Customer Reviews

The Second Objective

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Frost had written one of my favorite books (The List of Seven) - when he came back to fiction, I was elated. The Second Objective deals with events at WWII around the Battle of the Bulge, and the last ditch effort of the Germans to sabotage the Allies and gain the upper hand by infiltrating German soldiers disguised as American GI's. This German effort apparently was based on fact. It did not work, but is scary because it really could have been pulled off, with devastating results. The Germans had a second objective, zeroing in on an American that could have really made a dent in the war, and our history.
I found it was a great read and told a story that kept you guessing, and you cared about the characters, and what happened to them.
Frost hasn't lost his touch. His writing remains exact, clear and spins a great and satisfying story.
Think you will like his style too.

The first half of this book was five star WWII material all the way. Frost has a knack for writing easy-breezy prose and in building up sympathetic characters. The story starts off just prior to the outbreak of the battle of the bulge where Hitler makes a winter-time counter offensive. We follow Bernie, a kid from Brooklyn who's parents moved back to Germany during the Great Depression. Now Bernie is in the German army and because he can speak English fluently, he is drafted into a top-secret mission.

The story follows Bernie's training and how he becomes partnered with Erich Von Reinsdorf, the son of a former diplomat and a psycho killer. The odd thing is that Erich starts off as a decent character, gets squished into a very two-dimensional parody of a serial killer and then is weakly fleshed out again towards the end, but by then it is too late to make us care about him again. Frost adds a third character, an American MP chasing the two across Europe.

I just want to put out there that the crescendo of this book for myself, and where I found a definitive high water mark, was just about half way through. Bernie sneaks back to an early rendezvous point and an altercation occurs in the basement there. If Frost had had the balls to either end it here or continue on with a series of disjointed observations, his writing could have stood up as classic. Instead from this point onwards, it is pretty much Frost wrapping up all the loose ends.

This book has an excellent plot summarized above by other reviewers so I won't go into detail here. There is one character who is too much of a stereotype of a new York City detective and his lines can be irritating because of this. Also, the main bad guy's systematic killing of virtually everyone he runs into is almost comical. If someone once said "I never met a man I didn't like", this guy could have said "I never met a person I didn't kill" Also, although I know there is a lot of action going on, it's hard to follow how Mr. Bad Guy comes up with every tool he needs at the exact moment: wire cutters, syringes, attache cases. For a guy who's on the run and traveling lightly, he seems to have an amzing ability to accomplish this. Perhaps Mary Poppins was a Nazi sympathizer.

It still an interesting read, and it does motivate me to investigate further the Battle of the Bulge and other historical events included in the novel. However, I suspect there are more solid WWII suspense tales out there.

Bernie Oster was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City. His parents were German immigrants and decided to return to the homeland when Bernie was a teenager. Bernie is an American through and through, but when he's inducted into the German army, he has no choice but to serve. When he is forced to teach German soldiers to speak and think like Americans so they can pretend to be Americans, so they can kill Americans, Bernie tries to find a way to BE an American, and hopefully to come out of the war alive.



Earl Grannit is with the newly formed CID (Criminal Investigation Division) of the American army. He discovers GI's killed at a checkpoint, he soon finds that the blood letting has just begun. When a German dressed as an American reveals the Second Objective the chase is on.



Ever wonder what made the Nazis tick? What would you do in Bernie's place? Find out.



Mark Frost keeps the history factual, embellishing the historic possibilities to make the reader realize that even if the second objective isn't actual, it could have been. Scary thought, good book.



Reviewed by Wanda C. Keesey

The WWII thriller is my favorite genre and the plot of The Second Objective seemed like it would be right up my alley; i.e., a special group of twenty German commandos who face almost certain death to achieve a "second objective" during a last ditch effort to defeat the western allies in late 1944. However, Mark Frost's unbelievable, one-dimensional main characters, coupled with the unrealistic, flawless American-style English dialogue they speak and their ability to have at their fingertips minute details of specific aspects of American life, took away the pleasure I was hoping to get from reading this book. Further, while the book has its share of murders, Frost describes them in a pretty actionless and unexciting manner. Obviously, I was highly disappointed in The Second Objective and do not recommend it to you.

Interesting premise and a good historical story. I bought Frost's book after the Los Angeles Times (May 22, 2007)gushed all over a local film industry figure. The Times review said, Frost's first objective was to write a "page turner". Frost has a prominent Hollywood resume. And unfortunately it is the screenwriter in him that we are treated to. Not a literary thinker.

This is not a book for those who read World War II fiction to smell cordite or feel the terrifying ground shake of advancing artillery. Nor is it for those who read fiction to observe and vicariously experience interesting character portraits.

Rather this is a Hollywood screen play. And even if (when?) this script is made into a film, it will not be an epic. It's been so long since a writer like Herman Woulk or a Joseph Heller or even a Tom Clancy has entertained us with rich engaging military fiction that almost anything on the subject is gobbled up by the public. I did.

Frost has had much success writing for the screen. But the Second Objective is mediocre in my opinion.

mike whatley
altadena, ca

The book on CD of Mark Frost's latest novel "The Second Objective" is very well done. The reader is quite competent, and does a good job with the various characters. Of course, the cd version can only be as good or bad as the book on which it is based. I was a BIG fan of Frost's two previous novels, which featured Arthur Conan Doyle in "Sherlock Holmes" pastiches. They were a great mixture of adventure, mystery, and the occult. I was a litle disappointed that for this book Frost decided to go to World War 2 and Otto Skorzeny's plans to assassinate Gen. Eisenhower. The field has been done MANY times. That being said, Frost does a very good job, creating a well paced adventure with some very good characters. Plus, any book that has Otto Skorzeny--even as a supporting character--is OK with me.

This is an excellent novel for the WWII enthusiast based on an actual Nazi mission during the Battle of the Bulge. I found his description of the confusion of war extremely realistic, especially since it also takes into account the US retreat from the Bulge. I was intrigued by the use of english speaking soldiers, and the difficulty for those who were not from the United States. It always amazed me that we would use sign-countersigns based on cultural knowledge that many times even americans could not answer (the state capitals for instance). I also am aware that many US citizens deserted, were traitors, and were criminals even during the Greatest Generation. I was not to thrilled with the ending for obvious reasons.

An enjoyable and worthwhile adventure set in the heart of WWII in France. The real gem in this book is the main German officer, Erich Von Leinsdorf. Von Leinsdorf is amorally kin to Col. Hans Landa - the character played so chillingly by Christoph Waltz in "Inglorious Basterds." The corps of "patriots" operating behind enemy lines is also reminiscent of that recent movie. The plot, however, is completely distinct and original.

The story focuses on a cast of German military characters who have been asked to infiltrate the Allied ranks to carry out a secret mission. Apparently based upon real-life events called "Operation Grief," the well-staged plot reads like an old-fashioned adventure movie, with danger and tension created by the ever-present risk of discovery and the interplay between the main characters. Frost ably weaves his narrative through numerous scrapes, near-misses, and allusions to historical fact which all serve to make this a good read that would probably translate well to the silver or small screen.

This was an extremely disappointing read. The plot... disguised, English speaking, German commandos infiltrating American lines during the Battle of the Bulge had potential...but when reading this genre, I expect the author to get the history right. This book is filled with annoying errors of fact, WW2 militry organization, and the type of accurate period detail that made it impossilble to "travel in time" to the final days of 1944 when so much hung in balance. The book simply ends and fast forwards ten years, leaving the reader to wonder how some of the protagonnists managed to end up where they ended up .

Jack Higgens in his early WW2 fiction, Fredrick Forsythe in his early work, and Gerald Seymour in all of his work "get it right" creating interesting believable characters and a gripping plot line with attention to detail. Mr. Frost did not. Not recommended.