The Counterfeit Candidate (The Reich Trilogy Book 1)

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Q. If you could work on any other TV show you wanted, past or present, in any genre, what would it be, and why?

Like the best thrillers, much of the novel is fast-moving, not dwelling too long on characters or set-up but, instead, focusing on pumping up the tension and delivering on the action. The Führer's Prophecy is, though, first and foremost intended as entertainment, and it doesn’t disappoint. The two men were inside Hitler’s vast pine-panelled study listening to the broadcast. Bormann was sitting in a brown leather armchair close to the radio, while the Führer paced the room spouting profanities every time his fellow Nazi threw him another nugget of information.

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And let's not mention the dialogues, which are trite, unbelievable and more often than not feels like they came straight from a day-time drama. Klein’s Hitler is a means to an end in the book: Martin Bormann, who accompanies Hitler on his fictitious escape, is portrayed as much more evil, but there is a strange absence of antisemitism from his Nazi characters, particularly in the modern sections when they are more likely to have encountered Jews on an equal footing. Thriller author Brian Klein has a host of celebrity fans including former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who is seen here with him at the launch event for the first novel in The Reich Trilogy, The Counterfeit Candidate. It was an intriguing real-life detail which Klein promptly lifted for his book, together with other aspects such as the installation of air-conditioning for the tunnellers and the amount of earth which needed to be shifted. The timing of the real-life robbery was perfect for Klein’s time-line, too.

He clearly knows, then, how to make something that is accessible, entertaining, and unmissable, with more hooks on display than you’d find at a fishing tournament. This chilling speech, given at the Reichstag in January 1939, would soon come to be labelled ‘The Führer’s Prophecy’. Despite the sixty-seven-year interval and a span of thirteen thousand miles, these events are indelibly linked. Some of the changes of points of view would have been solved if the publisher had added breaks between paragraphs.

From Top Gear to a thriller

The Führer makes an infamous speech at the Reichstag in Berlin, threatening “The annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”. The vile public proclamation is seized upon by his fanatical supporters who christen it “The Führer’s Prophecy”.

Cruise’s PR girl turned pale. There was a helicopter on standby waiting to take Cruise and Diaz to the première. “You can’t be late!” But Cruise, an obsessive Top Gear fan who tuned in in California with his friend Matt Damon, got his way and drove again in the dry — becoming, of course, top of the leader board. As Vargas and his trusted ally, Lieutenant Troy Hembury of the Los Angeles Police Department, get ever-nearer the earth-shattering truth, they head into greater and greater peril. As three men in Argentina dig a tunnel at precisely on Monday 24th May 2011 they start drilling a tunnel that three men, continued every weekday night and weekend for eight months. It's well told, pacy, good dialogue. The ending leaves us with the intriguing possibility of sequels.

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There seem to be occasional factual errors: suggestion that Treblinka was opened in late 30s, when it wasn't started until 1942 (although, is the character lying?). Wasn't Hitler vegetarian? (maybe that's a myth). Q. You write in the thriller genre, which is one of the rare types of fiction that appeals to women as much as men. Why do you think this genre is so popular with readers? A superb thriller where Mossad and the Taliban come head to head, The Führer’s Prophecy builds upon its prequel and, with a jaw-dropping finale, sets us up for a third and final entry in what is now called ‘The Reich Trilogy’. What course would have history taken if rather than ending their lives in a Berlin bunker at the close of World War Two, Adolf Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, had instead escaped?

I also loved the way the story develops, leading us across the globe, and how it shows us many different perspectives, from those of the cold-blooded killers to the casualties in waiting. And this should surprise no-one familiar with the ebullient Klein, the award-winning director, for 25 seasons, of the car programme of car programmes, Top Gear. He admits, however, that the attraction for him lies not under the bonnet but in the way the cars look — he loves the aesthetic of a sleek vehicle. It took the three men a whole eight months until the tunnel was completed. They were smart lighting up the tunnel standing inside the giant vault. Senator John Franklin, hailed as the ‘Great Unifier’, secures the Republican Presidential nomination and seems destined for the Oval Office. Despite the sixty-seven year interval and a span of thirteen thousand miles, these events are indelibly linked.The conspiracy theory has run amok in the age of the internet where anyone with a laptop and access to Photoshop can deep fake news, make things seem real which really couldn't be, and, the reverse is true, the more outlandish the theory,the less likely it is to require substantiation. The Counterfeit Candidate also explores the dark truth of power, greed and corruption, and how the secrets of the past always eventually surface.