The Valhalla Exchange

Following World War II, publishers brought out a steady stream of books purporting to identify the whereabouts of prominent Nazis. Martin Bormann, Adolf Eichmann, and Josef Mengele were three of their favorite subjects. All three were thought to have survived the war and fled to South America through a network codenamed ODESSA by American intelligence. But only Eichmann (who was captured by the Mossad) and Mengele (who eluded capture but drowned off the Brazilian coast) were proven to have resettled in South America. Bormann was proven by DNA tests in 1973 to have died attempting to escape Berlin. Nonetheless, the books kept coming. The English thriller author Henry Patterson (pen name Jack Higgins) wrote at least two of them about Martin Bormann on the run—years after the truth was uncovered. The Valhalla Exchange is one of those, and it's the less successful of the two.Martin Bormann on the runIn Higgins's telling, Bormann comes across as an organizational genius who orchestrates an escape plan of extraordinary complexity. On the day Adolf Hitler commits suicide, with Russian troops just 150 yards from the command bunker under the Reich Chancellery, Bormann somehow manages to flee Berlin—in an airplane, no less—then rendezvous with his double, switch places, and make his way through Allied lines to the far south of Germany. There, his plan is to capture five high-value Allied prisoners and use them to bargain for his freedom with American troops. But things don't quite work out that way.Jack Higgins is a master at staging battle scenes and building tension. The Valhalla Exchange is typical of his work. However, in other novels, the fighting and the suspense come across as more natural. Here, it all gets just a little tiresome. And, fortunately, it's all fantasy. Bormann himself died 32 years before this novel was published.What really happened to the top NazisIn fact, what really happened to many of the prominent Nazis who survived World War II was far more prosaic. They were hired by the United States and the Soviet Union, and later by the West German government. The most famous examples of this phenomenon were Operation Paperclip, an American operation that shipped more than 1,600 Nazi rocket scientists, engineers, and technicians to the US, and Markus Wolf, who was number two in the East German spy service, the Stasi, for nearly the full duration of the Cold War. But hundreds, and possibly thousands, of others made their way into German and Austrian government and society. Despite the Allies's announced commitment to denazification, the program was spottily applied and abandoned entirely in 1951. The most visible, and most successful, effort was the first of the Nuremberg Trials, in which just two dozen top Nazis were tried. (Only twelve were sentenced to death.)

Higgins takes the reader by the neck and sticks him right into the story. This one has it all. Great and terrible men doing terrible things. Great and brave men doing great and brave things. People with great honor and those with feet of clay. If you love WWII history, this is a must read!

“Jack Higgins” is the pseudonym of very prolific British spy novelist named Harry Patterson, who lives on one of the Channel Islands, is 87 years old, and has and has now published a phenomenal 84 suspense novels. He is an experienced professional and prodigious writer who keeps banging them out, but obviously, some are better than others. His all-time best signature piece is The Eagle Has Landed, which was subsequently made into and equally good movie. Most of them center on WW II, Ireland, or an assassination, and they are all light and readable, and not very complicated. Most of it is fairly straightforward good guys versus bad guys. Having read a decent number of his books, The Valhalla Exchange lies somewhere in the middle of the deck. Many of his stories use a literary device like of an old man telling a story in flashback, as he did here, or a tombstone in a graveyard, as a way of transporting the reader back in time. This one takes up the long-time mystery of what ever happened to Martin Bormann. History says Hitler’s secretive, but very powerful, Nazi Party Secretary was killed on the Weidendammer Bridge in central Berlin after escaping from the Bunker after Hitler killed himself. That story has many holes in it and there have been many reports of Bormann in South America long afterward. Higgins’ story has a disguised Bormann escaping south into Bavaria where he runs afoul of an American Army squad and a castle full of elderly political prisoners and generals. Well, the plot is a bit strange from that point, but if you ignore that, it makes a good airplane or swimming pool book, nonetheless.William F. Brown is the author of 8 suspense thrillers with over 500 Five-Star Reviews. They are all available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and now on Audible Audio Books. You read about them and the author's screenplays and other writing at billbrownwritesnovels.wordpress.com

Excellent story with a lot of true historical references. Even so it is 50 years old it is great read for history buffs.

Once again the author presented stories within the main story. I think this is the best of the books I have read. The story line did not confuse the reader and it was easier to keep things straight. I plan to continue reading books by Higgins. I highly recommend this book.

Amazon duplicatesd my order, 1 too many again.

Jack Higgins can always be relied upon for an easy-reading action-filled adventure story. His tales set in WWII are renowned, especially "The Eagle has Landed" and "Night of the Fox". While this book is not quite as good, it is still a great action adventure using authentic WWII backgrounds.At the end of the war many top level Nazis had plans to escape from Germany to "friendly" countries, especially in South America. Rumours abounded that Martin Bormann, Hitler's powerful personal secretary, had made his escape and his whereabouts had always been a mystery.The Valhalla Exchange is a fictional account of Bormann's plans for escape, using a group of highly connected POW's as protection. The WWII action is authentic with Higgins creating a memorable group of characters from both sides and the prisoners, especially Ritter a war-weary highly decorated SS Officer and one of the prisoners, General Hamilton Canning who pursues Bormann for thirty years after the war.This book was written several years before DNA testing appeared to confirm that Bormann's remains had been found in Berlin - or were they?

The end of the war was near but the Germans still fought on to the end, even when the inevitable was clear. How many of them went against Hitler to save their own lives and flea Germany.

I have only recently come back to reading fiction and especially enjoy action novels. Having read some Jack Higgins long ago I picked Valhallah Exchange at random and enjoyed the plot but not the (deliberate?) style of running one scene into another without a gap indication (asterisks line). So two conversations places apart are blended into one. Perhaps this is a Kindle formatting fault because some scenes are visibly split.Some technical errors but nothing serious unlike the Clive Cussler series.

Cant get enough of this guy.

As always with Jack Higgins novels, if you like wartime novels based on fact, but with a whole load of fiction thrown in to spice it up, this book delivers.It carries along at a good pace and keeps you wanting to read just that little bit more.Great stuff!

Had this novel in paperback format for many years and every now and then it comes out for another read. Having decided to get rid of all my old paperbacks this was one book I couldn't part with so it now resides on my Kindle.A wonderful war story which I never get tired of reading.Highly recommended.

Excellent story and well written as always from Jack HigginsI enjoyed the whole book and would recommend to anyone looking for a good read.