Review: THE SCORPION'S NEST by Nate Granzow
Nate Granzow makes a very strong debut with THE SCORPION'S NEST. The novel tells the story of a group of young German-Americans who were mistreated and discriminated against during the Second World War, and out of anger, elect to assist the Nazis in a sleeper cell operation designed to bring the United States to its knees. The mission fails, and only one of the boys survives, thinking that the horrors of Operation: SCORPION NEST are to remained buried in the past.
Fast forward sixty years. Scott Kretschmer, an Air Force veteran and down-on-his-luck mechanic, is caught up in a bank robbery. During the robbery, he meets a woman named Melanie, who seems like another bystander caught up in the events at first. She rapidly develops into far more than what meets the eye, and ensnares Kretschmer in a desperate attempt to halt a madman from digging up the past to forward his doomsday agenda. They race from California, to Las Vegas, to Arizona, and finally end up in Austria, dodging bullets from mercenaries every step of the way and never knowing who they can trust.
In terms of sheer readability, Granzow delivers in spades. I had only intended to read a page here or a page there, and rapidly found myself engulfed in the plot, spending more and more time in racing towards the plot's conclusion. The scenes alternating between the present day and the full unveiling of the events behind Operation: SCORPION NEST have a good dynamic between them, and he unveils the plot just fast enough to keep the reader going, but just slow enough to make them crave more.
As far as characters go, Scott Kretschmer is an everyman that survives on sheer determination, which conjures memories of John McClane and many of the pulp action heroes of the 1950s. Melanie is the classic well-intentioned femme fatale, a woman whose beauty is matched by her intellect and lethality. These characters give the book a feel of one part spy thriller and one part hardboiled detective novel, and the scenes revolving around the young Karl Lassen and the plot revolving around the failed Nazi operation add one part historical thriller, which all meshes into a very effective combination.
On the downside--the side plot with Detective Sander could have been further expanded upon, but it seemed as if once the plot went international, he was all but forgotten until the very end. There were minor grammatical errors throughout, but nothing that an editor couldn't fix. Also, I felt that the ending could have been drawn out a little more, but the epilogue was written nicely. None of the aforementioned flaws should discourage readers from picking up this eBook.
All in all, Granzow is an author that knows his craft, and given the strength of his debut work, I can only predict that future installments will further establish his obvious credibility in the trade.
You can purchase The Scorpion's Nest for the Amazon Kindle here.
Fast forward sixty years. Scott Kretschmer, an Air Force veteran and down-on-his-luck mechanic, is caught up in a bank robbery. During the robbery, he meets a woman named Melanie, who seems like another bystander caught up in the events at first. She rapidly develops into far more than what meets the eye, and ensnares Kretschmer in a desperate attempt to halt a madman from digging up the past to forward his doomsday agenda. They race from California, to Las Vegas, to Arizona, and finally end up in Austria, dodging bullets from mercenaries every step of the way and never knowing who they can trust.
In terms of sheer readability, Granzow delivers in spades. I had only intended to read a page here or a page there, and rapidly found myself engulfed in the plot, spending more and more time in racing towards the plot's conclusion. The scenes alternating between the present day and the full unveiling of the events behind Operation: SCORPION NEST have a good dynamic between them, and he unveils the plot just fast enough to keep the reader going, but just slow enough to make them crave more.
As far as characters go, Scott Kretschmer is an everyman that survives on sheer determination, which conjures memories of John McClane and many of the pulp action heroes of the 1950s. Melanie is the classic well-intentioned femme fatale, a woman whose beauty is matched by her intellect and lethality. These characters give the book a feel of one part spy thriller and one part hardboiled detective novel, and the scenes revolving around the young Karl Lassen and the plot revolving around the failed Nazi operation add one part historical thriller, which all meshes into a very effective combination.
On the downside--the side plot with Detective Sander could have been further expanded upon, but it seemed as if once the plot went international, he was all but forgotten until the very end. There were minor grammatical errors throughout, but nothing that an editor couldn't fix. Also, I felt that the ending could have been drawn out a little more, but the epilogue was written nicely. None of the aforementioned flaws should discourage readers from picking up this eBook.
All in all, Granzow is an author that knows his craft, and given the strength of his debut work, I can only predict that future installments will further establish his obvious credibility in the trade.
You can purchase The Scorpion's Nest for the Amazon Kindle here.
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