Customer Reviews

The Last Hero: Wild Bill Donovan.

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"Wild Bill" Donovan hails from Buffalo, N.Y.. In this extensive work of author Brown, we're provided his full story (as much as can be told, anyway) from WWII, Switzerland, the initial days at Rockefeller Center (and later, Langley), legal inception and structural formulation and dialogue with the president and military services to form the OSS, presently known as the CIA.

Exceptionally well-written (and just as exemplary, by the way, as author Brown does with Britain's analogue "C") and informative. Superb on WWII OSS operations in Europe. Author Brown explains much of what didn't already know, and fills-in wonderfully where we do.

Not short on pages, it captivates for just about every one of them.

What was the understanding then? That Hoover feared no one? You may disclose otherwise.

Good man, that Donovan. Good too, Brown, for work well done.

The author clearly is trying to write the definitive biography. However, he really seems to have no insights into Donovan himself. In order to fill the space of the book (over 800 pages), he loads it down with minutiae about OSS operations. For example, he quotes portions of memos that easily could have been summarized in a sentence or two, and dedicates entire chapters to minor incidents and personalities in WWII. The author also has a completely unengaging writing style. As a result, the book is dry and long. The subject matter is interesting, but the book is a long slog.