The Silver Mosaic by Michael McMenamin & Patrick McMenamin (Spotlight, excerpt, review, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

The Silver Mosaic

by Michael McMenamin & Patrick McMenamin

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GENRE:   Historical Thriller

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BLURB:

March, 1933. The weak German economy is in peril. Winston Churchill wants to push it over the cliff with a boycott of German exports and take with it the new Nazi government whose brown-shirt SA thugs are terrorizing German Jews. He enlists Hearst journalist Mattie McGary, but the Nazis are determined to fight back. To oppose the boycott, they find unlikely allies in the Jews of Palestine and FDR.

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EXCERPT
 

Though Churchill had been out of government office since 1929 when his last post as Chancellor of the Exchequer ended, he maintained a network of intelligence sources throughout Europe, including Germany, who kept him as well informed on developments there as the British Prime Minister or Foreign Secretary. From them, he knew that in the last two months, Germany literally had become a gangster nation. The police made no effort to interfere with the SA, the ‘Brownshirts’ who served as the Nazi Party’s private army. Scores were settled with impunity. Robberies, rapes, beatings and murders were commonplace. Their victims were Communists, Social Democrats, Jews and anyone else who had ever offended the brown-shirted Storm Troopers of the SA.

           

The violence against the Jews and Hitler’s failure to rein it in were, in Churchill’s opinion, his first two big mistakes.

Now, Churchill was planning to make Hitler pay. The Jews were key. In the short term, with a little luck, what Churchill knew to be a very weak German economy could collapse and with it the entire odious Nazi regime. If not, then in the long term, Germany’s ability to re-arm and wage war would be dramatically weakened.

           

Churchill may have been out of power and out of influence, but he was not out of ideas. He had a multi-faceted plan for dealing with Hitler and the threat to the peace of Europe he posed. He hoped that the first, but not the last, step would be taken in a few moments.

Amazon link

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Michael McMenamin and Patrick McMenamin are the co-authors of the award winning 1930s era “Winston Churchill Thriller” series. The first four novels in the series—The DeValera Deception, The Parsifal Pursuit, The Gemini Agenda and The Berghof Betrayal—received a total of 14 literary awards. The Silver Mosaic is their fifth Winston Churchill Thriller and they are currently at work on their sixth, The Liebold Protocol. Both Michael and Patrick have travelled extensively in Europe, South America, Central America and Asia while Patrick has also travelled in the Middle East and Africa.

Michael is the author of the critically acclaimed Becoming Winston Churchill, The Untold Story of Young Winston and His American Mentor [Hardcover, Greenwood 2007; Paperback, Enigma 2009] and co-author of Milking the Public, Political Scandals of the Dairy Lobby from LBJ to Jimmy Carter [Nelson Hall, 1980]. He is an editorial board member of Finest Hour, the quarterly journal of the Churchill Centre and Museum in London and a contributing editor for the libertarian magazine Reason. His work has also appeared in The Churchills in Ireland, 1660-1965, Corrections and Controversies [Irish Academic Press, 2012] as well as two Reason anthologies, Free Minds & Free Markets, Twenty Five Years of Reason [Pacific Research Institute, 1993] and Choice, the Best of Reason [BenBella Books, 2004]. He was formerly a first amendment and media defense lawyer and a U.S. Army counter-intelligence agent.

Patrick, the other half of the father-son writing team, is an award-winning journalist who has produced stories for ABC News, Fox News and HuffPost. He is a Phi Beta Kappa cum laude graduate of the University of Rochester with Departmental Honors in both 20th Century European History and Film Studies.

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GIVEAWAY


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The tour dates can be found here


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My review

4 stars

The Silver Mosaic by Michael McMenamin and Patrick McMenamin is a historical suspense story that is part of the ‘Winston Churchill 1930s Thriller’ series. An unlikely assortment of people work together to thwart German persecution of Jews during the maneuverings that predate World War II. A vicious cat-and-mouse game that transpires across multiple countries and leaves carnage in its wake reflects the machinations and countermeasures taken by groups that have diametrically opposing goals, and leads to alliances that are contradictory but pragmatic.

History has never been my strong point, so I won’t attempt to evaluate the accuracy of many of the events chronicled in this story as it is a piece of fiction. I am sure a few liberties have been taken with certain events (especially since one of the main characters is fictitious, lol), even as the multitudinous footnotes and the authors’ notes at the end of the book refer to extensive research that provides the framework for this imaginative tale.

I admit I was initially reluctant to read this story once I discovered it was fairly long, is told in third person omniscient—thereby causing the action to constantly skip from person to person and country to country—and the focus was a horrific time in history. Amazingly enough, I was drawn into the tale as the authors brought to life multiple historical figures and created a narrative that is filled with anecdotes and interesting asides even as the race to stay alive and combat the underhanded and atrocious torture and murders is vividly depicted. Please be warned that there is considerable graphic violence described (including a propensity for mutilation and torture), as well as sexual harassment and nonconsensual sex. This is an action-packed and intriguing look at the world stage and maneuverings leading to WWII that will likely be enjoyed by those who like suspenseful political stories (and have strong stomachs!).

A copy of this title was provided to me for review