The Traitor

by Guy Walters

Book Overview

There was something powerful about it, something magnetic. He had witnessed the effect of such uniforms in the newsreels; now he was about to wear one. But this SS uniform -- the uniform proudly worn by so many maniacs and murderers -- bore a Union Jack...It was an insult to King and Country. In November 1943 the Nazis capture British secret agent John Lockhart while he is on a Resistance mission to German-occupied Crete. They give him a stark choice:...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743270150
• ISBN13: 9780743270151
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Good Book, Kinda

This was a mostly worthy book with an interesting plot, well developed characters and good color about life in Nazi Germany during the war. The premise seems preposterous, but isn't, but as the book proceeds, it becomes, in fact, more and more preposterous. Throughout it is laced with convenience coincidences which turn the plot this way and that, although they have all the nuance of a Hollywood B movie. Walters is a good writer, seems to do his research well, but he's not quite in the first rank of novelists because he strains one's credulity again and again. And, like others here have pointed out, the ending is just silly. I hope Walters keeps writing, but this will probably not be his best book.

Pretty good read

I received this book last weekend and enjoyed the plot line. It did drag a bit at times with too much detail but overall I would recommend it to my friends.I did find it interesting that the author used some of the pseudonyms of some of the BFC members out of Jackals of the Reich.But overall a pretty good book.

An enjoyable tale

I read 'The Traitor' and enjoyed it very much. The British Free Corps were a little-known unit of the German Army in WW2, and it's good to see a little light being shed on them. It's quite a coincidence that another recently-published book called 'Snides' by Tony Walker also has the British Free Corps as part of the plot. It goes to show that WW2 is still the most interesting period in history!

Amazing ! Why don't more people know about this guy ?

I've never written a review before but I just had to share how great this book was. As tense as DeMille, as exciting as Follett - I wish the book didn't end. The characters were so well drawn and the writing gave a face and humanity to all sides of the war. Brilliant !

Fascinating and entertaining read!

This is the fascinating story of a British secret agent, Captain Joch Lockhardt, who was captured by the German forces during an unsuccessful operation on the island of Crete, in Greece. Lockhardt is manipulated into working for the Third Reich because they claim to have his wife in custody in a concentration camp. Lockhardt is set the task of establishing the British Free Corps, a small force of British "volunteers" currently held in custody in prisoner-of-war camps, and recruited into the service of the Reich. A central theme in the book is: were these men, Lockhardt in particular, traitors? The British Frei Corps did indeed exist, and its members were actively recruited from prisoner-of-war camps. I suspect that the actual recruiting of these members probably proceeded along very similar lines to what Walters describes in this book. We learn that Lockhardt indeed had his own agenda, and was planning to use his position in the service of the Reich to destroy stockpiles of sarin nerve gas kept at Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp near Nordhausen in modern-day Germany. The story deviates somewhat from what happened at Mittelbau-Dora, which was indeed a V2 rocket production, but never produced any sarin. Otherwise, the story is very well crafted, and I believe that the characters are well developed, as are the relationships between them. The portrayal of a wartime German whorehouse I feel is particularly good. From me, three-and-a-half stars.