19 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A blast from the past! A blueprint for the future!, April 7, 2007
This review is from: Spandau Mystery (Paperback)
Peter Moon, author of Sky Books' newest book, Spandau Mystery, has written what I would definitely call a 'must read' for all history buffs and conspiracy theorists as past and present collide in this engaging perspective that completely blows our perceived notions of history right out of the water!
Connecting ancient history with today's current affairs, Moon covers a lot of territory within 360 pages, giving the reader a fascinating panoramic view of the enigma surrounding the death of Spandau Prison's most infamous resident - Rudolph Hess.
Spanning a wide landscape of significant events from the fall of Atlantis to the reunification of Germany, Moon logically weaves together a dynamic plot line that includes high profile figures (ie. Patton, Eisenhower, Churchill, Hitler) as well as significant, yet obscured individuals - Ian Fleming, Noble Drew Ali and Aleister Crowley, to name a few.
Be prepared to go non-stop with this page turner as you are drawn further down the proverbial rabbit hole right to the very end. If you liked the "Da Vinci Code," you'll love this book for sure!
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2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Writing it as pure fiction lets you say most anything, December 11, 2008
This review is from: Spandau Mystery (Paperback)
Peter Moon's Spandau Mystery weaves together the story of Rudolph Hess - the Deputy Fuehrer of the Third Reich, whose life ended in Berlin's Spandau Prison after being sentenced at the first Nuremburg Trials in 1945/1946 - with a number of legends and myths related to the occult, the death of George S. Patton and the machinations of the so-called New World Order.
The book is the first acknowledged work of fiction by the author who, in the Forward, makes an aside that some might disagree with the statement and then goes on the frame the work as a more convenient way to tell a story that is hard to prove. If you are at all familiar with the output of Sky Books and its coterie of authors including Moon (a non de plume for Vince Barbarick, owner of Sky Books), Preston Nichols, Stewart Swedlow and Alexandra Bruce (all of which may be AKAs, for all I know), you quickly come to the conclusion that either the content is even less factual than is found in previous works or a there was a risk of litigation because a number of the individuals mentioned are either alive or have family members that are. It may also simply be the case that the very admission that it is fiction allowed the author to play `fast and loose' with facts.
That includes - and I place this here as forewarning - a holocaust denial, along with some rather virulent anti-semitic comments.
It also suffers from the usual spelling and syntax errors that are part and parcel of low overhead publishing. Factual problems exist also and while the author tries to write these off as poetic license, they still tend to ruin the flow. Mr. Moon: The US Seventh Army didn't fight the Germans in Africa...it was the US II Corps, commanded by Patton after the Battle of Kasserine Pass. Also it's Afrika Korps; not Afrika Corp. It was Hans Kammeler;l not Hans Kammler or Hanz Kammler.
And, there is quite a story here, or perhaps stories are a better term. Hess was arguably the second most powerful man in the Third Reich prior to May 1941 when he flew to the UK in an apparent effort to facilitate a cease-fire with Germany. Upon his arrival, he was imprisoned and kept that way until the end of the war. At that time, he was moved to Nuremburg for trial with the other major Nazi leaders after which he was committed to Spandau Prison for the rest of his life. From his capture until his trial both Germany and the UK claimed he was insane, albeit sane enough to try for war crimes and there were rumors there was a significant "peace party" in the UK that had encouraged his mission which collapsed when something went amiss with his aircraft and he fell into the hands of supporters of Churchill, who, it is implies, wanted to continue the war.
Nor did the rumors stop there. Questions have been raised as to how Hess died (suicide or murder) and whether the man tried at Nuremburg and kept in Spandau was Hess or a double. These issues drive to a series of why questions such as "Why would anyone agree to imprisonment for 50-odd years?" "Why did the Brits feel a double was needed?" "What really caused Hess to fly to the UK and what really happened thereafter?"
That's just the start of it, however, as the author weaves - using a stream-of-consciousness writing style while alternating chapters between the various characters - virtually every myth/legend/theory ever addressed by the Sky Books family of authors as well as many of those addressed by Farrell and Stevens over at Adventures Unlimited publishing. So complete and so expansive is this coverage that I was left wondering if Mr. Moon had set out to develop a unified conspiracy theory in much the same way Einstein sought a unified field theory for physics. (I finally decided this could not be the case as Einstein's theories are totally opposite the torsion dynamics theories that power - excuse the pun - all of these alternative approaches.) And in the end, these stories - and their eventual intersection - are played out on a stage where the backdrop is the occult influences along with all the usual Sky Books topics of time travel, mysticism, the Montauk Project, the assassination of General Patton; various and sundry Nazi science and occult projects; etc., etc., etc. By this point, the questions of what happened to Hess and why have been subordinated deeply to another theory entirely; one that proposes the Moors were the original people of the world and that their descendents - who include George Washington(!) - have had their legacy stolen by a British-led cabal that are responsible for - as I understood what was being written - most of the world's ills. By this time, Hess - seemingly the center-piece of the story at its onset - has been relegated to obscurity similar to that he experienced within the walls of Spandau Prison.
As more plot exposition serves no purpose, let me close by adding that a final saving grace is that - perhaps because it is written with so much less regard for truth and accuracy - there is none of the condescension that can mar these books. But, be prepared to be amused, angered and appalled by what you read.
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