“Voices Under Berlin” is a wry and deadpan account of a very particular place at a very particular time – Berlin under allied occupation in the mid 1950s, when the Cold War was coming up to a steady, simmering boil – and the city was divided into four different sectors; American, British, French and Russian. The Berlin Wall had not been built, large chunks of Berlin was still in ruins from WWII, American GIs were technically forbidden to fraternize with German women,and the various intelligence More...

From my blog...

Voices Under Berlin takes the reader inside the 9539th T.C.U. during the early days of the Cold War. The reader is exposed to both sides of the Cold War in a manner I personally thought interrupted the flow of the narrative. In Voices Under Berlin, Hill does a good job describing what it is like for the recruits who arrive into the 9539th, especially the three main characters from the 9539th: Kevin, who is a Monterey Mary graduate, proficient in several languages and a More...

Voices Under Berlin: The Tale of a Monterey Mary takes place during the Cold War back in the 50’s. At that time not only was there a war going on but there was also another operation in effect. It involved a tunnel operation manned by the CIA. This operation was known as the Berlin Tunnel operation. While the Berlin Tunnel operation was not the first, it was the most famous of the many tunnel operations.

The whole story centers on the men in the tunnels but in particularly three men. More...

You know a work of fiction is good when it is difficult to tell if the story is fact or fiction. Thus we have Hill’s boo, “Voices Under Berlin”. The lines are very blurred between fact and fiction in this book. The reason? The story is based on actual events with a few embellished events and people. Some of the military speak was difficult for me and I often wished my father, a military man, was still alive to explain part of it to me. My father was stationed in Berlin in the Army. Hill’s More...

Voices Under Berlin by T. H. E. Hill promises to be: "[a:] story... told with a pace and a black humor reminiscent of that used by Joseph Heller (Catch-22) and Richard Hooker (M*A*S*H*). " It is set in the early 1950s in Berlin in the days before the Wall and during the time that the city was still divided up between France, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. With that setting in mind I was also reminded of I Was a Male War Bride (1949).

Like M*A*S*H* and Catch More...

I won this book from First Reads. Initially, I was skeptical about whether or not I would like it. The book is interesting, but a somewhat boring at times.

The writing reminds me of an old man telling a story, and sometimes it is difficult to relate. I found the history interesting, and it gives a new insight into what was going on during the cold war. One thing I disliked was the glossary of military terms at the beginning--it sounded like the author didn't think the average reader More...

Did Not Finish

I really loved the idea of this book, it sounded great and it won five book awards. But after the first few chapters, I felt like I still didn't know what was going on and I didn't know who the characters were. I love spy books! They are my absolute favorite… but I didn't feel compelled to read this one. And I have come to realize that if I have to force myself to read something, why read it?

The writing was pretty good, and it had some funny lines, but it wa More...

This was a pretty good read, I truly enjoyed it. It was filled with lots of pranks that the characters did, which made it funny. I thought it was going to be a bit dry, but it ended up sucking me in. Great read!

A new and interesting way to look at the Cold War.