Empire and Honor (Honor Bound Series #7)

by W. E. B. Griffin, William E. Butterworth IV

Overview

October 1945. The war is over. The OSS has been disbanded. But for Cletus Frade and his colleagues in the OSS, the fight goes on…

In the closing months of the war, the U.S. made a secret deal with Reinhard Gehlen, head of German intelligence’s Soviet section. In exchange for a treasure trove of intelligence on the Soviets and their spies within the U.S. atomic bomb program, Gehlen’s people would be spirited to safety in Argentina.

Only a handful of people know about the deal. If word got out, all hell would break loose—and the U.S. would lose some of the most valuable intelligence sources they possess. It is up to Frade and company to keep them safe.

But some people have other ideas....

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399160660
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/31/2012
Series:	W.E.B. Griffin's Honor Bound Series , #7
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	9.36(w) x 6.24(h) x 1.62(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

W.E.B. Griffin is the author of six bestselling series: The Corps, Brotherhood of War, Badge of Honor, Men at War, Honor Bound, and Presidential Agent. He has been invested into the orders of St. George of the U.S. Armor Association and St. Michael of the Army Aviation Association of America, and is a life member of the U.S. Special Operations Association; Gaston-Lee Post 5660, Veterans of Foreign Wars; the American Legion, China Post #1 in Exile; the Police Chiefs Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and the State of Delaware; the National Rifle Association; the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Society; and the Flat Earth Society (Pensacola, Florida, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, chapters). He is an honorary life member of the U.S. Army Otter-Caribou Association, the U.S. Army Special Forces Association, the U.S. Marine Raider Association, and the USMC Combat Correspondents Association. Griffin lives in Alabama and Argentina.

William E. Butterworth IV has been an editor and writer for more than twenty-five years, and has worked closely with his father for almost a decade on the editing and writing of the Griffin books. He is coauthor of the bestselling novels The Saboteurs, The Double Agents, Death and Honor, The Traffickers, The Honor of Spies, The Vigilantes, The Outlaws, Victory and Honor, and Covert Warriors. He is a member of the Sons of the American Legion, China Post #1 in Exile; the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Society; and a life member of the National Rifle Association and the Texas Rifle Association. He lives in Texas.

Hometown:

Coppell, Texas

Date of Birth:

November 10, 1929

Place of Birth:

Newark, New Jersey

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The poet laureate of the American military.”—Los Angeles Daily News

“A storyteller in the grand tradition.”—Tom Clancy

“The pages fly by as the authors mix action and intrigue with a fascinating look at Juan Perón and the Argentina of 1945.”—Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

Bestseller Griffin’s seventh Honor Bound book, co-written with son Butterworth like the previous entry, 2011’s Victory and Honor, continues the series’ tradition of bringing espionage’s shadow wars to vivid life. Though WWII is over, the pressure on OSS Lt. Col. Cletus Frade is not, due to Operation Phoenix, a long-festering Nazi contingency plan against wartime defeat that aims to establish South American bases from which to launch the Reich’s resurrection. U.S. intelligence becomes concerned that U-boats are bringing weapons-grade uranium to conspirators waiting in Argentina to carry on Hitler’s legacy. Frade launches a covert op, which Truman “could not have ordered” (to preserve plausible deniability), to prevent the makings of a nuclear weapon from reaching the wrong hands. The pages fly by as the authors mix action and intrigue with a fascinating look at Juan Perón and the Argentina of 1945. Agent: Robert Youdelman. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

The seventh in Griffin's (Victory and Honor, 2011, etc.) Honor Bound series offers more of USMC Maj. Cletus Frade's escapades. Here, Griffin's all-stuff-military-and–intrigue battleground is Argentina. The time is immediately post–World War II, with Juan Perón and Evita double-dealing and Nazis on the side. The good-guy movers and shakers believe the USSR is the next enemy, and remnants of the disbanded OSS (soon to be CIA) want to hide the high command of Abwehr Ost, the Wehrmacht's anti-communist intelligence group, in Argentina far away from the Soviets. The U.S. rocket program needed von Braun; the spooks needed Abwehr Ost. Argentina is the chosen hideaway, which is complicated by the fact that Argentina is also the lair of Operation Phoenix, a plan by Nazi SS-types dead set on reincarnating fascism. Frade's late biological father was a rich Argentine colonel, and so Frade's unofficially charged with rooting out bad Germans and securing good Germans. This book maintains Griffin's standard narrative trick of employing heroes with stupendous wealth, airplanes and secure hideaways readily available. Frade also happens to be Perón's godson, but Frade dislikes Tio Juan, which muddies dealings with the Argentine government, mainly Gen. Bernardo Martín, chief of the Bureau of Internal Security. Some Argentines want to assassinate Perón, but many don't, in spite of Perón being corrupt and overly ambitious, since Perón's death might spark a civil war. The primary narrative thread involves locating U-234, a submarine that ferried scheming SS-types intent on persevering with fascism's failures. U-234 also hauled a half-ton of uranium oxide the SS bad guys want to sell to the USSR to finance Operation Phoenix. Although heavily reliant on exposition, the book provides sufficient back story and works as a stand-alone read. Nothing beats a cinder-block–sized adventure novel on a winter weekend.

Kirkus Reviews

The poet laureate of the American military.”—Los Angeles Daily News

“A storyteller in the grand tradition.”—Tom Clancy

“The pages fly by as the authors mix action and intrigue with a fascinating look at Juan Perón and the Argentina of 1945.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher