Rating: 
Summary: A very good book
Review: The book(superior to the movie in every detail) tells the story of the trial of one Licolion Scott an African American pilot shot down over Germany and his rather Kangaroo court. Scott is the sole suspect in the murder of a fellow (racist) prisoner. The odds are stacked against him and the situation does not look good. The story is told from the point of view of Tommy a navigator shot down over Libya. Because he spent half a semester in law school he is appointed to serve as Scott's defense lawyer(he is woefully prepared). As you read this book you will discover that the plot will thicken into ways you could not possibly imagine on first picking it up. There is plenty of action to keep you interested throughout the book there is even humor in some places and nice plot twist at the end you will not be expecting. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys World War 2 fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Fiction, Fact, and Storyline
Review: Where do story ideas come from? Most writers of fiction do not tell us from whence a novel germinates to eventually come to fruition in their imagination. John Katzenback, however, lets us in on the secret. In an author's note at the end we learn that the idea for "Hart's War" originated in his father's World War II experience: junior at Princeton when Pearl Harbor happened; B-25 navigator; shot down at sea during a bombing run; and sitting out the war in a German prison compound. Tommy Hart almost steps out of his father's flight boots. But there the similarity ends. The author has his setting. Henceforth the story is all his. The best fiction makes use of factual setting to weave a fantasy that ladles gist onto the bare bones of truth and gives it greater meaning. In this sense, I think, "Hart's War" suceeds mightily. When I researched my own WW II memoir I found a few of the ninety men of my infantry company who became German prisoners. More than fifty years later they were still reliving and remembering. The prison camps they described were far harsher than that of Stalag Loft Thirteen as imagined by Katzenback. But these were enlisted men. Officers may have had it better, though only a little. In Hart's little corner of hell we find deprivation, longing, hope, and despair. We feel it and live it as we read. But we also become aware of something more: that, in spite of it all, the little fibers of our natures which make us human-including even the foibles, flaws, and venal aspects of our character-are never quite extinguished. This is true in reverse for the German masters who run the camp. Even among their practiced iniquities their better angels sometimes emerge. Katzenback, skillfully uses the methods of the suspense writer to bring out the essence of his story. Few places are more disparate from the normal world than a prison compound. Yet, in Stalag Loft Thirteen hatred, murder, justice, injustice, hope, and the possibliity of redemption play out in a manner not fundamentally different from that of the outside world. Thanks be to God that most of us never have the opportunity to learn that directly. I was led to the book after seeing the movie starring Bruce Willis as Katzenback's SAO (Senior American Officer). The addled ending there seemed out of line with the body of the story. Fortunately, there is a more plausible one at the end of the book. Sometimes movies get it all wrong.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Idea but Too Long and Too Many Clichés
Review: The basic premise at work this thriller is a good one-there's a murder in a WWII POW camp with racial issues involved, and thus we get a combination murder mystery, courtroom drama all wrapped together with a classic escape attempt. The idea of a murder mystery in a POW camp isn't exactly new, Michael Gilbert's 1952 whodunitThe Danger Within, also featured a murder in an Allied prison camp, with an officer appointed to investigate (the motivation for the murder was the same in that book). Here, Katzenbach adds the spin of race, as a downed Tuskeegee airman is accused of murdering a popular Southern (and deeply racist) fellow prisoner-which allows him to present a capsule history of US race relations circa WWII. But he doesn't stop there, he also adds subthemes on friendship, aging, anti-intellectualism, and most importantly truth vs. justice vs. duty. Not to mention the shocking revelation that heroes have to sometimes get their hands dirty and face consequences. With so much going on, it's hardly surprising that much of it is flawed. The writing is breezy and page-turning, but also cliché-ridden, repetitive, and highly melodramatic. Similarly, the camp is heavily populated by cardboard characters: a sophisticated and civilized camp commandant, a deformed and nasty Gestapo agent, an erudite and avuncular British lawyer, a plainspoken tough Canadian, and on and on. Even the main characters of Hart and the black flyer Scott are locked in a hokey and tired "white man's burden" relationship. Hart is the Ivy-league northerner with ideas about truth and justice who'll stand up against the tide to defend the proud, noble, bible-totin' black man. And of course the black man has rage within him that he can barely control... and is a champion boxer... The first half of the book is fairly diverting, but after a while one starts to get tired of the all the bad dialogue, flat characters, and clichés. The courtroom scenes are especially turgid, and Hart's continual screeching of "Objection!" and "Your honor, this is unfair!" make one lose all sympathy with him. At the very end, the excitement picks up a little bit, but when the curtain is pulled away and the real motivation behind the murder and trial are revealed, it descends to the ridiculous. This is momentarily redeemed by the chilling consequences of Hart's action, but then an utterly mawkish and awful epilogue put the finishing touch on the whole endeavor. This is one book where the movie is likely to be an improvement.
Rating: 
Summary: Stumbling over a little gem
Review: The movie of this book seemed to come and go very quickly in the theaters so I was never able to figure out what it was about. I _thought_ it was just another pumped up patriotic movie. Boy, was I wrong! I picked up the paperback at my favorite used book store and was surprsied to find out that it was about a WWII POW camp in Germany _and_ a murder trial. Once I got into this little gem, I found it very hard to put down and even thought about it when I wasn't reading it. (surely a sign of a fine novel). The only real fault I could find with it is that Lincoln Scott was always referred to as "black", when I'm pretty sure that in the terminology of the day African Americans were referred to as "colored". But that little nit picky detail aside, I really, enjoyed the book and stayed up until 2:30 this morning to finish it. This book, along with stories like "Saving Private Ryan" make me look at the men of my father's generation not as the old men they've become but as impossibly young men who had to face the unthinkable when they were younger than my own twenty something sons.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This is an excellent book! The story line is complex and engrossing, and the development of the characters, particulary Tommy Hart and Lincoln Scott, is superb. If you've already seen the movie, don't worry. The story in the book, other than the setting and the trial of a black airman for murder, is actually much different than the movie. This is a combination of a war novel and a mystery story that you will not want to put down. I highly recommend it!
Rating: 
Summary: Another Racial Clash novel
Review: Overall a pretty well written book; interesting in most respects but leaves a lot of questions with the reader about military protocol. Writers should avoid the venacular when they are not sure about it's use.Very distracting.
Rating:
Summary: Informative and Interesting
Review: I don't know that I can add much to what's already been said about this book, but there were a couple things that really impressed me about it. First, it was about much more than a black man accused of murdering a white Redneck in a prisoner of war camp. If that's all it had been about, the book wouldn't have been all that special. But instead, I learned enough about the Tuskegee Airmen to spark my interest in finding out more. I agree with the reviewer who said that there were cetain elements of Hogan's Heroes that popped up from time to time in this book, and they are noticeable. However, from the beginning to the end, Katzenbach put me in the middle of that prisoner of war camp and let me see through his words something of what that experience must have been like. He did it so well, in fact, that it was hard to put the book down the closer I got to its conclusion. The only thing I don't get about the story, and this has nothing to do with Katzenbach or his ability to write good books, is who thought it would be a good idea for Bruce Willis to play any character in the movie.
Rating:
Summary: A very good, but not really great, read.
Review: When I picked up a copy of Hart's War, I was pumped. It combined two genres which I really enjoy -- a good mystery and WW2 era fiction. Now that I have finished this story, I am left feeling a bit mystified. Why? Because even though I found the story to be generally very good, I still find myself feeling a bit let down by it and I am not really sure why because it was a pretty darn good book. As I'm sure you can tell from the numerous reviews, the story takes place in a German POW camp housing mainly captured American fliers. One of these captives is brutally murdered and the blame is placed squarely on the shoulders of the lone African-American fighter pilot held in the camp. Mix in the atmosphere found in the old "Stalag 17" movie and the setting is ripe for a ripping good yarn. Unfortunately, in my opinion, that yarn never fully matures. Basically, I found the first half of the book to be pretty absorbing. However, with the beginning of the accused's trial, I found myself being less and less "excited" about the story. I considered this to be strange, since I actually felt that the book was very good. Nonethelss I felt that somewhere along the way the story had lost its edge, becoming somewhat predictable and just a bit of a cliche. As I read on to the conclusion, I simply could not get past the fact that my attitude toward the story was becoming more and more lukewarm. On a personal note, this was compounded by the author's use of overly flowery and strangely inappropriate metaphors in the last few chapters. I say strangely inappropriate because as I read each of them, I had to stop and wonder why the author chose to include them when no such literary license was exercised in the entire previous part of the book. To me, they immediately broke the sense of being there with the characters and reminded me that the story was merely the creation of an author. They further left me feeling like he had thought out this portion of the story much earlier than it appears in the book and had manufactured some very creative and mighty flowery turns of phrase which he was quite proud of and intended to include no matter what. Overall, Hart's War is really a pretty good novel and certainly worth a read. My disappointment with it stems not so much from any particular failings in the book itself, but rather from the fact that I really believe that it could have, and should have, kept me on the edge of my seat much more than it did.
Rating:
Summary: Book, "Yes", Movie, "No"
Review: Hart's War is a great work in the genre of the military legal story. Well crafted, it tells a tale with interesting twists and turns taking the reader back to WWII Nazi Germany. It is vastly superior to the sad motion picture very loosely based on it's content currently serving as a Bruce Willis vehicle. This book will hold the reader's attention and not insult their intelligence. Exciting and insightful, it is everything that the motion picture is not. My advice, read this book and forget you ever heard about a movie being made bearing it's title. You will thank me for this suggestion!
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular
Review: I reread "Hart's War" prior to seeing the movie version. It is just as riveting, intense, dramatic and compelling as it was when I first read it in 1999. The characters truly come alive on the pages, and the pages absolutely fly by. The story unfolds in a logical and orderly fashion. The pacing is never forced. The reader can feel the frustration, boredom and exasperation experienced by the POW's in Stalag 13. The conditions they existed under and lack of qualified doctors were truly horrendous. The protagonist, Tommy Hart, is thrust into a situation he is unprepared for. His resourcefulness leads him to two allies in the British side of the POW camp. This trio gets some assistance from some unlikely sources. As the book progresses, Tommy Hart finds people working against him on both the German and American sides. Realizing all is not as it seems, he is forced to rely on his own ingenuity. In short, it is the triumph of an ordinary man acting in an extraordinary manner in an almost impossible situation. It is an extremely powerful book with a moving ending. This is a hard book for a movie to live up to.
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