The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth a Book Review by Endre Barath, Jr. a Beverly Hills Realtor
The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth a Book Review by Endre Barath, Jr. a Beverly Hills Realtor
As my regulars know, I ceased being a member of a real estate social media group a fairly short while ago which has opened up my time to getting back to my passion of reading books at night vs. social media blogging. It is truly refreshing and I realize how much I have missed my reading world. Ironically, I am at the point where I am reading books faster than I write book reviews. Needless to say, I have been catching up on books that I had for decades, books that have literally been collecting dust! As I attempt to catch up on reviews, I am already another book review behind.
The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth
With all that said, this was the second book published by Frederick Forsyth. For those of you who are not familiar with Frederick Forsyth’s background, he used to be a Reuters Investigative reporter, and this novel is very much the result of his investigations albeit fictionalized to protect the people with whom he came in contact and shared their experiences. His first book, The Day of the Jackal, you should find the movie and if you missed my review, check it out.
Peter Miller, a freelance journalist and main character in The Odess File, receives a packet with a diary of someone who survived a Nazi Concentration Camp and committed suicide. Miller discovers that one of the Concentration Camp Commandants, better known as “The Butcher of Riga”, is out and about working on a bomb manufacturing goal with the Egyptians to rain bombs on Israel. Keep in mind, this book was written in 1971 and published in 1972; the novel covers the early 1960’s. Having lived in Austria from 1964-1967, I recognized some of the names and can confirm that the book is a very factual historical novel. There are contacts with Simon Wiesenthal, the world renown Nazi hunter, referenced in the book. In another interesting part of the novel, Miller gets questioned “why a German non-Jewish reporter” would be going after the Nazi criminals who were mostly Germans. This again was very factual; the Germans wanted to put Nazi History behind them in the 1960’s, not bringing up old wounds for all to relive. Not to give any spoilers, be sure to read all the way to the end. One of the reasons I love Frederick Forsyth’s style of writing is that he saves the biggest thrill for the end.
On a side note, in 1974 there was a movie made based on the book with John Voit and Maximilian Schell starring. While I did not see the movie, nevertheless, I am confident you would enjoy the movie as well knowing the stars and what the plot is all about.
This book is a page turner, not only enjoyable, but it has inspired me to continue reading more of this genre. If you have not read this book, you must put it on your to-be-read (TBR) list. I’ll close this review by saying I am so glad I read this book.
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