The Saboteurs (Men at War Series #5) » (Abridged)

Fellow bestselling author Tom Clancy is right on target when he describes W.E.B. Griffin -- world renowned for his military and police novels filled with vivid detail and dead-on accuracy -- as "a storyteller in the grand tradition, probably the best man around for describing the military community."

"Griffin fans have waited years for the return of his rousing stories of the OSS, and now, at last, aided and abetted by his son, William E. Butterworth IV, Griffin has brought back his iconoclastic heroes in a brand-new adventure.

The Battle of the Atlantic is at its peak. Packs of German U-boats are hunting down and sinking U.S. supply ships, and ships are being burned at their moorings in U.S. ports-is it accident or is it sabotage? Meanwhile, Allied forces are secretly preparing to invade first Sicily and then Italy. As the war heats up, Wild Bill Donovan's agents, answerable only to the president, find themselves battling on two fronts at once-and fate is just about to deal them a surprise.

Brimming with action, character, and the deep understanding of the military heart and mind that have made Griffin's books so outstanding, The Saboteurs is irresistible storytelling from a master of the craft."

Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Griffin and his son, Butterworth, resuscitate Griffin's Men at War series, first published in paperback during the 1980s under the pseudonym Alex Baldwin and featuring the Office of Strategic Services; its fabled chief, Col. William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan; and OSS agent Maj. Richard M. Canidy. Two primary plot lines drive this new adventure: the U.S. preparation for the invasion of Sicily and mainland Italy in 1943, and the tale of four German saboteurs who have landed in America. The authors are heavily invested in their research, meticulously describing almost every element of life in the 1940s, to the detriment of the action. The German saboteurs are eventually dealt with, but the behind-the-lines Sicilian operation led by Canidy is only hastily outlined after a long buildup. One supposes that the Sicilian story that's promised but never delivered will appear in future installments. This is pretty much all show and no go, but readers who have a strong interest in WWII home-front history should be satisfied. Author tour. (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.