Here are 100 books that Spies of the Balkans fans have personally recommended if you like
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World War II has always been my passion. As a baby boomer, I grew up with two brothers and four uncles who told me their stories of the war and answered the questions of my inquisitive mind. A love of war history led me to study history at university, but those studies also made me want to look at the history from non-American perspectives. My research into those points of view led me to travel to all theaters of the war, Axis as well as Allies. I encountered fascinating stories from diverse veterans or the memoirs they wrote. In the process, I encountered one story that I decided to write in my novel.
I loved the intermingling of history and story, research and plot, in this book. The period details were spot on, and I’ve always been fascinated by the Nazi rocketry program. The underlay of how a great scientific idea can be perverted to unintended consequences was intriguing and frightfully realistic for modern times.
The counterplay between the V2 engineer and the British spy trying to stop V2 launches fascinated me. I loved the conflicted morality of the engineer who wanted to shoot the rocket to the moon instead of at people.
Rudi Graf used to dream of sending a rocket to the moon. Instead, he has helped to create the world's most sophisticated weapon: the V2 ballistic missile, capable of delivering a one-ton warhead at three times the speed of sound.
In a desperate gamble to avoid defeat in the winter of 1944, Hitler orders ten thousand to be built. Graf is tasked with firing these lethal 'vengeance weapons' at London.
Kay Caton-Walsh is an officer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force who joins a unit of WAAFs…
Journey to an unnamed mountainous country in central Europe at the end of the Great War. Enter Citizen Orlov, a simple fishmonger and an honest, upright citizen, who answers a phone call meant for a secret agent and stumbles into a hidden…
World War II has always been my passion. As a baby boomer, I grew up with two brothers and four uncles who told me their stories of the war and answered the questions of my inquisitive mind. A love of war history led me to study history at university, but those studies also made me want to look at the history from non-American perspectives. My research into those points of view led me to travel to all theaters of the war, Axis as well as Allies. I encountered fascinating stories from diverse veterans or the memoirs they wrote. In the process, I encountered one story that I decided to write in my novel.
I loved the character of Harald Olufsen, an 18-year-old reluctant spy. The characters' interactions, a blend of cooperation and conflict, created a narrative of brinksmanship that thrilled me. The author's use of suspense in an adventure story held me spellbound.
Among countless war stories, this small one provided a fresh perspective that I found engrossing. Follett is an acknowledged master of historical fiction, but this book is my favorite of all his works.
Ken Follett and the intrigue of World War II-"a winning formula" (Entertainment Weekly) if ever there was one. With his riveting prose and unerring instinct for suspense, the #1 New York Times bestselling author takes to the skies over Europe during the early days of the war in a most extraordinary novel. . . .
It is June 1941, and the war is not going well for England. Somehow, the Germans are anticipating the RAF's flight paths and shooting down British bombers with impunity. Meanwhile, across the North Sea, eighteen-year-old Harald Olufsen takes a shortcut on the German-occupied Danish island…
World War II has always been my passion. As a baby boomer, I grew up with two brothers and four uncles who told me their stories of the war and answered the questions of my inquisitive mind. A love of war history led me to study history at university, but those studies also made me want to look at the history from non-American perspectives. My research into those points of view led me to travel to all theaters of the war, Axis as well as Allies. I encountered fascinating stories from diverse veterans or the memoirs they wrote. In the process, I encountered one story that I decided to write in my novel.
I found the main character, a German policeman, enlightening as he must work for the monsters of the Third Reich while struggling to keep his own honor and self-esteem intact. I enjoyed how Kerr depicted a character battling a multitude of internal voices and a deluge of confusing and misleading information.
The book is generally considered crime fiction; however, I found it to be more psychological suspense. The nested narrative of a story-within-a-story also held my interest.
'One of the greatest anti-heroes ever written' LEE CHILD
Berlin, March 1943. The mood in Germany is bleak after their stunning defeat at Stalingrad. Private Investigator Bernie Gunther is at work in the German War Crimes Bureau - weary, cynical but well aware of the value of truth in a world where that's now a rarity.
When human remains are found deep in the Katyn Forest, Bernie is sent to investigate. Rumour has it that this mass grave is full of Polish officers murdered by the Russians. For Josef Goebbels, proof of Russian involvement is sure to destroy the Western…
World War II has always been my passion. As a baby boomer, I grew up with two brothers and four uncles who told me their stories of the war and answered the questions of my inquisitive mind. A love of war history led me to study history at university, but those studies also made me want to look at the history from non-American perspectives. My research into those points of view led me to travel to all theaters of the war, Axis as well as Allies. I encountered fascinating stories from diverse veterans or the memoirs they wrote. In the process, I encountered one story that I decided to write in my novel.
I struggled to grasp life, culture, and thinking in Nazi Germany until I read this book. It helps average Americans, like me, understand the appeal of the Hitler Youth, the Holocaust's acceptance in Germany, and Hitler's messianic allure.
This 16-year-old German's memoir was compelling, engrossing, and a useful reference for me. Because it challenges the conventional American view of World War II, the book will be difficult to find.
Victory of the Allies was no longer in doubt. Russian forces had reached Berlin. Yet, Hitler ordered his troops to keep on fighting. Among the last who defended his headquarters, an underground bunker in the Reich Chancellery garden, were boy soldiers, 13 to 17 years old, members of the Hitler Youth Volkssturm (home defence force). The dictator had reached the point where he wanted the earth scorched. Facing total defeat, he now was willing to sacrifice everything and everybody, including the German people, even the youngest. Lehmann was a witness to what happened in the Fuehrerbunker. He was the runner…
My passion for the Battle of Crete flows from my traveler’s experiences of this most beautiful of Mediterranean islands and its people. The Second World War is just one episode in a history that stretches back millennia, yet to this day, it remains ever-present in the minds of Cretans. The landscape, too, still bears the scars of war. Every visitor to Crete has the opportunity to uncover the multiple layers of a rich past. To dig down to the horrors of the twentieth century with its brutal war and occupation does not take long, and it is enormously rewarding. In few places are past and present so closely intertwined.
I know the value of visiting the sites of battle, even decades or centuries after the event. A sense of topography and space acquired in situ can provide insights in ways that pages, maps, and screens cannot. Yannis Prekatsounakis is a native of Heraklion. His book is infused with his own intimate sense of the place where a crucial part of the Battle of Crete raged.
Prekatsounakis, for good reason, laments that the works of many historians on the Battle of Crete lack Greek perspectives. While he delivers them in abundance here, he weaves them with narratives and accounts of German and Allied participants as well. I love the abundance of maps and photographs that complement the author’s own heightened sense of place.
Crete, 20 May 1941: the first campaign-sized airborne assault is launched. Many books have been written about this famous invasion, with the emphasis mainly on the battles for Maleme and Chania. The Battle for Heraklion - an epic struggle - remained largely forgotten and widely unstudied. Yet the desperate fight for Heraklion had everything: street-fighting in the town; heroic attacks against well-fortified positions and medieval walls; heavy losses on all sides; and tragic stories involving famous German aristocratic families like the von Blüchers and members of the Bismarck family. This book highlights personal stories and accounts - and the author’s…
I wrote my first thriller at age 8 about a girl who ran away and joined the circus. For later works, I, a pediatric physician, did opt to follow my English teachers’ guidance to write about what you know, including science, medicine, psychology, journalism, and my twin home countries of America and Greece. As YS Pascal, I wrote the Zygan Emprise Trilogy, which blended ancient Greek history, mythology, and literature. As Linda Reid, I co-authored the award-winning Sammy Greene thriller series with Dr. Deborah Shlian and was eager to fly investigative reporter Sammy and her ex-cop friend Gus Pappajohn to the shores of modern Athens to solve an ancient and modern mystery.
Katherine, a Greek immigrant to the US, took her American children to Greece in the late 1930s to live on her family’s farm and escape from the Great Depression. Unfortunately, the arrival of the Nazi invaders trapped the family in Greece during the Occupation and the end of World War II. Based on a true family story, American Kid movingly describes the experiences of the children in the remote mountain village of Katherine’s birth, and their efforts to survive the occupation of their home by Nazis. Would they ever see their beloved America again? An authentic glimpse of the devastating war’s impact on innocent youth and the value of hope.
For Katherine and her three American children, Greece was meant to be a one-year refuge from the late 1930’s Depression. Her husband’s family-owned orchard should have provided for their well-being, but instead embroiled them in legal debate. WWII Axis bombings of Kalamata prompted the young family to flee to the remote mountain village of Katherine’s birth, but Nazi invasion—and seemingly endless occupation of their village and their house—trapped them there until the war's end. Told through the eyes of John, Katherine’s youngest child, he shares a universal story of fear and frustration faced by all innocent civilians during war in…
Karl's War is a coming-of-age-meets-thriller set in Germany on the eve of Hitler coming to power. Karl – a reluctant poster boy for the Nazis – meets Jewish Ben and his world is up-turned.
Ben and his family flee to France. Karl joins the German army but deserts and finds…
My passion for the Battle of Crete flows from my traveler’s experiences of this most beautiful of Mediterranean islands and its people. The Second World War is just one episode in a history that stretches back millennia, yet to this day, it remains ever-present in the minds of Cretans. The landscape, too, still bears the scars of war. Every visitor to Crete has the opportunity to uncover the multiple layers of a rich past. To dig down to the horrors of the twentieth century with its brutal war and occupation does not take long, and it is enormously rewarding. In few places are past and present so closely intertwined.
For me, the standout history of the Battle of Crete to this day remains this book, first published back in 1966. Stewart was able to bring his own experience of the war to bear–he had served as a medical officer with a British unit and witnessed with his own eyes the spectacular airborne German invasion.
This is not, however, a first-hand battle account but rather the beautifully crafted result of six years of research drawing on voluminous first-hand accounts, archival sources, and histories. I am drawn to the compelling descriptions of battle while also appreciating the skill with which the author places the Battle of Crete in its wider political and strategic context.
Providing an account of the struggle for Crete during World War II, this book contains some of the author's own experiences as a Medical Officer at the time of the battle. The author describes the leadership, the geography, the communications problems and the delayed counter-attack. In the spring of 1941, prior to the invasion of Russia, Hitler's Air Division landed on Crete to secure the Nazis' southern flank. There they encountered a chance collection of New Zealanders, Australians, and British, survivors of the retreat from Greece. Stewart argues that the battle that followed among the island's olive groves, terraced hillsides,…
Growing up, I loved studying history, and reading historical, family sagas, and crime novels. Even though I have four degrees—three engineering and one accounting—I love to write. My goal is that my readers who don’t like history, learn it through my novels. What I like about writing is you learn not just about history not taught in school, but also other topics, including meeting and learning from very interesting people. Therefore, it is an interesting hobby to have. I am currently writing my third novel set in the 1960s, and written several articles and short stories. I have also written screenplays for two of my short stories.
Lovers of World War 2 and the interwar years will like this book. It partly goes into life during Nazi-occupied France during WW2 and its aftermath. Although this book is about one woman’s revenge against her former lover, it gives the reader an idea of what life was like during the occupation. It helped me understand the problems people go through and who their real friends are when faced with adversity. Even though people may do wicked things to others or to those who have harmed them, their conscience gets the better of them when it comes to helping those who have shown them kindness. Their good side is revealed; so therefore, it is always good to find the saving grace rather than just the bad qualities in people.
The Other Side of Midnight is Sidney Sheldon at his best. This page-turner is full of tortured romantic entanglements, reverses of fortune, thrilling suspense, and ultimate justice. In Paris, Washington, and a fabulous villa in Greece, an innocent American becomes a bewildered, horror-stricken pawn in a game of vengeance and betrayal. She is Catherine Douglas, a woman caught in a web of four lives intertwined by passion as her handsome husband pursues an incredibly beautiful film star . . . and as Constantin Demeris, a legendary Greek tycoon, tightens the strands that control them all.
I’m a food and travel journalist, raised by a Greek father and a British mother. I’ve always been obsessed with the fostering of my Greek culture, heritage, and identity and have been particularly interested in the duality of my two identities, since moving to England from Greece as a young girl. During my teenage years in grey and drizzly England, the food we ate as a family transported me to my grandmothers’ white-washed alleyway, dotted with geraniums and bursting with the colours and flavours of Greece. Since then I’ve become obsessed with what food and time-perfected recipes can tell us about our heritage.
The Colossus of Maroussi is a book all wanderers and visitors of Greece should dip into at least once.
It’s a travelogue that drips with humour from the brilliant Henry Miller. It is a collection of fantastic prose inspired by the islands and mainland that Miller visited in the early 20th Century. It offers great wit and wisdom as well as cultural insights that still feel incredibly relevant to Greece today, despite the book being published in the 1940s.
When I think of great travel literature, this book is a classic. It speaks on the Greek people - their strength, stoicism, and humour - and chronicles a time in Greece before mass tourism descended and changed the islands forever.
Like the ancient colossus that stood over the harbor of Rhodes, Henry Miller's The Colossus of Maroussi stands as a seminal classic in travel literature. It has preceded the footsteps of prominent travel writers such as Pico Iyer and Rolf Potts. The book Miller would later cite as his favorite began with a young woman's seductive description of Greece. Miller headed out with his friend Lawrence Durrell to explore the Grecian countryside: a flock of sheep nearly tramples the two as they lie naked on a beach; the Greek poet Katsmbalis, the "colossus" of Miller's book, stirs every rooster within…
Separating the true stories from the myths, The Duty of Memory provides a deeper understanding of the diverse motivations that drove ordinary people to join an underground network of French Resistants despite terrible odds and horrifying consequences.
This book takes the reader inside the true story of men and women…
I love reading stories that are a good mix of reality and fantasy, just as much as I like to write them myself. And I guess that comes from my background as a journalist. But perhaps not so, as the first stories I wrote in my teens that were published in a Dutch women’s magazine were retellings of Biblical stories. I recounted those from the point of view of women: the (future) wives of Joseph (with the ten brothers) and of Moses. I was a writer long before I became a journalist, a profession I needed to gather the knowledge I could then use to write my books, so it seems.
I loved the way the writer used the real story of a Jewish family that got saved by the inhabitants of a small Greek island from the Germans during World War II.
There are different elements I love, too, like the fact the book is situated on an island off the coast of Crete, which I love. And how the main character is caught between two cultures, that’s also a theme I like to read about. And yes, there were moments when the story made me cry.
On a beautiful Greek island, myths, magic, and a colorful cast of characters come together in When the Cypress Whispers, Yvette Manessis Corporon's lushly atmospheric story about past and present, family and fate, love and dreams that poignantly captures the deep bond between an American woman and her Greek grandmother. The daughter of Greek immigrants, Daphne aspires to the American Dream, yet feels as if she's been sleepwalking through life. Caught between her family's old-world traditions and the demands of a modern career, she cannot seem to find her place. Only her beloved grandmother on Erikousa, a magical island off…
