A Gathering of Spies

The dust jacket of A Gathering of Spies makes a rather bold statement, "Every once in a while, a new thriller writer emerges with such an instant command of his craft that readers everywhere take notice."

For a debut novel, John Altman does all right. The story is fast paced and action packed. It is set in World War II and revolves around a female German spy. The British attempt to capture her and manipulate the Germans with their double agents. There is a lot of double cross and mystery.

The novel grabbed me almost instantly. I liked the clean writing of the author. He doesn't bog you down with lots of extranous details or unnecessary characters. Unfortunately, mystery and spy novels are not my favorite. I became bored about two thirds of the way through. I don't know how it turns out or finishes. If you like this genre, you might like this one. For me it was one to many double crosses and near death escapes.

I gave this book 3 stars for being entertaining, at least somewhat. The book does contain some violent moments. It is apparently out of print. An interesting note: The original edition of the book contains a dust jacket featuring a swastika. At some point the publisher changed that. In any event, you will probably have to find this book at a library.