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House of Ghosts
House of Ghosts is a gripping mystery that takes readers through some of the most shrouded history of the twentieth century. In August 1944, Allied forces launched a top-secret aerial assault on the I. G. Farben oil and rubber plant, the flight plan taking bombers directly over the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp five miles away. Considering the known threat to the Jewish population, why did Allies bypass Hitler s most notorious extermination camp without once trying to knock out the gas chambers or railways? At the estate sale of the late Preston Swedge, an alcoholic recluse and World War II veteran, a diary including details of that 1944 aerial assault is found by retired detective Joe Henderson, which includes descriptions of a rogue attempt by a Jewish-American pilot, Paul Rothstein, to drop bombs on Auschwitz. What follows is Henderson s determined search for the truth about the failed attempt to save 300,000 Jews.
309 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2008
1 person is currently reading
328 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Kaplan
25 books7 followersLawrence Kaplan is a 1979 graduate of New York University School of Dentistry, runs a dental practice in New Jersey, and lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with his wife and menagerie. House of Ghosts is his first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 5, 2009
When was the last time you read a piece of fiction with a truly original and unusual plot?
We've got vampires everywhere, whodunits where we all know from page 1 who did it (and we couldn't care less), international espionage, ghost stories, political thrillers and apocalyptic gloom-and-doom tales. To tell you the truth, the New York Times best-seller list contains no surprises and no new names -- and probably nothing I really want to read unless it shows up in my local library or in a used book sale.
Kaplan's novel is what I'd call a speculative historical novel. Speculative" fiction, per se, usually refers to a book dealing with a futuristic scenario. In House of Ghosts, however, the author offers us an intriguing "What if?" in regard to past events -- namely, at the time of WWII. And what he asks is, "What if the Allies had attempted to disable the Nazi death camps in their bombing missions over Europe?" Would it have even been possible? How would such a scheme come about? Who would carry it out? And might it -- just maybe -- have been successful and saved thousands and thousands of lives?
House of Ghosts, however, is about much more than that. Its cultural context is complex and engaging. The author captures a time, a place, an era, a zeitgeist. Its characters are Americans, from disparate social classes and ethnic backgrounds, who perceive the global war of the 1940s and their relationship to it in startlingly different ways.
The reader slips effortlessly into their daily lives and experiences a piece of history personally -- from a tough Jewish kid from Brooklyn using his dubious underworld connections to do good on an international level...to an Ivy League preppie who finds himself caught up in intrigues whose consequences he's not prepared to deal with...to a disillusioned, broken-down NJ detective who, decades later, unexpectedly becomes heir to explosive information about a noble humanitarian plot that failed.
Kaplan has a keen understanding of human nature as well as of the period of 20th century American history he is focusing on. House of Ghosts is one of the most uniquely conceptualized, fascinating novels published in recent memory and well worth your reading time.
We've got vampires everywhere, whodunits where we all know from page 1 who did it (and we couldn't care less), international espionage, ghost stories, political thrillers and apocalyptic gloom-and-doom tales. To tell you the truth, the New York Times best-seller list contains no surprises and no new names -- and probably nothing I really want to read unless it shows up in my local library or in a used book sale.
Kaplan's novel is what I'd call a speculative historical novel. Speculative" fiction, per se, usually refers to a book dealing with a futuristic scenario. In House of Ghosts, however, the author offers us an intriguing "What if?" in regard to past events -- namely, at the time of WWII. And what he asks is, "What if the Allies had attempted to disable the Nazi death camps in their bombing missions over Europe?" Would it have even been possible? How would such a scheme come about? Who would carry it out? And might it -- just maybe -- have been successful and saved thousands and thousands of lives?
House of Ghosts, however, is about much more than that. Its cultural context is complex and engaging. The author captures a time, a place, an era, a zeitgeist. Its characters are Americans, from disparate social classes and ethnic backgrounds, who perceive the global war of the 1940s and their relationship to it in startlingly different ways.
The reader slips effortlessly into their daily lives and experiences a piece of history personally -- from a tough Jewish kid from Brooklyn using his dubious underworld connections to do good on an international level...to an Ivy League preppie who finds himself caught up in intrigues whose consequences he's not prepared to deal with...to a disillusioned, broken-down NJ detective who, decades later, unexpectedly becomes heir to explosive information about a noble humanitarian plot that failed.
Kaplan has a keen understanding of human nature as well as of the period of 20th century American history he is focusing on. House of Ghosts is one of the most uniquely conceptualized, fascinating novels published in recent memory and well worth your reading time.
July 15, 2010
I came by this book in an strange manner - an ad on Facebook, of all places. The premise interested me because I had a friend (who died in 2005)who was a bombardier during World War II, and he told me of his frustration at not being able to bomb Auschwitz, which was only a short distance away from his primary targets. He said to me that he was forbidden even to suggest it. One wonders why ... or perhaps not.
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Unreadable. The opening chapter showed promise, but it was downhill thereafter. Kaplan's characters are flatter than yesterday's pancake. A promising plot turned into what amounts to a hackneyed stereotypes. Actually, however, it looks like something someone would put together to pitch to Hollywood.
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Unreadable. The opening chapter showed promise, but it was downhill thereafter. Kaplan's characters are flatter than yesterday's pancake. A promising plot turned into what amounts to a hackneyed stereotypes. Actually, however, it looks like something someone would put together to pitch to Hollywood.
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
June 20, 2013
Joe Henderson hasn't had such a good time of it lately. Due to a bullet to the knee, the Detective has had to retire earlier than he anticipated. His wife left him, and now spends his days with his booze and nicotine. When the house across the street one afternoon is surrounded by police, Joe gets off his butt, using his golf club as a cane, and ambles across the street. The man who lived there for forty years was no friend of his or the neighborhood, so its no loss to Joe that the man is dead. But Joe wants to know why Preston Swedge was the way he was, and his death scene doesn't look right.
When the Swedge house and its contents go up for auction, Joe is lucky enough to get the papers and a few diaries from the basement. As he looks through them one afternoon, he is stunned. The diaries belong to a Jewish-American pilot named Paul Rothstein. Paul was supposed to have dropped his bomb on the gas complex in Auschwitz, but for some reason not explained he doesn't and three hundred thousand people are killed.
Joe doesn't understand why Preston would have these diaries for one, and another, he wants to know why Paul didn't drop those bombs. He starts investigating, and his path leads him back to the past where politics play with human lives, and also, for himself, back to living.
HOUSE OF GHOSTS is a remarkable read. Characters full of personality and a mystery full of twists and turns had me turning the pages late into the night. Kaplan spins a wonderful web from the past to the present that is sometimes confusing, yet leads authenticity to the story. I hope to see more of Joe Henderson in future novels. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
When the Swedge house and its contents go up for auction, Joe is lucky enough to get the papers and a few diaries from the basement. As he looks through them one afternoon, he is stunned. The diaries belong to a Jewish-American pilot named Paul Rothstein. Paul was supposed to have dropped his bomb on the gas complex in Auschwitz, but for some reason not explained he doesn't and three hundred thousand people are killed.
Joe doesn't understand why Preston would have these diaries for one, and another, he wants to know why Paul didn't drop those bombs. He starts investigating, and his path leads him back to the past where politics play with human lives, and also, for himself, back to living.
HOUSE OF GHOSTS is a remarkable read. Characters full of personality and a mystery full of twists and turns had me turning the pages late into the night. Kaplan spins a wonderful web from the past to the present that is sometimes confusing, yet leads authenticity to the story. I hope to see more of Joe Henderson in future novels. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
August 31, 2010
In House of Ghosts author Lawrence Kaplan introduces a new detective series. Ex-cop Joe Henderson is still suffers excruciating pain after a bullet shattered his leg in the line of duty. Like all police officers who fire their gun, Joe is forced to visit a psychiatrist in order to collect his disability. With his career in tatters, Joe turns to drink and pain pills, forcing his wife to leave him.
On an August day in 2000, Joe’s neighbor across the street, Preston Swedge, is found dead. Joe gets nosey and wanders over to see his old colleagues. Joe snoops around, but when retrieves some old government documents from Swedge’s estate sale, the detective in him comes back to life. The papers lead Joe to look for, and find, some hidden diaries that do not belong to Swedge. The name Paul Rothstein and a 1944 aerial map showing an Allied bombing mission that comes within five miles of Auschwitz. Joe wonders why if the Allies were so close, knew about what was happening at the camp, why was nothing done?
As Joe sits down to read hoping to find some answers, the story jumps back to 1938 and the rise of Hitler and Facism. The diaries are not written as diary entries but tell the tale of Paul, his gangster brother Jack, a young Swedge, and a host of other characters fighting Semitism during WWII.
Joe describes the book best on his website: “Booze, Broads, and a Jew named Rothstein.” The first in a planned series.
On an August day in 2000, Joe’s neighbor across the street, Preston Swedge, is found dead. Joe gets nosey and wanders over to see his old colleagues. Joe snoops around, but when retrieves some old government documents from Swedge’s estate sale, the detective in him comes back to life. The papers lead Joe to look for, and find, some hidden diaries that do not belong to Swedge. The name Paul Rothstein and a 1944 aerial map showing an Allied bombing mission that comes within five miles of Auschwitz. Joe wonders why if the Allies were so close, knew about what was happening at the camp, why was nothing done?
As Joe sits down to read hoping to find some answers, the story jumps back to 1938 and the rise of Hitler and Facism. The diaries are not written as diary entries but tell the tale of Paul, his gangster brother Jack, a young Swedge, and a host of other characters fighting Semitism during WWII.
Joe describes the book best on his website: “Booze, Broads, and a Jew named Rothstein.” The first in a planned series.
December 12, 2016
2,5 stars actually. At times I found the book brilliant and felt an urge to read on and on, but at other times I found it hard work. So much detail, not always that interesting. As the subject had my attention I managed to finish the book.
April 26, 2010
Terrible- boring. I was excited to read this book to find out more about what was going on in the US during WWII but this couldn't keep my attention
December 1, 2015
A slow-moving mystery that jumps around in time quite a bit.
September 15, 2015
Unreadably incoherent.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews