Customer Reviews

The Longest Night

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw this book in the local library and picked it up to read the inside jacket. Seemed interesting. Took it home and read it in two days. Couldn't put it down. Starts out a little slow, but picks up quickly. A great read.

If you like WWII thrillers with the good guys struggling to overcome long odds to defeat evil personified in the Third Reich, this is the book for you. I do agree with some earlier reviewers that the book takes a while to build up steam, but then it holds your interest, non-stop.
The endearing character of Mouse goes through a change of heart because of the responsibilies thrust upon him and the love that he finds along the way.
There's lots of action and suspense. Highly recommended.

I'm not finished reading this book yet, but I so far I think it's pretty good. The one thing that I absolutley love about this book, is that it has a little bit of everything. It has war descriptions, love, hate, betrayl, and ofcourse the Nazis in Europe. The people in this book are on a mission to let people around the world know that Jews were in mortal danger, and to show that they could be saved; but this is lost along the way in the first half of the book. It slowly goes into it, but that's fine because it makes up for it with the obstacles it provides for the characters. This book has so many different characters in it. It has gangsters, soldiers, engineers, police officers, jews that escaped from concentration camps, and other. I like how in the beginning of the book each person was on their own, but then everybody gradually come together. After reading this book, for awhile I started to think that the Mouse (the main character who is a hit man) is good, and that him killing all those people along the way was ok. The book does that to you because the characters in this book seem so real. I'm very eager to finish this book.

Gregg Keizer's first novel takes us back to the territory that Ken Follett, Greg Iles, and Jack Higgins used to explore so well in their earlier novels: Nazi-infested Europe. The Longest Night has no spies, just a guy nmaed Mouse, who is a Meyer Lansky employed hit man from Brooklyn, and who just happens to be Jewish. We follow Mouse on a mission to Europe in which he is charged with helping to liberate a train-load of Dutch Jews who are headed for concentration camps.

The writing is very good,especially the description of war-time Europe, and the story is well-told. The only thing holding me back from giving this 5 stars is that the pacing is slow to build up momentum, and this kind of book should be more tense.

I will read Keizer's next book, and hope he delivers on the promise shown here.

In 1943 American hit man, Leonard "Mouse" Weiss knows he is fortunate to still b alive as he botched up his last assignment by allowing a witness to survive. Brooklyn Jewish crime boss Meyer Lansky knows that Mouse has been a loyal employee for years, but must make an example to others that failure is unacceptable, but does not want to have his man killed yet he cannot have him hang around the town.

Instead, he decides to give Mouse a second chance when Danish Jews contact the mob boss for help. To make a case for world intervention, they need money and weapons to seize a train carrying Dutch Jews to certain deaths. Mouse will make the drop, but the New York thug, who considered absconding with the loot, finds he wants to help the resistance to the atrocities, but also lands in trouble in which failure means the deaths of not just him and the innocents are involved.

This terse historical thriller is similar to Jeffrey Deaver's Garden of the Beasts with its hitman hero but has its own delicious flavoring being seven years later and outside Germany. Mouse, a terrific antihero turning into the people's champion, mostly tells the tale so that the audience can see his emotions running the gamut including horror of the atrocities. He makes the action-packed story line with his stunned horrific look at the state sponsored terrorism that gripped Europe during WW II.

Harriet Klausner

This book is extremely disturbing. It is undeniably well written, with intricately plotted detail, interesting characters, and an amazing plot. But the problem is that it operates entirely in the realm of fantasy.



The book also seeks to glorify Meyer Lansky, a notorious leader of organized crime in America . See this book for an excellent portrayal of him: Meyer Lansky Mogul of the Mob.



The book seeks to turn back time and rewrite history by imagining that a Lansky-financed rescue operation of Jews in Nazi-occupied Holland might have succeeded. In this sense it is an exercise in utter futility.



The book also presents some disturbing ideas: that American Jewish Mafiosi are ethically superior to Israeli Jewish Zionists, since the former kill only business opponents while the latter kill innocent Arab women and children. It also suggests that with enough money a person can accomplish anything.



The book is infatuated with smoking and the gruesome details of murder. In the entire four week span of the plot not one character ever eats or drinks (but they do defecate; perhaps the author is anally fixated and never moved on to the oral stage?)



The book is very cold blooded. All the main characters, while they are acting out their violent rages, are fantasizing or daydreaming about their wives or lovers.



This book is part of a recent cultural phenomenon of Jews imagining "what if" they could have gone back in time and changed the outcome of the Holocaust. Such a genre of both books and now films is not only a waste of time but a dangerous distraction from the very real problems that we face right now, today, for instance the poisoning of our children with toxic vaccines, developed in many cases by Jewish scientists who instead of considering the immorality of their behavior are daydreaming and fantasizing about how they wish they could have gotten back at the Nazis. Even the Nazis themselves were enacting a revenge scenario from Germany 's prior national and economic humiliations.



So all people it would seem simply shadow box with their own ghosts from the past and claim innocent victims in their psychotic behavior of denial, projection, and wish fulfillment. And Jews are not the least of these perpetrators.

A first time author with an original premise. Mouse is a charactor who impresses. The author has a flair for the dialect of the different peosonalities involved. This is a must read that doesn't let the reader catch his breath.

The story begins with a unique and interesting premise, but it is squandered with a preposterous ending. The two main characters are well developed and endearing, but most of the supporting cast are caricatures. The story becomes increasingly less plausible as it approaches the climax, including a totally absurd sex scene (pun intended). A ridiculous ending is compounded by the invocation of deus ex machina to save the "hero." Greg Iles' Black Cross is a far better rendition of a "Saving Jews from the Holocost" story.

The hero of this story Mouse Weiss,a hit man for legendary
mafia leader Meyer Lansky,messes up a hit on a rival of Lansky's.
Lansky has to get him out of town so he cannot be identified.
Lansky is approached by a group of Dutch Jews to help them rescue Jews being shipped to concentration camps and their deaths.They want Lansky to provide muscle and cash to rescue a
train of Jews and call attention to their plight.Lansky volunteer
the services of Mouse Weiss and puts up $100,000 to finacne their
mission.Weiss joins forces with some incredible characters to
steal this train.One of the main characters that he meets is Reka
whom he falls for.Mouse originally intended to steal the $100,000
and flee.His plan is thwarted and he has to carry out his mission.He ends up showing character and bravery.This is a very good book that you will enjoy.