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Overview
Second Lieutenant Tommy Hart, a navigator whose B-25 was shot out of the sky in 1942, is burdened with guilt as the only surviving member of his crew. Now he is just another POW at the fiercely guarded Stalag Luft 13 in Bavaria.
Then routine comes to a halt with the arrival of a new prisoner: First Lieutenant Lincoln Scott, an African American Tuskegee airman who instantly becomes the target of contempt from his fellow soldiers. When a prisoner is brutally murdered, and all the blood-soaked evidence points to Scott, Hart is tapped to defend the soldier. In a trial rife with racial tension and raw conflict, where the lines between ally and enemy blur, there are those with their own secret motives, and a burning passion for a rush to judgment, no matter what the cost.
Synopsis
In John Katzenbach's spellbinding new novel, Hart's War -- a vivid and authentic murder mystery/legal drama set in a brutal German POW camp during World War II -- a black American flyer is on trial for butchering a racist prisonmate, and it's up to a Harvard Law student to uncover the grisly truth. Intriguing and suspenseful, Hart's War will bowl you over with its vitality, engaging characters, and inventive and suspenseful plot.
Publishers Weekly
Vivid and unpredictable characters and diabolically imagined suspense distinguish Katzenbach's (The Shadow Man) seventh novel. Set in the desperately bleak landscape of a German POW compound during the latter days of WWII, this is a thriller with more on its mind than entertainment, as Katzenbach tackles the theme of racial bias that breeds explosive consequences. Held captive since 1942, 2nd Lt. Tommy Hart — ex-Harvard Law student and navigator on an ill-fated B-25 — is one of the most senior POWs at Stalag Luft 13 when African-American 1st Lt. Lincoln Scott, P-51 pilot, arrives as a new prisoner in May of 1944. Abrasively antisocial, lone-wolf Scott isolates himself from the other American officers, and quickly becomes the target of racial hatred from oft-decorated, Mississippi-born Capt. Vincent Bedford, aka "Trader Vic" — a treacherous wheeler-dealer who will barter anything to friend or enemy alike. He is soon found in the latrine with his throat cut and Hart is appointed to defend the obvious suspect, Scott, against what seems to be his impending rendezvous with a firing squad. Facing almost hopeless odds, Hart enlists the aid of two British POWs with astute forensic credentials. Slowly, a pattern of deceit begins to take shape, revealing duplicity from both POWs and captors. Katzenbach's setting is flawlessly grim, and his characters chillingly reveal the divisive bigotry of soldiers ostensibly fighting for the same values, as well as some unexpected sources of redemption. Despite some unnecessary repetitive details (e.g., the ineffectively recurring symbol of Hart's cherished wristwatch), this deeply affecting, artfully paced war epic will hold readers enthralled to the nail-biting end.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
A German POW camp during WWII serves as the setting for Hart's War. This book is a brick, but a fascinating, intense adventure. Part legal thriller, part war novel, part murder mystery, this was one of my favorite reads of 1999.--Andrew LeCount
Publishers Weekly -
Vivid and unpredictable characters and diabolically imagined suspense distinguish Katzenbach's (The Shadow Man) seventh novel. Set in the desperately bleak landscape of a German POW compound during the latter days of WWII, this is a thriller with more on its mind than entertainment, as Katzenbach tackles the theme of racial bias that breeds explosive consequences. Held captive since 1942, 2nd Lt. Tommy Hart — ex-Harvard Law student and navigator on an ill-fated B-25 — is one of the most senior POWs at Stalag Luft 13 when African-American 1st Lt. Lincoln Scott, P-51 pilot, arrives as a new prisoner in May of 1944. Abrasively antisocial, lone-wolf Scott isolates himself from the other American officers, and quickly becomes the target of racial hatred from oft-decorated, Mississippi-born Capt. Vincent Bedford, aka "Trader Vic" — a treacherous wheeler-dealer who will barter anything to friend or enemy alike. He is soon found in the latrine with his throat cut and Hart is appointed to defend the obvious suspect, Scott, against what seems to be his impending rendezvous with a firing squad. Facing almost hopeless odds, Hart enlists the aid of two British POWs with astute forensic credentials. Slowly, a pattern of deceit begins to take shape, revealing duplicity from both POWs and captors. Katzenbach's setting is flawlessly grim, and his characters chillingly reveal the divisive bigotry of soldiers ostensibly fighting for the same values, as well as some unexpected sources of redemption. Despite some unnecessary repetitive details (e.g., the ineffectively recurring symbol of Hart's cherished wristwatch), this deeply affecting, artfully paced war epic will hold readers enthralled to the nail-biting end.People Magazine
Hart's War honors [World War II's history] while making a significant mark in the suspense genre.Kirkus Reviews
A courtroom drama with an interesting spin on "change of venue," the venue here being a German POW camp. Lieutenant Tommy Hart, sole survivor of a downed B-25, is spending his war in Stalag Luft 13. Like his fellow prisoners, Tommy is bedeviled by his keepers, debilitating homesickness, near starvation, and, perhaps worst of all, tedium. He counters the last by setting himself a major project: reading the law. A third-year student at Harvard when the war interrupted, Tommy's been tapping the Red Cross for books so that he can fill his educational gaps. Then an unsettling, even scary, thing happens. He finds himself thrust into a courtroom for real. More — he's first chair in a capital case. Still more — the defendant, his client, Lieutenant Lincoln Scott, appears to have been caught dead to rights. And even that doesn't fully cover it. For 1942, Lieutenant Scott is the wrong color — part of a pioneering wave of black fighter pilots, a color not popular at Stalag Luft 13. On the other hand, the man Scott's accused of murdering could have run for the Stalag presidency and won in a walk. Tommy quickly realizes that he's been placed in first chair mostly so that it can be pulled out from under him: Both he and his client have been set up. At first, their alliance is fragile; then it strengthens as they battle to expose liars and conspirators, in and out of the courtroom, whatever uniform they might wear.As usual with Katzenbach (State of Mind, 1997, etc.), there's just too much novel here, some of it pat and predictable besides. Intermixed, however, are scenes of considerable power, even a few of tenderness. On balance, maybe the author's best.