Five Past Midnight [Hardcover]

James Thayer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 1997

April 4, 1945. President Roosevelt is briefed on the war in Europe: 28,000 men, women, and children are dying every day. A group of German staff officers is ready to assume leadership of the Third Reich and surrender instantly. The German SS is preparing a fortified retreat in the Bavarian Alps where Hitler may be able to carry on the war for years.... The president makes the obvious but difficult decision: assassinate Hitler. Immediately. Chosen by America's OSS for this critical and dangerous mission is Captain Jack Cray, an American Army commando with a terrifying combat reputation. He is known and feared across Germany for the stealth and success of his behind-the-lines attacks. Cray is currently a POW at Colditz Castle, a grim poison for hard-core escapees. A coded message orders him to break out of the castle. As Cray fights his solitary and deadly way to Berlin, he spreads a mass of terror and disinformation across Germany. Suspecting Cray's ultimate target, SS leader Heinrich Himmler assigns one man to track Cray down and kill him: Otto Dietrich, who was chief criminal Inspector with the Berlin Police until his arrest for treason. Dietrich is now facing death in a Gestapo prison. Himmler's offer: If Dietrich finds and kills Cray, Himmler will pardon Dietrich and spare him the executioner's blade. If Dietrich fails, the penalty is death. As Cray makes his way across the ravaged landscape of war-torn Germany, he meets a fascinating cast of characters, including Katrin von Tornitz, a beautiful widow who works for the Allies, and whose life is changed when she becomes Cray's reluctant partner in the attempt on the Fuhrer's life; Sergeant Ulrich Kahr, the one man who knows theAchilles' heel of hitler's underground bunker, and whose love for his family makes him vulnerable to Cray's demand; and Hitler himself, a desperate man who can still summon up ferocious willpower. As Cray moves closer and closer to his final confrontation in Hitler's Berlin bunker, and

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's remarkable that practicing lawyers such as Seattle's James Thayer find the time, not to mention the psychic energy, to write smashing, fact-packed thrillers like this top-drawer tale, in which a lone assassin is sent into Germany at the end of World War II by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to knock off Hitler. Unlike other "what if?" books such as The Day of the Jackal, where readers know from the start that the plot to kill de Gaulle didn't succeed, Five Past Midnight winds up in the ruins of Hitler's bunker, where the Nazi leader indeed met his end. Whether or not it was at the hands of American commando Jack Cray is up to readers to decide--and Thayer does his best to sway the jury in favor of his client. His last gripping thriller, White Star, is out in paperback.

From Booklist

Worn out though it be, the action hero bestriding a cartoonish world is a versatile stock character with regular appeal--provided the antagonist is suitably bad. Thayer picks the baddest of the bad--Adolf Hitler in Berlin, 1945. On the flimsy rumor that Hitler will continue the war from the Alps, special forces assassin Jack Cray is dispatched to stop him. Any cement head can kill, but to do so with Cray's disguises and efficiency--with knives! guns! bare hands!--shows he's a pro that no Gestapo thugs could possibly stop. Their efforts are short hurdles that Cray overcomes in ever more spectacular fashion. Locked up in a POW prison? Escape by faking death. Approaching a roadblock? Hide in a beef carcass. Need a German uniform? A sniper rifle? Fake documents? Cray steals, with the occasional help of a spy, everything he needs in a series of scrapes and escapes as he closes on Hitler's bunker, where Cray's SS ally awaits. A silly beach-time diversion with the noisy explosiveness that more people ask for by name--Thayer. Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (August 4, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068480025X
• ISBN-13: 978-0684800257
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,573,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I served as a physician in the British Army during the Boer War. Wait. Sorry. That was Arthur Conan Doyle. I was raised in Spokane, and went to school in Pullman and Chicago. My wife Patti, our two daughters, and I live in Seattle. I'm trying to learn to play the tenor saxophone, but Coleman Hawkins needn't be looking over his shoulder. I teach novel writing at the University of Washington extension school, and maintain a blog about fiction writing (www.novelpro.net), where I discuss writing techniques each day.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent WWII Thriller, April 13, 2001

By 

Amy Thurman (Shelbyville, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Five Past Midnight (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Five At Anytime, June 29, 2000

By 

Tim Smith - See all my reviews

This review is from: Five Past Midnight (Hardcover)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading if you love WWII spy thrillers!, November 11, 2000

By 

Robert C. Ricci - See all my reviews

This review is from: Five Past Midnight (Mass Market Paperback)

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.