REVIEWER REVIEWS

A view of the Admiral Graf Spee from astern. Note the torpedoes which are protected by rectangular steel housings. While we think of torpedoes as being a weapon used only by U-Boats, almost every ship in WW II carried torpedoes as well. They often launched them from quite a distance; 8,000 yards or more. Torpedoes didn't run very fast and ships often had time to turn bows on to the torpedoes and "comb the tracks". That is they steered between the torpedoes. Such an attack is recounted in my novel, An Honorable German and actually happened during the Battle of the Rio Plata or the Battle of the River Plate as the British called it.

I can't recommend this book enough. I was so into it that I insisted on reading it while sitting in my ophthalmologist's office with my eyes so dilated they were like black holes drawing in every stray light ray in the room. Really. … Few debut novels ever achieve so much with such grace and elegance.

–Excerpts from review in Examiner.com
by Michelle Kerns

As a hard-core history buff, I have read many outstanding accounts of World War II, both fiction and non-fiction, but this is the first one that I have read from the viewpoint of a German naval officer, and it is mesmerizing from the first to the last page.… The military action sequences are riveting and feel authentic, and the bombing scenes of Berlin by the Allies are terrifying. …The vignettes of Max's personal life and his love for his fiancée, Mareth, and their hopes and dreams for the future throughout the novel showcase Max's humanity. … In his debut novel, Charles McCain has created a character and a story that will certainly stand the test of time and Max will be classified as one of the great patriotic and honorable heroes in modern fiction.

–Excerpts from review by Beverly J. Rowe
of MyShelf.com

Truly superb storytelling, crisp prose and an amazing knowledge of German naval customs, history and traditions make this an outstanding read.

–MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE 24 August 2009

I have never read a book that so vividly took me into the heart of Germany and into the shoes of a German military member as he served his nation… The descriptions that the author used and his wording of the same were beyond imagination. You were there on the ship in the shoes of each sailor and each survivor of any ship sunk.

–Bestsellersworld.com Review written by Cy Hilterman of a book supplied by http://www.bestsellersworld.com July 4, 2009

And now emerges a first-time author, Charles McCain, who has written a dazzling novel of the war—but from the perspective of a young German naval lieutenant, Max Brekendorf…. This is a fascinating story of war from a perspective few of us have ever known.

–Stephen Bank, Meritorious Mysteries Blog, Cary Library, Cary, NC News

The American Charles McCain here relates the adventures of the young German naval officer Max Brekendorf in the turbulent times of the Second World War. The title alone reveals that this tale is not told from the customary Allied perspective, which immediately sees all German military as Nazis. To the contrary: On the basis of his impressive research the author easily gains a differentiated view of the condition of the German Navy. This is for certain the eminent strength of the book, but at the same time also its weakness. The author loses himself in the minutiae of daily life on board, while he neglects to develop potential conflicts among the described personnel. That, unfortunately, takes away somewhat from the suspense of the book.

Altogether, however, the author presents an interesting and authentic looking story of the fate of an almost typical German naval officer who himself did not experience the First World War but knows only too well the disaster suffered by the Imperial fleet from the descriptions of his father and his contemporaries.

The young lieutenant j.g. Brekendorf at first serves on the so-called pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee. His confidence that the new war will have a more favorable ending is soon damaged. After the punctilious captain, Hans Langsdorff, has haplessly maneuvered ship and crew into a hopeless situation, is the scuttling in the Rio de la Plata on December 17 1939 inevitable. To the German crew the sinking of the Admiral Graf Spee appears as a miniature repetition of the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow in 1919. From Uruguay via Argentina Brekendorf returns to Germany where commands a submarine in the Atlantic until his capture at the end of the war. In spite of additional obstacles, the novel finds a good and conciliatory end in Mexico.

All in all a story worth reading, even if this dedicated writer has not yet succeeded completely in creating the permanent suspense that professional writers like Tom Clancy manage to build up.

–Marine Forum, the magazine of the German Naval Officers Association

Charles McCain is a lifelong student of 20th Century military and maritime history. He grew up in South Carolina and is a graduate of Tulane University. His first novel, An Honorable German, a World War Two naval epic told from the point of a German U-boat commander, was published in 2009. Prior to becoming a full time writer, Mr. McCain spent twenty-three years in the financial services industry. Having survived a bout with cancer, Mr. McCain is now at work on a second novel. He lives in Washington, DC.

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In the tradition of Das Boot and The Hunt for Red October comes the greatest submarine novel in a generation, An Honorable German, featuring a heroic and conflicted German U-Boat Commander.