The Advocate: A Novel of World War II, Conspiracy, and Murder

Rating:
Summary: A Military-Lawyer Novel - Vintage WWII
Review: All the action takes place right in the beginning of the book which is good form for the author; it sucks you into reading the rest of the book. The balance of the book is mostly talk, albeit well written. It ends up as one man standing up to the higher-up military brass. This is probably more true-to-life than most of us (who opt for more action and contrived situations) like in this genre. Not a bad read but it is ambivalent and, with two authors, one understands why. If you like books about the military and WWII,, you'll like this book. For most of us it is the kind of a book you carry in the car for when you have to stand in a line at the post office. Good (yawn) but not too much so.

Rating:
Summary: A total waste of time
Review: I just want to associate myself with the review by S. Berner. I couldn't believe how boring the whole thing was.

Rating:
Summary: Didn't get it
Review: I thought this book was in many ways quite well written. I thought it captured well the mood and details of World War II (but of course, as a boomer, how would I know?). The characters are good, maybe not great. I do agree with previous reviewers about a couple of issues. One is that the narrator didn't add anything, and I thought made the book confusing at times. The other is that I didn't see that the big underlying mystery was that big a deal. Even so, there were aspects of the book that I liked a lot.

Rating:
Summary: Two Heads are Better than One!
Review: I usually avoid "co-written" books like the plague. But this book intrigued me enough to give it a go. It is a sleeper of a book and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys WWII fiction. The characters are believable, the authors get the tone and feel of the times right. You pick up little nuances like calling a Rolls Royce a Rollers. I chuckled at the prospect of Harry Voss fighting the intractable gear shift of a jeep and the MP sargent finally offering to park it for him. This stuff rings true. The story itself is well crafted and has enough surprises to keep you interested. It is not a hell bent action story and may leave some readers who are used to that type of story unsatisfied. The military details are right, I kept seeing scenes of 12 O'Clock High running through my mind. It was enjoyable to see a rumpled, overweight main character in contrast to so many super heroes that are now the norm. If you are looking for a different take on WWII air combat and a military legal mystery rolled together, this is it.

Rating:
Summary: Two Heads are Better than One!
Review: I usually avoid "co-written" books like the plague. But this book intrigued me enough to give it a go. It is a sleeper of a book and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys WWII fiction. The characters are believable, the authors get the tone and feel of the times right. You pick up little nuances like calling a Rolls Royce a Rollers. I chuckled at the prospect of Harry Voss fighting the intractable gear shift of a jeep and the MP sargent finally offering to park it for him. This stuff rings true. The story itself is well crafted and has enough surprises to keep you interested. It is not a hell bent action story and may leave some readers who are used to that type of story unsatisfied. The military details are right, I kept seeing scenes of 12 O'Clock High running through my mind. It was enjoyable to see a rumpled, overweight main character in contrast to so many super heroes that are now the norm. If you are looking for a different take on WWII air combat and a military legal mystery rolled together, this is it.

Rating:
Summary: Pedestrian and a bore
Review: If I did not have a policy of finishing what I start I would not have finished this book--and thus would not review it, since I do not think one should write a review unless on reads the book. There is nothing compelling about this book and it is hard to see why anyone would say that it is worth reading. The review by S. Berner is exactly right, and I am disappointed that I did not read that review before I read the book. If I had, I hope I would have sense enough to not read the book. With all the great books there are to read, why waste one's time on a book such as this?

Rating:
Summary: Its a sleeper, alright!
Review: In fact, it may well put you to sleep! I agree with the S. Berner review and would add the narrator had a definite negative impact on the book. While using a narrator may be a clever idea in some instances, here it detracts. We had no idea who this narrator was until about a third of the way in. The use of British idioms was annoying but finally made some sense when we find out the nationality of the narrator. This is essentially a story about a non-story, that is, there is nothing to it. It is really unfortunate for Mesce has written another one about Major Harry Voss, an interesting character, but Mesce fails to do anything with him. Simply not worth the effort to read all the way through to the ho-hum conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: Abysmal
Review: The story really went nowhere as other reviewers have noted.

But what annoyed me most was the historical inaccuracies. For these novels to work you need to get the details right and here the authors conspicuously failed. A few instances:
- There is no institution known as the "Royal Army" - constantly referred to
- The Royal Air Force does not have captains, they have their own ranks, just as the navy does
- Ireland was independent at the time of WW2 (well, most of it) and sufficiently so to send a message of condolence to the German Embassy upon Herr Hitler's death

I don't know enough about aircraft to know whether they of the details right but based on the above I have little confidence. Tom Clancy can't write either, but he doesn't take himself as seriously as these two obviously do and he does get the details right.

Rating:
Summary: Unfullfilled
Review: This started out as a good story filled with mystery and intrigue. A little over halfway through when I expected it to really start getting good, it died. This story dove faster than the P-47 in the opening. The second half of the story waned and the ending had no closure. I hope future novels by these authors will learn by these shortcomings.