Saturday, September 17, 2011

Operation Napoleon-Arnaldur Indridason

Operation Napoleon


Arnaldur Indridason

Minotaur, Sep 27 2011, $24.99

ISBN: 9780312659103



In 1945, a bomber containing Americans and Germans crashes into the Vatnajokull Glacier on Iceland. One person leaves the plane during a blizzard rejecting the plane as a coffin. Two Brothers saw the flight and expected a crash but due to weather conditions could not seek help until four days later. American troops arrive, but find almost nothing of a flight and the air base at Reykjavik also knows nothing of it.



In 1999, satellite technology points to a location in the moving glacier. Led by General Carr, the Americans return to Vatnajokull to extract the German bomber from the ice. At the excavation site is Elias who innocently calls his older sister Kristin to tell her what he is doing. The soldiers retrieve his phone from him and send assassins to kill his sister who works at the Iceland Foreign Ministry in Reykjavík. She escapes when her boss comes to yell at her as he is shot in the head. While the Americans do what they do best, run a disingenuous disinformation campaign filled with lies, Kristin investigates Operation Napoleon.



Though Nazi conspiracy thrillers have been done many times, Arnaldur Indridason provides a fresh exhilarating take on the collaboration premise. The American propaganda spin is deftly handled as the media is manipulated to support the endeavor (mindful of the steps leading to the Iraq War) and criminalize Kristin (Mindful of the Wilson-Plame outing). The story line is fast-paced from the opening plane crash and never slows down as the beleaguered heroine escorts readers throughout her country in search of what the Americans fear someone else will find out the truth.



Harriet Klausner







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