"On Desperate Ground" by James R. Benn is a WWII novel filled with richly drawn characters and intense battle scenes. The plot revolves around the American officer, Captain Matthew Mackenzie, who, alongside a German couple, must work together to escape the SS and thwart Colonel Faust's deadly plan. The book delves into the complexities of war, with characters like Elsa Klein, a social worker involved in saving Jews from Nazi death camps, adding depth to the narrative. As the story progresses, the author weaves historical facts and plausible hypotheses into a gripping tale of survival and sacrifice during a tumultuous time in history.
From The Publisher:
On Desperate Ground is the story of men and women caught up in the death throes of Nazi Germany, struggling to maintain those things precious to them-life, an end to killing, and even sanity itself. Colonel Johann Faust has lost everyone he ever loved and feels he is going inexorably insane. He hears the haunting voice of his dead fiancée and the demons that roar through his mind as he perfects a plan to save Nazi Germany from defeat and insure a greater and deadlier new world war. Captain Dieter Neukirk, once a protégé of Faust's, is more concerned with saving the lives of his remaining men than sacrificing them in a fanatical last stand. Meanwhile, Elsa Klein, Dieter's lover and the chief social worker at a Berlin hospital, is engaged in her own dangerous work, providing medical care and identity papers to hidden Jews in the city. American Captain Mack Mackenzie, pulled from a military hospital before his wounds are healed, is assigned to investigate reports of a secret Nazi operation. Wanting only to make it home alive, Mack finds himself in a life and death struggle with unlikely allies and a ferociously determined opponent. Americans and Germans alike are drawn to a hilltop in the remote German countryside, where they find themselves between powerful armies and forced into a terrible decision that could end one war or begin a new one.
When you click the Amazon link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commision, at no cost to you.
