The Boy From Berlin

by Michael Parker

Babs Mason is the perfect political wife. Accomplished, principled and fearless, she charms enemies while always staying several moves ahead. She'll do whatever it takes to help her charismatic senator husband become president of the United States and give every American a bright future.

Until a ruthless power broker opposing him mysteriously turns up dead. Until others in her husband's way go silent or disappear…and every victory raises disturbing questions about a horrifying past that has been buried far too long.

Now with a country's fate and an innocent life at stake, Babs's only chance to expose a dangerous deception is to put at risk more than she ever imagined—shattering everything she's ever held dear.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Brought up in London. Attended Sir Walter St. John's Grammar School for boys in Battersea until the family moved to Portsmouth in 1954. Continued education at Southern Grammar. Left school with no qualifications and started work as a Junior deigner at Twilfits (Corset/Brassiere manufacturer). Left after one year and joined the Merhcant Navy as a Steward. Two years later married Pat, my teenage sweetheart and went to work on a building site. Three months later I joined the RAF as an electrician. Left 16 years later on a redundancy package and worked in a food factory for a couple of years. Left and worked in the Middle East for a year. Then back to another food manufacturer (Mars) for 17 years until early retirement in 1996. Moved out to Spain with Pat in 1997. We have four sons, ten grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Sadly, my wife passed away with terminal cancer. We'd been married 60 years. Pat and I moved back to England in 2014.

I have written all my adult life with moderate success. My first novel, NORTH SLOPE was published by Macmillan in 1980. My second, SHADOW OF THE WOLF in 1984 by Robert Hale. My third, HELL'S GATE was published in 2007 by Robert Hale followed by THE EAGLE'S COVENANT (2007) and THE DEVIL'S TRINITY in 2008. This was followed by THE THIRD SECRET, in 2009 and then A COVERT WAR in 2010. THE BOY FROM BERLIN was released in December 2011, and has now been picked up by Harlequin who have purchased (leased) the paperback rights for North America and Canada. Harlequin have also released my thriller, THE EAGLE'S COVENANT in paperback. I have self-published WHERE THE WICKED DWELL, NO TIME TO DIE and A SONG IN THE NIGHT. I have also written and publsiehed three Cozy Romance novekls under the pen name of Emma Carney. I also have three non-fiction titles poublished.

Robert Hale published my novel, PAST IMPERFECT, in January 2015. This is an romance with a hard edged back story. It has now been published by The Wild Rose Press in America.

Reviews

[Hanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

What the f***. The story of this book is so immensely crappy, I got more and more aggressive with every page I read. So Eva Braun was secretely saved by Nazis and gave birth to Hitlers son somewhere in Switzerland, she died and the child was given to an American woman who had a stillborn child and was in a coma. So far so ridiculous. But it gets worse. Of course. Because the Nazis (who are still very active worldwide with a secret underground network called "Die Spinne") do everything to turn the child into a very influential adult who is then on his way to presidency. There's a lot more crazy things going on but I will stop spoilering now.

As for the writing: I didn't feel any sympathy towards any of the characters, even though Parker tried hard to make Ltd. Amos a nice character. They all just didn't feel real to me. And there was also a lot of repetition in the story and some factual errors that just cannot be ignored. The book plays in the 1990ies and one of the character travels to Europe where he changes his US dollars into British Pounds, Swiss Francs AND Euros. Well, the Euro was introduced as physical money in 2002 (and as accounting currency in 1999).

[Johanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written and badly edited - there is at least one paragraph that is repeated in its entirety within the first 100 pages! (describing the odessa / spider organisation) The basic plot is good but it feels clunky and I can't get beyond the appalling writing - poor dialogue and far too much tell with very little show! It is disappointing when a mainstream(ish) publisher (Hale) puts out a piece of work that would shame a self publishing author. The small consolation is that it was cheap and so I wasted very little money, that said however I'll not get that hour of my life back. In future I'll stick to my policy of avoiding cheap ebooks unless its a well known author (with a reputable back catalogue)!

[Guy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love stories that weave history, especially conspiracy theories, into a plot. This was creative and an uncomplicated romp. It would make a great film too. Cannot say too much about it or I would spoil the plot. Considering it was an Kindle daily deal it was terrific value

[Brooke · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not good. I decided to stay with the book just to see if the story was interesting, but it got worse as it went on. Poor writing and terrible characters, especially the female ones. All of the characters, plus the narrator, speak in a British English dialect, not U.S. American. On every page, there are examples such as “hire car,” “different to,” and “take the lift.” Completely jarring and inauthentic. And the book takes place in New Jersey, for Pete’s sake! If the author didn’t know any better, an editor should have caught it. Finally, the character of Amos’ daughter, Holly, seems really infantilized. She is supposed to be 8 years old, but the way people talk about her makes it sound like she is more like 4 or 5, with many “such a little girl”-type references. Not enjoyable or worth reading, that's for sure.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick interesting read. It centers around an ambitious man making a run for the White House. Many people are unaware of who he truly is and what his intentions are however. Those who threaten his advancement are quickly dealt with by his loyal followers.

The story is narrated by Babs, the wife of the man trying to become President, from a prison cell. As the reader you realize early on something dramatic has occurred but you have no idea what. Babs, telling a journalist the story of how she ended up in prison, takes you on the journey of what transpired while her husband was coming into power. Ties into Nazi Germany, the KKK, and the mob are all present. Not a bad read, especially during the current political turmoil taking place in the States.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book all at one time. This is quite intriguing as it is based on Hitler, America and remarkably plausible ideas. Steal the Presidency?? Great story line and a gifted author.

[Kevin Cartwright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Highly improbable conspiracy theory, easy read,

[Darla Stokes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love conspiracy stories--possibly because in real life, I don't believe a word of them, so I approach them the way I do other fantasy books. This wasn't the best of the lot, but it did hold my attention enough for me to read it in one day, so it gets an extra star for that.

The conspiracy itself was pretty far-fetched, but then most of them are. I mostly enjoyed bouncing between the different points of view and seeing the different threads come together, though there were a few times when the change wasn't clear and that made the story confusing.

And then there were the nit-picky things that just got on my nerves. The first one was describing a character as "a big, imposing giant of a man," and further describing him as 6'3" and 200 pounds. *sigh* I realize that's a nitpick, but 200 pounds on a 6'3" frame is not that big or imposing. The man is further described as having been a football player, so how difficult would it be to google an actual football player's physical statistics? Another size-related thing was describing a 12-year-old girl as having tiny hands. I spent way too much time visualizing a freakish-looking preteen with tiny hands at the end of normal arms.

The numerous Britishisms weren't that distracting, although there were a couple of terms that gave me pause, like a character parking his car in a vacant lot, which caused me to spend some time wondering why he left the parking lot he was in, until I realized the author meant a vacant parking space. On the other hand, the misconceptions about the American political system were a problem. A wild conspiracy is fine, but the consequences need to make sense to me.

And then, of course, there was the complete repetition of an entire paragraph, word for word, in two different chapters. It was so striking that I googled it to see if it had been copied & pasted from another source (it hadn't been).

[Jacque Roeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a combination of the unbelievable and the believable. That Mason was descended from Hitler is pretty unbelievable. But the way he goes about becoming President of the United States looks a lot like what our current president did and does. Packing the Supreme Court, buying Senators, Representatives, and judges, rewarding rich donors are all things the current President is doing right now. Unfortunately, we are not exposing him for the evil person he is, unlike what happens in the book.

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

The repeated paragraph is hard to believe in a published work and should have been sorted in a revision for this Kindle edition. There are several other errors and punctuation issues especially in the first part of the book.

I found the plotting poor and the pace forced or not explained. the characters were cardboard cutouts with virtually everyone leading double lives which they manage to achieve with no hint of other parts of the plot having a clue. I have the feeling this may have been an early work by the author resurrected as a release. There are glimpses of a clever story by stick to the The Odessa File for a real Nazi conspiracy

[Kerstinchen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This could have been a good book if it hadn't been written so badly. I liked the general idea but the author kept jumping between different story lines without connecting them properly. Sometimes he jumped so far ahead that I thought pieces were missing. I kept wondering if someone had done a bad job translating it or if the author's first language was not English. The wording was repetitive and the writing just felt off.

[Chele · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nazi conspiracies. Is there anything left to be said?

[Wilde Sky · Rating 2 out of 5]

A US presidential candidate's parentage means he is given substantial support but it also causes problems.

Good idea for a story but writing / editing / storyline wasn't very good.