Dead Ground (Spoils Of War Book Nine) by Graham Hurley

 

Dead Ground (Spoils of War Book Nine) by Graham Hurley.

Published 4th July 2024 by Aries.

From the cover of the book:

A young British nurse experiences the devastating Spanish Civil War and the dark side of the espionage game in this gripping World War Two thriller from Graham Hurley.

1936. Anglo-Breton translator Annie Wrenne is working in Madrid when the Spanish Civil War breaks out. Annie becomes a nurse on the front line, but after falling in love with a patient, she ends up pregnant - and abandoned - by a man she thought she knew.

Annie passes the rest of the war in a haze, her only consolation her relationship with mysterious Republican fighter Carlos Ortega. Annie finds herself caught up in Ortega's world, a web of intrigue, which leads to her recruitment into MI5.

On her first mission, Annie must pose as Ortega's wife and head to Algeciras. Hitler's Operation Felix - his plan to control the Mediterranean and force Churchill to the negotiating table - has been set into motion, and the 'couple' must help prevent the Nazis from seizing Gibraltar.

But Ortega has secretly been working for the Nationalists, part of Madrid's Fifth Column. If it falls to Annie - and Ortega - to save the day for the Allied cause, can she trust a man who has changed sides yet again?

From award-winning author Graham Hurley, the latest thrilling instalment in the Spoils of War Collection, a non-chronological series of novels set during World War II and featuring some of the most momentous stories and figures of the era.

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Madrid, 1936. Translator Annie Wrenne is pulled into a bloody conflict when the Spanish Civil War breaks out. Being Anglo-Breton, Annie is used to divided loyalties, however nothing has prepared her for what she sees when she takes a job as a nurse on the front line. The last thing on her mind is falling in love, but when she meets a charming Englishman recuperating from his wounds, the stolen moments they share develop into a passionate romance.

When Annie is betrayed by her lover, she drifts through the grisly haze of wartime in an exhausted trance, until another patient, Republican fighter, Carlos Ortega (known mysteriously as El Diablo) introduces her to the undercover world of espionage. With the Spanish Civil War over, and the country in tatters, Annie's language skills make her ideally placed to help with the conflict now waging in the rest of Europe. Recruited by M15 operative Tam Moncrief, she becomes part of a vital mission to prevent the Nazis getting a foothold in Gibraltar. But can she trust her partner El Diablo...?

Dead Ground is the ninth novel in the spectacular non-chronological Spoils of War series by Graham Hurley, which explores fascinating aspects of World War II and related conflicts. There are recurring characters in these books, who you meet at different stages in their murky careers, but these can be read as stand-alone novels.

This time, Hurley turns his considerable insight and writing talent towards the Spanish Civil War and the impact this had on the Second World War that followed in its wake - especially the time when the fate of Great Britain lay in the balance as the Nazis swept across Europe in a seemingly unstoppable tide. With his familiar style of seamlessly mixing fact and fiction, filling in the gaps of momentous moments in World War II history, Hurley begins by immersing you in the bloody mess of civil war. Hurley holds nothing back of the chaos and horror of the conflict that set Spaniard against Spaniard, by looking at events through the eyes of Anglo-Breton translator-turned-nurse Annie Wrenne (a character we got to know very well in the previous book The Blood of Others, which was set later in World War II). Annie's perspective is important, as it focuses the eye on the part played by non-Spaniards in the war, and how Spain later became a pivotal territorial asset. Her role as a broken-hearted go-between opens up an opportunity to become involved in so much more than putting broken bodies back together, when her intensely personal story blows wide open...

Meanwhile, plots are afoot in Europe to gain advantage in the war Hitler's ambitions have given birth to, and Hurley introduces more familiar fictional, and real life, characters from the series to weave multiple storylines, that eventually bring in Annie and her dubious comrade Ortega. Hitler wants access to Gibraltar (Operation Felix), MI5 agent Moncrief must lead the mission to prevent this, and within Germany itself the unhappy relationship between old school Admiral Wilhelm Canaris' Abwehr intelligence service and the upstarts of Heinrich Himmler's single-minded SS goons is causing internal strife. What follows is a rollicking blend of delicious espionage shenanigans, military machinations, a touch and go assassination affair, and a highly entertaining stolen art caper, that is as thrilling as it is enlightening.

Hurley really brings the past alive, bringing all the complex threads together in an orgy of twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat, and allow you to understand the kind of scheming that goes on in the shadows of the events history records. In this case, I am surprised by how little I did know about Operation Felix and its importance. And how he uses shades of meaning of the cracking title, Dead Ground (an area hidden from direct fire), in so many aspects of this gripping novel is truly impressive. 

This is my absolute go-to series when it comes to understanding the history of World War II and its related conflicts. I am always in awe of the way he writes about these recurring characters so beautifully, to fit in with what you may (or may not) know about the events in the past and future in the other books. This is the fifth of the books I have read in the Spoils of War series so far, and I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every one.

Dead Ground is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to head of Zeus for ending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Ransom PR for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Graham Hurley worked for ITV for fifteen years as an award winning documentary director/producer. Networked documentaries included the discovery and filming of the seabed remains of the Titanic; Richard Branson's near-fatal crossing of the North Atlantic in a hot-air balloon; an investigative account of the Brighton bombing; four freezing weeks in the high Canadian Arctic exploring the last of the Eskimo culture; plus revisionist documentaries on the retreat to Dunkirk (Comrades in Arms) and the post D-Day thrust into Europe (The War Within).

Graham is the author of the acclaimed Faraday and Winter crime novels. Two of the critically lauded series have been shortlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Award for Best Crime Novel. The first Wars Within novel, Finisterre, was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize.