Wow! It's difficult to tell if truth or fiction, probably a little of booth.
Greg Iles has the ability to weave a tale that you can't stop writing. This story went from West and East Germany to England to South Africa all the time gathering your interest so you can't stop until the final page. The story centers around the possibility that Rudolph Hess of Hitler fame is still living...50 years after the war.

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This was the first book I read from Greg Iles and one of the most enjoyable. It kept me interested through the whole book, it made me go and look for other books written by Mr. Iles. Exciting to the end, and hard to put down.

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Wow, Action packed; tangled plot; can't put down book!

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This is one of, if not the best stories of mystery, intrigue and suspense that I have ever read. I could hardly put it down. Nelson Demille summed it up well when he said "It's a remarkable, impressive novel.

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One of the great unsolved mysteries of WWII, Nazi collaboration with England? Possible, probable, irrisistable plot

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I really enjoyed this taut thriller. This is the first novel written by Iles and it is definitely a departure from his later novels which are mostly suspense thrillers set in the current time. SPANDAU PHOENIX was written in 1993 and takes place mostly in 1987 but the theme of the novel involves a Nazi plot involving Rudolf Hess, Hitler's second in command. In 1941, Hess made a solo flight to Scotland, where according to history, he hoped to arrange peace talks with the Duke of Hamilton, whom he believed to be a prominent opponent of the British government's war policy. Hess was captured and convicted at Nuremberg of war crimes and served a life sentence in Spandau Prison in Germany. But is this what really happened and the reason for Hess's solo flight to Britain?

The novel tells of the discovery of a document at Spandau Prison after Hess's death that revealed a conspiracy by the British and that proved that the prisoner at Spandau was not really Hess. This document is discovered by a German policeman and is wanted by both the Russians, the English, the Germans, and a far-right group called Phoenix operating in Germany and South Africa. So what is so important about the document and why are people being tortured to try to recover it? The novel delves into the psuedo-Nazi group headquartered in South Africa and a sinister plot to eliminate the Jews in Israel.

This was a long novel at close to 700 pages but it kept me interested throughout. There were a myriad of characters involved and the plot lines went from Germany to England to Israel to South Africa with other stops along the way. The characters were well developed and the story was compelling and exciting. The story was along the lines of a Robert Ludlum or Tom Clancy novel and overall I would highly recommend it. I have read several of Iles's other novels including the first three Penn Cage novels and have enjoyed all of them. This one was no exception!

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The Spandau Diary - What was in it? Why did the secret intelligence agencies of every major power want it? Why was a brave beautiful woman kidnapped and sexually tormented to get it? Why did a chain of deception and violent death lash out across the globe, from survivors of the Nazi past to warriors in the new conflict now about to explode? Why did the world's entire history of World War II have to be rewritten as the future hung over a nightmare abyss?

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Great read

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