No Man Dies Twice - Softcover

Smith, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1635761921 ISBN 13: 9781635761924

Publisher: Diversion Books, 2018

Synopsis

For fans of Tom Rob Smith comes a detective novel set during World War II. One spy has been sent to assassinate Hitler. One spy has been sent to stop him. A single policeman is all that stands in the way of changing history.

"Riveting...Smith takes us into an area of wartime Germany we have rarely read about before." --Joseph Heywood, New York Times bestselling author of The Berkut and The Domino Conspiracy

Inspector Peter Ritter, one of the few honest detectives left in wartime Germany, is losing his grip on reality. The word on the street in the small Bavarian city of Rosenheim is that Ritter is not long for this world. He's made too many enemies with his rants against the regime and his obsession with solving crime, even when the villains are Nazi officials. The Gestapo are tracking his every move, and his marriage is falling apart. His only refuge is in drunken conversations with the specter of his dead father-in-law.

When the killing of a Jew is followed by the bloody and brutal stabbing of the local Gestapo chief, Ritter realizes there is far more going on than just homicide. He uncovers a plot to assassinate Hitler, with British spies fighting a turf war on his patch. Ritter is left with a stark choice: call in the Gestapo or let the assassins succeed, in the hope that killing the Führer will save the Germany he loves.

"A powerful debut full of fear, suspense, violence and geopolitical machinations...Michael Smith explores turf reminiscent of the historical fiction of Alan Furst and Joseph Kanon." --Sebastian Rotella, author of Rip Crew

About this title

Review:

"Exceptional. Not only does Smith know his history, he also has a tremendous understanding of the intricacies of espionage and detective work. Do not miss this brilliant thriller." --Matthew Dunn, former British intelligence officer, author of the Spycatcher series

"[A] gripping mystery set in Germany during WWII that will resonate with fans of Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series." --Publishers Weekly

"A brandy-soaked police inspector in Nazi Germany with a faithless wife, a Gestapo nemesis, and an out-of-favor sense of justice makes this a fascinating read with a terrific sense of place. No Man Dies Twice is filled with believable characters doing their best--or worst--in this tense wartime mystery." --James R. Benn, author of the Billy Boyle World War II Mystery series

"Michael Smith has crafted a riveting murder mystery that moves inexorably forward as the single-minded and principled Inspector Peter Ritter tries to solve the killings and impart his skills to an obnoxious young probationary Hitler Youth poster boy cop assigned to him. Smith takes us into an area of wartime Germany we have rarely read about before, and into the lives of characters torn by the choices war visits on individuals." --Joseph Heywood, New York Times bestselling author of The Berkut and The Domino Conspiracy

"A powerful debut full of fear, suspense, violence and geopolitical machinations. The tale thickens and twists, plunging us into a labyrinth of high-stakes intrigue involving the Gestapo and British spy agencies. Michael Smith explores turf reminiscent of the historical fiction of Alan Furst and Joseph Kanon. He writes with the detail, precision and sophistication you'd expect from a top journalist and historian who also happens to be a veteran of British military intelligence." --Sebastian Rotella, author of Rip Crew

"A bestseller in the U.K., this gripping account of British intelligence's cracking of the Nazi Enigma machine code during WWII is the basis of a PBS Nova documentary. Billed as the first book on the subject to incorporate interviews with the code-breakers since the declassification of official files, the volume is packed with revelations and the voices of these largely unsung heroes. While most histories of Enigma focus on the top brains such as mathematician Alan Turing, Smith (New Cloak, Old Dagger, etc.), a reporter for London's Daily Telegraph, portrays the top-secret code-breaking operation at Bletchley Park ("Station X"), a quaint Victorian mansion outside London, as a vast collaborative effort involving several thousand people, the great majority of them women. An odd mix of Cambridge mathematicians, seasoned and novice code-busters, eccentrics, spies, bureaucrats, German-language students, patriotic volunteers and clerical assistants, they tell their stories with a refreshing modesty that makes their saga all the more inspiring. Without getting bogged down in technical complexities, Smith illuminates how the Bletchley Park cryptanalysts' ingenuity, obsessive persistence and 'Alice in Wonderland-type thought processes' enabled them to decipher the Germans' chameleon code. The intelligence obtained from Enigma decrypts shortened the war and saved countless lives by furnishing information vital to the Allies' D-Day invasion, the British sinking of U-boats and campaigns in Italy, North Africa and the Balkans. On one level, this page-turner is a deeply satisfying parable of the power of humane intellect to defeat evil; it's also a stunning re-creation of one of the most important chapters in the war." - Publishers Weekly on Station X

"Former British intelligence officer Smith (The Emperor's Codes) shines a light on one of the U.S. Army's blackest agencies and best-kept secrets, the Intelligence Support Activity--aka the Activity--in this extensively researched and crisply written exposé. The Activity was established, after the failed attempt to rescue the American hostages in Iran in 1980, as "a dedicated special operations intelligence unit" to provide signals, imagery and human intelligence to other black units: e.g., the army's Delta Force. Although opposed by army traditionalists, the Activity proved itself in operations from El Salvador to Iraq, playing important roles in tracking down Colombian drug czar Pablo Escobar, Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed and several prominent Bosnian war criminals. Since 9/11 and Operation Iraqi Freedom have exposed the shortcomings of U.S. intelligence, the size and scope of the Activity has, according to the author, 'dramatically increased.' Drawing on recently declassified documents and confidential interviews with key participants, Smith has produced an important primer for anyone hoping to understand the (usually quiet) successes and the (well-documented) failures of U.S. intelligence in the last 25 years." - Publishers Weekly on Killer Elite

"A British journalist specializing in defense topics offers a readable, useful addition to the literature on American special operations forces. During the expansion of special operations forces in the 1980s, a secret group given the code name Intelligence Support Activity was charged with the primary function of gathering intelligence. It has played a valuable though unpublicized role in both Iraq wars, in antiterrorist operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and in the war on drugs. Its operatives can also fight--very well--as and when necessary. This book is finally a portrait of the unit's founder, Jerry Ryan, who had the usual spec-ops specialist's trouble with the brass. But his unit, now expanded to regimental strength, seems likely to remain on U.S. Army rolls, and military buffs and authorities may some day rank Ryan with Charles Beckwith, the founder of Delta Force." - Booklist on Killer Elite

"Gripping. An outstanding book. The last word on the Final Solution." - Mail on Sunday on Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews

"Diligently researched. A deserved tribute to a compassionate Christian."- Sunday Times on Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews

"A fascinating book. Smith writes well; coolly and unexaggeratedly, sensibly and authoritatively." - The Daily Telegraph on Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews

"Rarely has the Jewish accolade for outstanding courage by a gentile in their cause been more deserved. Michael Smith has made no errors in bringing a long-neglected hero out of the shadows." - Independent on Sunday on Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews

"During World War II, British and American cryptographers labored in tight security at Bletchley Park and elsewhere, poring over thousands of intercepted Japanese and German military messages. This fascinating story has been told and retold over the past 15 years as more new information emerges. Smith, a British journalist and author of Station X: Decoding Nazi Secrets, has now expanded on the subject with this well-written account of how the Americans with a great deal of help from British codebreakers cracked the Japanese codes. Smith portrays the sometimes bitter competition between American naval and British military personnel and insists that the British deserve a greater share of the credit than the Americans have been willing to grant. All in all, it makes a great story and one of importance, since many historians believe that through their codebreaking efforts the Allies were able to shorten the war by as much as two years." - Library Journal on The Emporer's Codes

"The Allied efforts that led to the breaking of Germany's Enigma code have been well publicized. Less well known but equally critical to the war effort was the combined British-American success at breaking the various Japanese codes. Smith, a journalist who has worked for the London Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph, writes a real-life thriller that unfolds like a classic spy story. The heroes here are not dashing secret agents; instead, they are seemingly fanatically dedicated and patient plodders who pore over the myriad possibilities involved in code breaking. Smith shows how the failure to fully understand Japanese cable traffic led to the disaster at Pearl Harbor. He proceeds to illustrate the manner in which Allied cooperation in code breaking led to future successes in the Pacific, including the critical Battle of Midway. This is an engrossing and exciting recounting of an obscure but important facet of World War II." - Booklist on The Emporer's Codes

About the Author:

Michael Smith is an award-winning UK journalist and author. He served in British military intelligence before becoming a writer, working for the BBC, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. Smith uncovered the Downing Street Memos, which exposed the truth about the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq. He is the author of numerous books on spies and special operations including the UK No 1 bestseller Station X, the US bestseller Killer Elite, and Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews, which led to the recognition of former MI6 officer Frank Foley as Righteous Among Nations, the highest award the Israeli state can award to a non-Jew. He lives in Oxfordshire in England.

About this edition

• Publisher: Diversion Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1635761921
• ISBN 13: 9781635761924
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 265