4.2.06

About: The last novel that I read.

Name: “The ODESSA File”
Author: Frederick Forsyth.

Forsyth known for writing novels based on espionage and spies and the background is often the era of cold war. The stories are gripping and the list of characters often very long. This one for me was very interesting, as the novel kept on moving forward in a straight line. There were twists in the tale but the phenomenon of beating round the bush was absent.
The acronym ODESSA stands for Organisation Der Ehemaligen SS-Angehorigen the English translation for this is Organization of the former member of SS. The plot is based on holocaust. The protagonist is Peter Miller. Peter is a swanky, freelance journalist based in a Hamburg. The plot moves on and the hero gets a diary of a holocaust survivor.
He holocaust survivor painful wrote whatever he had to go through in an endeavour to find the man in charge of his concentration camp. Then Peter decides to bring people to justice. He meets people all over Europe and then forges himself to be a former SS guard.
The ODESSA helps former Nazi officials to change identities in order to escape from the hands of Justice Department set up by the Allies. This department looks into clues and where about of Nazi officials who were guilty of Holocaust atrocities. The ODESSA meanwhile is hell bent on destroying the state of Israel by helping countries like Egypt in gathering nuclear warheads. It has recruited some scientist that will help Egypt. The ODESSA is impregnable and Peter vows to break through it. He is indirectly helped by Israeli authority.
The tale then goes on describing the world of Espionage. Then how the hero wages a lone battle and brings people to justice. The end of the novel is what I loved the most. I would rate it 4 on 5.

2 comments:

Sakshi said...

I liked Odessa file when I had read it too. A long time ago. After a while though all of Forsyth's espionage novels kinda run together. But he covered the anti-Nazi espionage pretty well.

Tarun said...

@ Sakshi: I have read only one Forysth namely "The ODESSA Files"
I think i eill be checking some more of Forsyth.