Deal With The Devil, Part One by J. Gunnar Grey

Title: Deal With The Devil, Part One
Author: J. Gunnar Grey
Publisher: Astraea Press
Published Date: May 3rd, 2011
Source: Received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Wehrmacht Major Faust has a dangerous secret: he likes England. But it's May 1940 and his Panzers are blasting the British Army off Dunkirk's beach, so he keeps his mouth shut even though it hurts. When the Waffen SS try to murder their English prisoners of war, Faust helps the POWs escape. Now it's treason, with his neck on the line.
 
Then a friend gets him drunk, straps him into a parachute, and throws him out over Oxford during a bombing run. He's quickly caught. Because he helped type the battle plan for the invasion of England, Faust cannot allow himself to be broken in interrogation. Two German armies depend on it. But every time he escapes, someone rapes and murders a woman and the English are looking for someone to hang. He's risking disaster if he stays, someone else's life if he runs, and execution by the Gestapo if he makes it home.
 
Major Stoner, professor turned British intelligence officer, sees three possibilities. Faust perhaps was joyriding in that bomber, as he claims. Or he's on a reconnaissance mission for the German invasion. Or he's a spy. Stoner must break Faust to learn the truth, no matter how it strains his old heart. He must save England, and his granddaughter.
 
Their battlefield is confined to a desktop. Only one of them can win. Someone must break. Someone must make a Deal with the Devil."

My Two Cents:

If I could categorize this book, I'd call it part chase story and part psychological study. The Brits are constantly chasing Faust through this book. He's an enigma. He's a Nazi but doesn't seem all that dangerous. He's accused of possibly murdering Stoner's granddaughter but on the other hand seems more than willing to protect his captors.

The premise is definitely interesting. With one of the main characters being a Nazi in WWII England and you know you have a riveting story. It's interesting that Faust had such a love for England. The story goes into a little bit about what draws him to England but I'd like to know a little bit more about how he came to be in the German Army. Was it a sense of duty to country? Was it self-preservation? Because Faust helped British POWs escape, he can't go back to his home country. Because he's a Nazi, he's not welcome in England. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place truly.


Stoner is also another interesting character. He's seen a lot and is walking the line between sense of duty as a intel officer and trying to get revenge for or at least figure out who caused his granddaughter's death. It's almost as if he can sense some good in Faust and truly wants to figure him out before condemning him to punishment.


It did take me a little while to get into this book admittedly but once I got into it, I was way into it and flew through the pages. This is not the usual historical fiction that I would normally read but it was a great book to bring on the plane with me; definitely a good thriller that will keep you reading. This book keeps you reading and the ending adds new meaning to the term cliffhanger (luckily I have part two queued up for reading soon).

 My Review:
4 out of 5 stars