The Honor of Spies (Honor Bound)

Griffin is a great story teller. Every book I have ever read of his has kept me wanting to read until done. If it were not for some of the language and adult situations it would be much better. I know I don't have to read them but I forgot about the language thing as I have not read one in a long time. I would not recommend this for younger readers.

I have to agree with the other reviewers, this is a great additional to The Honor Bound series. I hope to see more of this series soon. I think this is one of the first that shows the collaboration between father and son is going to work and we can keep seeing these books in the future.

I only have one small bone to pick, dealing with the Kindle version. The various "messages" were treated as photos in that version, and I had to use a magnifying glass to read them. I hope the store can find a way to cure this minor problem in the future.

This man has never written a bad book! This series about the OSS in South America has riveted me from the start! He starts fast and then builds! The only problem with this book is it was to short! It points out the shadow problems with Nazi Germany in the Western hemisphere as well as the communists. I recommend this book to all but get another one because you won't be able to put this down and in 1 or 2 days you will be done!

I have read every book this author has written, some several times, and he always leaves you wanting more. I can't wait for the next book. His characters become your best friends and you hate the villains and talk about books you can't put down. I just finished the latest installment of Major Frade's adventure in Argentina and it is better then those that came before it if that is possible. Great, great book.

redundant. repetitive. blah. blah. blah. this book is all excerpts of prior books in this series; and what isnt excerpts is repetitive. it's pretty sad when the only action in a book that is a new action is vomiting and trying to reach the flush chain while on your knees. it is the worst fifteen dollars i have spent for a long time; and while t am 82 percent into this book, it will be a book i wont waste any more of my time on to finish it . mr w.e.b. griffen i own almost all your books; and this book is more unforgiveable than your police series when you went from 1973 to 2000; with no warning your charactters were using cell phones and laptops; they had been using phone booths and typewriters. what do you think? all your readers are morons? get it together mr griffen and son; or soon your auddience will move on.

I have to agree wholeheartedly with "bonanza bucko". This is a classic Griffin novel. If junior had any hand in it, it was so little that it was unnoticed by me. Seems that all he had to do with it was to put his name on the book as co-author in hopes that some of his writings will get read by association with his dad. Hopefully Mr. Griffin is in good health and will continue to write these great novels for many more years. I would love to see a new one in the Corp series and the presidential agent series. Mr. Griffin, if you read these reviews I hope you keep junior's hands off your writing in the future 'cause he just can't write.

This is Griffins worst book. It plods along and goes in circles so that you wonder if it will ever start moving. I was very disappointed. I like Griffins books and this falls short of his usual quality.

Another in the series of Honor Bound novels. In typical Griffin fashion it brings you into the tiem adn plae of the story and keeps you until the last page.

Well written. Looking forwrd to the next one.

This installment in the "Honor Bound" series gets into one of World War II's more controversial areas: secret American cooperation with the former German intelligence network operating against the Soviets in Eastern Europe, known as the Gehlen Org.

Elements of the OSS under Allen Dulles, future leader of the CIA, helped these operatives, many of them Nazis or SS, and their families escape to Argentina.

This was the beginning of the Cold War, and highlighted the rift in U.S. leadership between those on the right who saw the battle against Communism coming unavoidably and worth such extraordinary measures; and those on the left who viewed the Soviets favorably and thought it wrong to spy on them during the war, and to protect and deal with a group including some war criminals.

The U.S. intelligence split was a deep one. President Roosevelt, his influential wife Eleanor, his left-leaning vice president Henry Wallace and OSS head William Donovan were in the latter camp; Dulles, General George Patton and other conservatives were in the former one. Griffin has Dulles and the fictional character, OSS deputy Alex Graham, doing this behind Donovan's back, which squares with accounts elsewhere. The Dulles faction, believing the Roosevelt-Wallace crowd hemorrhaged secret information to the Communists, secretly ran its own intelligence agenda in the mid-1940s in the OSS and in the interregnum before the CIA's formation. They awaited what they thought would be a Republican victory, and a more amenable working environment, in the 1948 presidential elections.

Whether or not the Gehlen Org was worth it remains controversial to this day. Supporters argue they were by far the best intelligence the U.S. had on the ground in Eastern Europe, scored numerous intelligence coups, later formed the nucleus for West German intelligence, and that they were in any case best kept out of Soviet hands. The Communists would have tortured the identities of their informants out of them.

Detractors have, meanwhile, argued that the Gehlen Org ranks were shot through with double agents and the whole operation compromised by Communist spies inside western intelligence led by Kim Philby. (Exposes on this were published by the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper, but you have to wonder about the sincerity of Britain's premier left-leaning newspaper charging someone else with incompetence in fighting Communism.)

Griffin ties it in part to the Valkyrie plot against Hitler - that Reinhard Gehlen and his people were part of Admiral Canaris' foreign intelligence Abwehr, that Canaris was secretly in contact with Dulles and part of the Valkyrie plot against Hitler. But even Griffin's OSS characters are disconcerted to find that, in late 1943 with the war still far from over, their number one priority in Argentina is now hiding smuggled-in Germans who may still have pro-Nazi sympathies.

The effort also involved the Vatican, which used its auspices to shelter these and other escaping Nazis, to give them false identity papers and to get them (and in some cases their money) into South America. Griffin includes this in his story as well, framing both the Catholic clergy and a lot of the Argentine public as being pro-Axis largely because of a common resistance to godless Communism.

Cletus Frade, ordered by Washington to launch an Argentine airline and given the latest and best American airliners to do it with, finds their first flights used to spirit out of Lisbon a couple of key Gehlen operatives and their families, disguised as nuns, priests and German orphans. He needs to hide them as well as the Froggers - a German embassy official privy to many secrets who defected to the Americans fearing he was about to be arrested, dragging along his unwilling and fanatically pro-Nazi wife.

Meanwhile, one of Himmler's SS deputies, Manfred Von Deitzberg, returns secretly to Argentina via submarine, charged personally by Himmler with locating and killing the Froggers and Frade, as well as identifying the embassy's leak to the Americans. (Peter Von Wachstein at this point should be so obviously the number one candidate, with his social and marital ties to Frade, that his continuing to dodge this particular bullet is barely believable.)

Von Deitzberg also must shore up the secret operation establishing a postwar toehold in Argentina for escaping Nazi leaders. Von Deitzberg meanwhile has his own agenda - securing the fortune he and a few other SS henchmen have made ransoming Jews out of concentration camps. To do this he has to deal with the Von Tresmarcks in Uruguay - the plot's gay financial operative Werner, about to abscond with a lot of the money and his male lover to Paraguay, and his for-appearances-only wife, the beautiful and unscrupulous Inge.

Frade's godfather Juan Peron continues his embarrassingly close ties to Nazis and pro-German elements in the Argentine Army, including a unit involved in two attacks on Frade's ranches. Peron believes the Nazis will not only make him president of Argentina but annex Paraguay and Uruguay to it as well. And he finally gives up his string of Lolita-aged mistresses to get together with the golddigging Evita, who sees how helping Nazis can help the cash-strapped Peron make his fortune.

Griffin does a great service in dramatizing these lesser-known strands of war history - the Gehlen Org, the Vatican, Argentina, and the Perons. (You really come to understand what scumbags the Perons were.)

The action is slow as in a lot of these books, with a lot of talking and plotting and back stories. It's still enjoyable, though, when some Nazi gets stitched with a string of .45 bullets from a Thompson submachine gun. Die, you pigs.

Overall I liked the book. However, if it had been presented to a publisher without W.E.B. Griffin's name attached it would have been rejected as not being ready. I say this as a huge W.E.B. Griffin fan of many years. I have a problem with famous authors collaborating with unknown and untried authors. The first thing I wonder is just how much of this novel did Griffin actually write? The Traffickers was also in collaboration with William Butterworth. I bought it because I thought the majority of it was written by Griffin. I bogged down in it after about 120 pages and didn't pick it up again. I didn't review it because I didn't finish it. I know from my experience in publication in the scientific and medical communities that not everyone whose name is on the paper actually worked on it. Typically, the chairman of the department gets his/her name on it because he/she is the boss and it is a publication to his/her credit. And the chairman's name almost guarantees publication in a decent journal. This is not the only book that suffers from failing to achieve the standards normally expected of a particular author like W.E.B. Griffin. A while back I purchased a thriller by another author with a collaborator. Not a really good reading experience. I put it down after 34 or so pages.

Although Mr. Butterworth is an alleged editor this book really needs an independent edit by an unbiased editor. When we edit for ourselves we tend to be kinder and gentler than when we edit the works of others. After a real edit by an impartial editor this overly long book would be at least 150 pages shorter. The writing in this book points out several glaring mistakes that my editor would not have passed.

I thought it was the standard that once you introduce a character by name, you give his whole name and thereafter you refer to him by his last name. This book is replete with lengthy foreign names like: "Generalleutnant Graf Karl-Friedrich von Wachtstein" repeated ad nauseum. After repeating this mouthful for over 200 pages the authors did start refering to him as von Wachtstein. Such perversions slow down the storyline and cause the reader to start skipping to avoid falling asleep from boredom. There were also an overuse of foreign words. A conversation at a German embassy is presumed to be in German that, for the benefit of the English speaking reader has been translated into English. Why then on page 388 in a German conversation translated into English state, "Excuse me, Exzellenz . . ." instead of, "Excuse me Excellency"? These types of mistakes abound and it would take too long to list them all.

My final comment deals with research. When dealing with the character Lieutenant Pelosi the authors describe him on page 258 as wearing the "National Defense Service Medal and the medal signifying service in the American Theatre of Operations" on his uniform tunic. They go on to state that, "There was virtually no combat action in the American Theatre of Operations." Pure faulty research and inattention to detail. The American Defense Medal was established by FDR September 1939 and was superseded by The American Campaign Medal in December 1941. It was authorized as a ribbon ONLY until a full size medal was struck in 1947. The National Defense Service Medal was established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. During the time frame of this novel General Dwight Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe SCAFE. The American Campaign Ribbon/Medal was all about combat action in the Americas, especially regarding submarine warfare. Tankers were torpedoed within sight of the beaches of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Likewise, German U-boats were engaged on the surface and under by U.S. anti-submarine forces. Saying that, "There was virtually no combat action in the American Theatre of Operations" debases the service of thousands of American merchant mariners, Coast Guardsmen, and Navy personnel who made the supreme sacrifice for their country in the "American Theatre of Operations." Disrespecting our veterans is NOT what W.E.B. Griffin is all about. This was a huge faux pas that I'm sure if he caught it would have been edited out by Mr. Griffin. The sinking of a raider German supply vessel with a German U-boat moored alongside depicted in the preceding book in the series certainly qualifies as combat action in the Americas albeit in the neutral country of Argentina. If you are going to be specific in your literary descriptions you need to get it right.

Although I did like the book, it did not rise to the high standards of the previous book in the series, and that's too bad. A good professional independent edit would, in my opinion bring the book back up to the standard we've all come to expect from W.E.B. Griffin. This book is loaded with rookie writer mistakes that a seasoned writer like W.E.B. Griffin shouldn't be making at this stage in his career.

Jim Gilliam
Author, Point Deception

"Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" -- Galatians 4:16

Who can you trust? That's the key issue captured by this book.

It's 1943 and the Germans are clearly going to lose the war. Some Germans want to eliminate Hitler, a goal that the OSS would like to aid. Others want to escape the Allies and re-establish Fascism in Argentina. Still others are looking to make money any way they can. Into that mix, young Cletus Frade finds himself as the key to leading history one way or the other. As the book opens, he's asked to help a German prisoner of war escape to become an advocate for peace. Life, death, and the fate of the world continually depend on his judgment, especially about who to confide in.

This novel has many impressive qualities that will make it memorable for anyone who reads it: fascinating insights into lots of famous people, fitting in historical events in a smooth way, clever descriptions of complex negotiations, poignant references to family and faith, good-hearted commitment to righting wrongs, fascinating references to technology, and villains you love to hate. The sheer number of characters and their interactions provide enough food for thought to keep you wondering about the brilliance of the authors for a long time.

Seeing World War II from the perspective of Argentina is a brilliant way to make the story stand out. That setting also makes the Americans and Germans seem different than they do in an "us" versus "them" story.

The book's main weakness is that having carried into the story so many characters and complexities, it's not simple or quick to resolve them. So the action moves a bit ponderously at times. But it's the kind of real-life slowness that often affects matters of great import, adding a note of further reality to the story.

There is an art to storytelling and both Butterworths are in good form here. True, there is some rehashing of older storylines but with these series style books there has to be, if only to bring others up to speed or to remind us all where we left off. With The Honor of Spies the Clete Frade story continues and while I know W.E.B. & Son will leave me hanging until the next book, I read on anyway.
The art of storytelling is the ability to get us to want to hang around to see what happens next and the Butterworths are good story tellers. We're hanging around.
Four stars for a good adventure story of WWII, Argentina, and a look at some great old cars.

I have read almost everything that Griffin has written - including all previous books in this series. I tried, really tried to get through this one and finally gave up a little over half way through. I just wasn't going anywhere. I'll probably give it another chance sometime in the future and probably get through it, especially if I can figure out where I stopped. It isn't bad, it just seems to not make any forward progress. A 24 year old - really doesn't have enough life's experiences to do what Cletus Frade is supposed to be doing physically or socially

This is truly a great yarn. However, and maybe its the co-writing of Butterworth and Griffin, I found myself being subjected to rehashing of the same story parts, often within a chapter of each other. Maybe it was just mediocre editing, or is Griffin now being paid by the pound? Or is that the military style of instruction, tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and review what you just told them. It just happened too often in this book.

Still it was a great story. I can't wait to read the next installment where I expect Peron(with his newfound wealth) will start taking over Argentina. Will Cletus Frade and his friends survive? Hmm, now Neidemeyer, haven't we heard that name in another Griffin novel?

This was my first "Griffin" book. It was awful. In paperback version it is over 700 pages, so takes a while to read, and results in a terrible waste of time. I look at some of the other reviews and find that I am not alone in my opinion. Many had read previous "Griffin" books and were disappointed with this one. Being my first, right out of the box, I would be inclined not to try another, but apparently the earlier works were much, much better. Maybe I'll give "Griffin" another chance.

I found the two books written in collaboration with WEB IV in the Men at War series to be so bad that I had decided not to buy any more Griffin books that he was a part of. But since I had read the other books in the Honor Bound series and enjoyed them I thought I would give it a go but I wasn't too hopeful. My impression was that Daddy had been trying to hand off a money making franchise to WEB IV who clearly did not have the story telling or writing skills of the old man. Well I'm glad to say that this volume was up to the standards of previous efforts in this series. I did not get the same sense that I did with The Saboteurs & The Double Agents and my perception is that WEB was much more involved. At least I really enjoyed this book. It is only a three because it is pretty light reading. On my own personal pleasure scale it would be closer to a four if you are into WEB. There are a lot of story lines left to be followed up in this series if WEB can keep up the pace and WEB IV stays out of it. Any chance of seeing more of "Killer" McCoy?