Fiction, Fiction Subjects

The Iron Men

Name: The Iron Men
Author: Leonard B. Scott
ISBN: 9780804113038

by Leonard B. Scott

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Overview

Leonard Scott's extraordinary first novel, Charlie Mike, was hailed by The Washington Post as "one of the finest novels yet written about the war in Vietnam." With several more highly praised novels to his credit, Leonard Scott now moves beyond Vietnam with a daring story of war and revenge that carries us from the second World War to the present. Centered on Berlin, The Iron Men tells of men who wear the Iron Cross and uphold the tradition of duty and honor. It is the end of WWII and Germany is falling. Axel Mader and Jorn Furman are young paratroop officers and recipients of the Knight's Cross, Germany's highest class of Iron Cross. Axel and Jorn's unit is falling back to defend Berlin before the advance of the Russian army. But a unit of the SS has been ordered to shoot any German soldiers who retreat and SS Captain Horst Volker gives the order to open fire. Axel and Jorn escape but vow to avenge the comrades they loved, now dead. As Germany enters its tumultuous post-war era, we follow Horst Volker as he becomes the most powerful and ruthless leader within Stasi, the infamous East German secret police. We also follow the lives of Axel and Jorn, one in West Germany and one caught in the East. But their fates will be entangled with a soldier of the new generation. Jake Tallon, a washed-up American lieutenant colonel, is assigned to Berlin with the hope that he can save his career. When he falls in love with Kris, Axel Mader's daughter, he finds that he has something else in common with her father. Jake too, is an iron man, for he wears the Distinguished Service Cross he earned for valor as a platoon leader in Vietnam. It will now be three iron men who join together in Berlin just before the fall of the Wall, to confront Horst Volker and the legacy of the past.... Filled with the superbly described action and understanding of the fighting man that have won Leonard Scott both wide critical acclaim and a huge readership, The Iron Men is an exciting breakthrough,

A sweeping novel that spans the headlines of Berlin's last half century, from the acclaimed, bestselling author of Charlie Mike. Two German officers manage to escape at the end of World War II; decades later, their fates will be entangled with a soldier of the new generation.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Scott, whose previous novels ( The Expendables ; Charlie Mike ) focused on the Vietnam War, has written a readable but highly contrived thriller that spans the past 40 years in Germany. During the waning days of WW II, a band of battle-weary Luftwaffe paratroopers is tactically retreating on the outskirts of Berlin. Sadistic SS captain Horst Wolker orders his men to execute them as ``traitors to the Fatherland.'' Paratrooper captain Alex Mader pleads with Volker, explaining that his unit is low on ammunition, and moreover, the soldiers are all ``Iron Men,'' recipients of Germany's highest military honor, the Knight's Cross. Unmoved, Volker orders the mass execution to proceed, but Mader and two others are spared when the hum of Soviet tanks prompts the SS to flee. Decades pass; Volker, fittingly, has become the director of Stasi, the East German secret police, and the three surviving Iron Men are still bent on revenge. In 1989, Jake Tallon, a U.S. Army colonel (and former Special Forces hotshot in Vietnam), is assigned to West Berlin; he befriends Mader and assists the Iron Men in their attempt to settle an old score. Though the narrative is slow going in the interval between the wars, the novel's gung-ho characters and exciting climax redeem it from Scott's tendency to rely on coincidence. (Apr.)

Library Journal

In 1945, Axel Mader and Jorn Furman are young officers and recipients of the Iron Cross. When SS Captain Horst Volker guns down their unit for retreating, they vow vengeance. Forty years later in West Berlin, American Lieutenant Colonel Jake Tallon gets mixed up with Mader's daughter and finds that as a soldier he has many of the same feelings as the ``Iron Men'' about manhood and honor. These new-found compatriots discover that Volker is running the East German secret police, but with the Wall coming down old Nazis need to make themselves useful to the West. Bloodshed and treachery result. Among these characters, only combat soldiers have true honor, and everyone else is either feminine or corrupt. Still, the action scenes are good. Recommended where there is demand for male-bonding thrillers. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/92.-- Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army TRALINET Ctr., Fort Monroe, Va.