Historical thriller takes readers back to turbulent era

“The Saboteur: a Novel” (Minotaur) by Andrew Gross

An engineer from Oslo attempts to disrupt the Nazi war machine at the height of World War II in “The Saboteur,” the latest historical thriller by Andrew Gross.

Kurt Nordstrum has lost his fiancee, and much of everything else he holds dear. He sneaks back into his hometown and sees the full integration of German forces. Nordstrum learns of an isolated factory hidden inside Norway where the Nazis are building a terrifying weapon. With a few close friends, he hijacks a passenger ship bound for Germany and steers it toward England. With the help of some British forces, they arrive in Scotland. With the information in hand, they join a team of Norwegian Freedom Fighters with a suicidal mission to take out the factory.

Nordstrum becomes the go-to guy for the impossible missions to stop the onslaught and assist the Allied forces. If he succeeds, his efforts will make the path to victory easier. If he fails, the Germans will have a path to full domination.

Gross takes readers back in time to a turbulent and terrifying era. Like his previous novel, “The One Man,” he immerses the reader in the 1940s with sympathetic characters while focusing on the lone wolf who faces impossible odds, but has no other choice. He also uses real historical figures and events with some slight name changes, demonstrating that with a talented writer at the helm, the past can truly come alive. 

“The Saboteur” is a terrific thriller. Jeff Ayers, AP