The Odessa File - Frederick Forsyth

I confess i am a great fan of Frederick Forsyth, and Odessa File is one of his best written novels among a long list of bestsellers..Frederick Forsythe has an impressive list of novels to his credit "The Day of the Jackal ' was his first full length novel and an international best seller, which was also made into a very successful film with Edward Fox playing the lead.. Odessa File was his second novel and it was equally successful. The Odessa File is set in West Germany in 1963, a period where many Germans were trying to forget the violent past, but, pursuit of former SS members; particularly those involved in the Holocaust; was still active.But ...  Read the complete review

From the moment the diary of a broken and desolate concentration camp survivor falls onto the hands of a reporter Peter Miller, the reader is pulled into a world of crazed Nazi revanchists, vengeful Mossad infiltrators, obstructionist German bureaucrats and a browbeaten printer who has become far too clever for his own personal welfare. Miller, a highly successful reporter, is warned off, ambushed and almost killed, but he manages eventually, thanks to the assistance of Simon Wiesenthal, to find his way into the heart of a Nazi organisation known as the Odessa. The six initial letters of Odessa in German stand for "Organisation Der Ehemaligen SS Angehoren ...  Read the complete review

Forsyth will keep you up into the night until you finish this - a classy thriller which is extrememly difficult to put down! The basic premise is that when, during World War II, it became obvious to the Nazi SS, that they were going to be on the losing side they organised a group to help them to safety and to start up new lives using stolen Nazi gold. Subsequently they would change identities and return to Germany if possible. This organisation is the 'Odessa' of the title. An old Jew who had witnessed the horrors perpertrated by the SS in the Riga ghetto commits suicide leaving his war years diary. The diary is stumbled on by a young German ...  Read the complete review