cameo roles of Allen Dulles, and Howard Hughes as OSS insiders within the context of the story.

As has become a frequent complaint with WEB Griffin stories lately, there are several bonehead errors that escaped proofreading, such as Field Marshall Erich Rommel (should be Erwin!). This is my only quibble with the present work, which has the taste and feel of many of the earlier Griffin works. A solid and entertaining novel, Four Stars!

Prolific author W. E. B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV introduce a fourth book in their Honor Bound spy thriller series, their first since 1999.

DEATH AND HONOR is set in Argentina near the end of World War II. U.S. Marine fighter pilot and ace Cletus Frade is recruited as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) for the United States government. Son of a wealthy murdered Argentine patriot, Frade himself has been targeted by unknown assassins. Newly married to an Argentine beauty, Dona Doro tea Mallin de Frade, he has his hands full running the family's Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo, in Buenos Aires Province. When a German Feisler Storch airplane taxis onto the Estancia's airstrip to land, Frade is not surprised. The pilot is German officer Hans-Peter von Wachstein, serving the German embassy in Argentina, which has declared its neutrality in the war.

A circumstantial quirk had brought the two fighter pilots together six months before. von Wachstein learned that the third Reich intended to have Frade killed, and his aristocratic heritage took over. von Wachstein had warned Frade about the assassins, and Frade thwarted the attempt. Grateful, he respected the German's honorable decision.

True to his style, Griffin transports his numerous characters into a panorama of settings. In Berlin, Admiral Canaris meets with Martin Bormann, an SS officer close to Adolph Hitler. Anticipation of an end to the war, with Germany on the losing side, prompts the spy network to action. The SS has allowed Jews to purchase freedom for relatives being held in concentration camps in order to escape a death sentence. They collect money and jewels, and crate the bounty and ship by U-boats to Argentina. The Reich hopes to tip a neutral Argentina toward the Socialist agenda by war's end. At this point, fugitive SS officers will find monetary reward and an easy lifestyle in a post-war friendly country.

Argentine Colonel Juan Peron is to be courted and assimilated into the Nazi plan. But a glitch exists. The SS believes that a member of their own embassy's staff has betrayed them. Canaris's protégé and attaché, Boltitz, is the man assigned to sniff out the traitor. Boltitz accompanies von Wachstein to the airfield at Frade's estancia.

Washington, D.C. is yet another scene used in Griffin's plot. Frade is summoned by OSS officials for a briefing on the Argentine situation. At OSS headquarters he is surprised by a meeting with the U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who charges him to start up an Argentine airline company. He will buy 14 Lodestar planes, train the pilot force and begin service. He is to monitor the Operation Phoenix problem. He will locate the cargo, discover the method it enters Argentina and follow its progress. But he will not confiscate the cargo. Roosevelt feels that the importance of Jewish prisoner release outweighs taking the ransom. Frade is authorized to protect the German traitor to his embassy. He is at liberty to keep the man's identity a secret, if necessary.

Extensive research is a trademark of the spy thrillers under the Griffin pen. DEATH AND HONOR extends knowledge of wartime experiences into believable scenarios. Frade, a multinational hero, morphs from macho man to a formidable patriot, duty-bound to his dual citizenship. Doro tea Frade, the newly pregnant wife, provides the softer side to a war story. She is constantly amazed by her fortitude and spunky prowess when he unintentionally involves her in the intrigue.

Spiked by history, Griffin and Butterworth collaborate well in their interpretation. Colonel Juan Peron is both rogue and friend throughout DEATH AND HONOR. The climax satisfies the reader as to his true place in Argentine history. Complicated titles, especially on the German side, prove the few stumbling blocks to an entertaining read. However, detail continues to be a fine trademark of a Griffin/Butterworth novel. Devotees of World War II books are certain to crave more of Cletus Frade.

--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad

I have read every book Griffin has published but I must now write that the past few have ended before the end of the book. He has left the reader hanging once again. What happened to the Froggers and their son? Did they give the information that was a main theme throughout the book? What was done with the map of the beach where the UBoat unloaded? There are many other questions which should have been answered but weren't.

It seems that Griffin has developed a template for his latest books and just fills in the lines, and when the required number of words are written he just stops.

I can understand him leaving us hanging in regard to the search for the smuggled money since it is an ongoing theme in this series, but I cannot understand ending before the details of this particular book are concluded.

Cletus, like the protagonist in Griffin's other books is wealthy, knows all the important people in the USA and overcomes all obstacles put in his way. This is a given when reading a Griffin book,and expected. Leaving the reader mystified as to what happens to the story line is a recent Griffin occurrence.

I'm wondering who is really writing his latest books?

By now the Griffin & Butterworth production is established enough to reveal that it is not quite up to the solo Griffin work of the earliest novels, but in its better instances is still entertaining. This continuation of the South American story in WWII moves from Argentina through Brazil and into Texas, with the compulsory side trip to Washington, D.C. The roman a clef cameos, a Griffin trademark, are not as absurdly managed as some in their current European spy series, but do verge on the shallow( with Howard Hughes) and the silly(with F.D.R.). All in all, this sure stretches the limits of the Graf Spee incident and believability - not as much a problem in the earlier "Pacific Theatre" novels which elaborated on factual situations and unsung heroes. This is more of a spy thriller in the "oater" tradition: Spy-cowboys on the pampas with some leading edge technology and Juan Peron thrown in as a bedfellow to the nasty Nazis. As to the title, maybe it is appropriate given the at there seem to be more "honor code" Junkers in this book than there were in the Wehrmacht...but this is just a thriller; Reader please don't confuse it with history or even reality behind history. Still, it is entertaining. If you want a more accurate period piece, turn to Furst.

Mr. Griffin continues his fascinating blend of history and fiction in this forth novel in the Honor Bound series.

Cletus Frade, a USMC Major and active OSS agent in Argentina, fights to accomplish his assigned missions to track funds the Nazis are funneling into South America and to protect his German sources from discovery. There is an unexpected, highly suspenseful ending wit Cletus in an armed face to face standoff with his godfather Col. Juan Peron.

Highly recommended.

When the son (William E Butterworth IV) first became involved, the writing style and cohesiveness completely fell apart, and I regrettably quit reading these books. My wife purchased this particular book for me as a gift, and I am glad to report that the storyline and writing seem to be back. The story picks up nicely from where the series left off and provides both an interesting sequel and a good read. I would recommend this book to others who, like myself, may have stopped reading this author.

I really enjoyed the first three books in this series, but was a little nervous when I saw that it was a father-son collaboration (the two collaborations in the "Men at War" series were, in my opinion, well below the quality of the first four titles of that series). Fortunately, the plotting, story line, and characters in "Death and Honor" followed seamlessly on the first three titles. The only real complaint I can make about this book is that the closing scene left me wanting the next installment with no solid idea on when it will arrive (at least a year, and possibly/probably longer). At least, with TV series you know that the cliffhangers will be resolved in just a few months with the start of a new season -- Griffin juggles multiple series and we know we're only going to get one or two titles a year.

Death and Honor is vaguely disappointing, although it's worth the read, it lacks the secondary story development of the three previous novels in the series i.e. the fleshing out of the characters and their families which raise W.E.B. Griffin's novels above being merely war or espionage stories. In particular the character development of Dorotéa is neglected to the point where the word 'bitchy' enters one's mind about the character.

I'm not sure why this is, certainly the father and son collaboration in writing The Shooters in the Presidential Agent Series which was released this Spring worked well and there was adequate secondary and back story development in that novel. However, Death and Honor is regretably a half step to a step below the other three novels in the series.

I, like many here, have read every Griffin book there is and most more than once. I would like to know how the son, (herein after referred to as Butt II) fits in. Griffin (herein after referred to as Butt I) has apparently shifted much of the writing to Butt II after he outlines the plot. Butt II tries to use the same devices as Butt I has over the years. Recall the much more believable story of the quartermaster at the beginning of one of The Corps series trying to figure out what to do with calvary sabres, as opposed to Donovon trying to figure out what to do with badges ("badges? we don't need no stinking badges") that were sent to him by someone in the OSS. Spending time on that ridiculous scenario much less Frade waving a badge later on in some General's face that
causes the general to give him a red carpet doesn't make any sense.

The bottom line is that I basically enjoyed the book because it is a Griffin book. However, it is most certainly not up to Butt I's standards.
I think all of us Griffin fans are going to have to come to the conclusion that this father son teaming is not going to be nearly as successful as the Shaara father and son teaming (Gods and Generals). However, if Butt II continues the story lines on his own without Butt II's influence then maybe the young man will find his voice and start telling good stories on his own merit. Butt I has certainly left him enough openings in his story lines to do so.

Good luck Butt II! You're going to need it!

Griffin must have spent a great deal of time researching people, places and historical events for this series of books. The characters, both factual and fictional make It more enjoyable than reading a history book yet creates an understanding and appreciation of the dynamics of Hilter's reign.

I have no idea what the first reviewer read. This new work from W.E.B. griffin is a long awaited sequel to the Honor Bound Series, which is one of the best in Mr. Griffin's many top notch thrillers. The book is as good as it gets and not only entertains but teaches as well. It reads as wonderful as anything the author wrote ten or even fifteen years ago. It is an old fashioned "can't put down" WW II historic novel. It has everything going for it and once again establishes that the "old master" is on top of his game.

Great character development and the authors really make you feel as if you are in that period of history. The negative is that so much of the book is devoted to recapping the prior books it gets boring if you have already read them. Authors seemed to be filling space.

Typical WEB Griffin Book - A great read. I have been going back and ordering the entire series so I can read them in the order that they were published as the "story lines" will make more sense... but it is not necessary however.

Enjoy, I did...

All WW2 historical novel fans have been waiting a long time for Griffin to come out with another in his Honor Bound series and I don't think they'll be disappointed. I had just finished reading Night of Flames: A Novel of World War IIby Douglas W. Jacobson, which is the best WW2 novel I'd read since the Herman Wouk classics, when I picked up Death & Honor. I had been so immersed in Jacobson's tale of a Polish cavalry officer recruited by the British SOE that I was a bit reluctant to shift gears, but I was instantly drawn into Griffin's story of a marine pilot recruited by the OSS. In true Griffin fashion we have a gripping, fast-moving tale filled with action and snappy dialog. I recommend it.

The book was recieved very promptly, as promised, and was in excellent condition, even to the dust cover. As with all Griffin novels, the book is a great read and added to my collection at a very modest price. I would certainly commend the seller for the excellent service.I now have a rather complete collection of Griffin books streching back to the time when he published under several pen names before he started any of the more recent series under the name Griffin. I was fortunate to get to meet Mr. Griffin and his son, at which time he graciously signed several of my collection.

Incredibly boring book. Lots of talk, and zero action. Frade flys here, he flys there but ctually does nothing except talk, show how insolent he is to senior officers(shades of Bernard Cornwell's excellent "Sharpe" series)does nothing himself and repeats the same mantra over and over until the author has wasted 470 pages of good,acid-free paper. There is no climax at the end and he leaves all the characters in the lurch. No wonder it was selling for $5.99 as a remainder hard-cover at Borders!!

W.E.B. Griffin continued his story of the movement in South America by the Germans with flair and elan. My only problem was that I needed to brush up on the story since the last book in the series had been written years ago. Ergo, I had to go find the rest of the set and start at the beginning. What a delightful way to spend several weeks of my summer.

Mr. Griffin's saga of WWII Argentina continues with exciting twists and turns to keep the pages turning. A must for all Griffin fans and anyone who enjoys a rousing adventure yarn. Looking foward to the continuation of the tale!

I purchased my kindle under the impression that "New Releases" would be $9.99 or less. I have found a number (this one included) priced at nearly $15. Granted, this is still a much better deal than buying the hardback version however I recently noticed the paperback version at Walmart for $7.44. Makes me wonder if buying a Kindle was the smart choice.

This author continues with his characters and story lines of historical espionage in this newest book as good as ever. His readers and fans are always waiting for the next installment to see where the characters end up next !