Customer Reviews

Five Past Midnight (Chivers Sound Library)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Five Past Midnight is an extremely suspenseful and dramatic fictional story about the Nazi powerhouse in World War II. The author, James Thayer, draws a captivating picture of what might have happened had Adolf Hitler's assassination attempt been successful. The American assassin, Jack Cray, escapes a POW camp and takes the reader on a journey of clever sniper tactics and cold- blooded killing, and he will not stop until he completes his mission. Cray gets aid from a few important characters along the way. Katrina von Tornitz is a young and widowed spy for the allies, adding a perfect dose of romantic spin to the tale. Otto Dietrich is brought back into the world after being imprisoned by the Gestapo to track down the well-known and feared American killer, adding suspense to the story. Thayer makes the characters very real. I could almost hear their voices while reading. The way he described Hitler through the characters emotions and thoughts was remarkable. The bunker scene, where Hitler was residing toward the end of the book, was particularly amazing. I recommend the book to any one with a taste for suspense, and those who enjoy history or war related topics.

An excellent, thrilling and believable story set toward the end of WWII in Berlin. Commando Jack Cray is assigned by Pres. Roosevelt to bring an end to the war with Germany by assassinating Adolf Hitler. The SS and Gestapo learn of the plot and free Otto Dietrich, an inventive police detective to find Cray and kill him before he can complete his mission. Cray is a likeable hero with an extremely high pain threshold. He befriends Katrina von Tornitz, a spy working for the allies, who helps him. The dialogue between them is realistic and entertaining.

This story held my interest throughout. The realism is unforgetable, especially war-torn Berlin, the memorable characters Cray meets, and the dogged pursuit of Dietrich, who finds himself in a life altering position in the end.

This story is very well done! The best advertisement for an author's books is the quality of the one you've just completed. In James Thayer's case Pursuit and White Star are on my "to read" list.

Jack Cray, the American assassin sent deep into Germany during the The Third Reich's final days, is the focus point of this gripping WWII thriller. There is romance, and action, and suspense abounding. Though several of the plot twists can be forseen by regular readers of this genre, it does not make the story any less fascinating in the telling. If you liked Daniel Silva's The Unlikely Spy or John Lee's The Ninth Man, you will enjoy this exciting tale of an indomitable American's spy mission to infiltrate the German high command. This page-turner is peopled with just the right mix of sinister Nazis who are always just a breath away from capturing the good guys who are working to save the free world. It was also interesting to read the unsettling descriptions of German civilan life during the closing days of the war, to see how the Nazi's war machine had so adversely affected the average German's life in so many ways. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys WWII spy thrillers. A good one.

A great read, my first Thayer suspense novel, but not my last. I was impressed with Thayer's ability to develop so many tightly written characters capable of drawing the reader into their lives and into the action. Not a wasted word in this crisp WWII Nazi thriller. The dialogue was tight, the characters well developed and the "hero", Jack Cray while relentless and ruthless is also honorable and noble--not an easy task to wrap into one character and still make him believable. Thayer did an excellent job! Put this on your "to read" list.

This book never got slow or lost my interest. It reminded me of Ken Follet's THE KEY TO REBECCA. I finished this book late on night and even had a dream about the characters - they were so real! You must read this book if you enjoyed books such as THE EAGLE HAS LANDED, etc.

This book is exciting, gripping, suspenseful - and fun. I've read it over and over, and shared it with my friends. It's a thriller in every sense. Thayer really knows his material, and is one of those rare authors who is truly gifted at his work. This will always be one of my favorites.

The assignment to go assasinate Hitler in his own underground bunker is not your typical orders except for a super commando who is pitted against a German commando whose assignment is to stop our man who has been sent by Franklin Roosevelt. The description of the anguish and futlility of the German civilians in Berlin during the constant bombing is very vivid and conveyed to this reader some of the misery that was being experienced. This requires good wordsmithing. The plot held my attention and I thought that for a cold blooded murderer, Captain Jack Cray displayed a unique sense of humor that should have been contrary to the imagine that was trying to be portrayed. I found this very refreshing in lieu of the seriousness of his predicament. This was a good read.

I like reading WWII fiction and this book is about as good as it gets. This is not an overly complicated or complex book written on multiple levels, and telling many stories; the writing style is very direct and the plot is reasonably straight-forward.....but none of that matters with this book. The story was GREAT, the tension perfect, the scenes were so cleverly put together, the characters sympathetic, the action intense...everything was perfect about this book, especially if you are looking for an intelligent action adventure in a World War II setting.

In fact, I know what I really liked about this book. The protagonist, Jack Cray, was smart!! Too many adventure books feature chiseled heroes with their caricature, beautiful, romantic love interests being chased by armies of evil bad guys and narrowly escaping forty-seven times with their lives, sheerly through blind luck and the incompetence of their foes. I hate that. James Thayer doesn't insult you with that pap. His hero is tasked with escaping an escape-proof POW camp, crossing war-torn Germany, evading a huge man-hunt that is focused on nailing him, and making his way into Hitler's bunker to assassinate him under the eyes of his guards. A ridiculously impossible task. Yet the guy does it and the amazing thing is my intelligence was never once insulted! He never "lucked out", he simply out-thought, out-maneouvered, and just plain beat the enemy. It's an amazing story and just too much fun. At the beginning of every sequence you simply cannot figure out how the guy can possibly accomplish what he has to do....yet at the end he has done it and you are stunned because it could have been done that way! I hate books when the characters are dumber than rocks and luckier than lottery winners...this is that rarest of books where the characters are smarter than you. A. C. Doyle did it with Sherlock Holmes, but you don't expect that kind of intelligence in a WWII action adventure starring a lone American commando. This guy could eat Rambo for breakfast yet he is never unbelievable. Incredibly tough yes, incredibly smart yes, ruthless when necessary, but never unbelievable. This is just a brilliant book and my hat is off to James Thayer for one of the most enjoyable and intelligent reads I've experienced this year.

Colin Lindsey

Although this book seems to be the opposite of PURSUIT, as one reviewer described in a previous note, it is superior and completely enjoyable- all the way through. The hero, Jack Cray, is likeable, where the villain in Pursuit was obviously not. Mr. Thayer did indeed do an excellent job of creating the opposing assasination theme, with even more ingenious attacks, disguises and interactions. The 'humerous' interactions with the civilians and regular military personnel were fabulous- THIS BOOK IS A KEEPER, and a RE-READER, and in that way, similar to PURSUIT, which I re-read every few years! Highly recommend, for first time Thayer readers, and even more so for those who've read PURSUIT.

This book was recommended to me, or I doubt I'd have given it a second glance. I got burnt out on Nazi based "thrillers" years ago. I happily report having enjoyed every single page of this unexpectedly entertaining thrill-ride. It was fast paced throughout, smartly written, plausibly plotted, and despite other reviews giving far too much away, not at all predictable. This was my first James Thayer novel, and I'm writing this immediately before going on a heated search for more. Fear not, your reading dollars are well invested here.