David Wickenden's favorite books about Nazis and the fear and threat they posed in the past and today

From well-documented facts that the US government hid escaping Nazis after the war, comes a brutal story. This book has it all. Buried Nazi treasure, political wheeling and dealing, revenge, greed, and ruthless killers. Joe Johnson has been hunting war criminals for years after a stint in the CIA. When a story is leaked that Nazi treasure might finance the contender of the U.S. Republican party, Johnson is hired to ferret out the truth. But people don’t like having him poking into matters better left in the past. Can these types of people ever change or do they continue to hurt the weak for their own gains? From the United States to Argentina and England to Poland, this story just doesn’t stop until the last bullet is fired.

This is one of my all-time thrillers. It’s a cautionary tale that reminds us that not all of the Nazis were caught after the war and their need for power would never disappear.

The story follows Dr. Paul Osborne, who has been haunted from the day he was ten years old and watched a stranger kill his father. Now, years later, in Paris, he sees the same man. This starts the frantic race through Europe to find out why his father was killed and who ordered it done, while killers and the police dodge his every move, Osborne doesn’t know who can be trusted. The action doesn’t stop until the horrifying last page.

Another cautionary story. This story shows that the Nazi movement is growing worldwide and that governments need to keep these organizations under wraps before allowing them to carry out their own agendas. 

When a mistake causes an international incident during a US Presidential visit to Norway, Detective Harry Hole is placed out of sight in the Federal Police Department, until matters settle. Unable to sit still, Harry investigates a neo-Nazi group and comes across someone practicing with an exotic rifle that would only be used to assassinate someone. Now he must identify both the target and the killer.

Kristin Hannah is a favorite author of mine. She takes world events and brings them down to the human side of the story. With massive elements swirling around the story, it is real humans that must try to cope with the horror of war.

The Nightingale is the tale of two French sisters set against the Second World War. One sister only wants to survive and keep her child safe and tried to cooperate with the Nazi invaders. The other sister joins the underground resistance, determined that fighting the enemy will shorten the war.

This story hit home because it is set within my own community, so it could have really happened. We never know who our neighbors are and what they do behind closed doors.

Dead Air portrays radio morning host, Lee Garrett, who comes to work one morning to find a death threat taped to his radio console. At first, he thinks it’s a joke, but one accident after another convinces him that someone is really out to kill him. Can it be a member of the local neo-Nazi group, the Skins, a jealous radio personality for his or another station, or has he inadvertently insulted someone online? He must figure it out before they strike again.