JJ Toner

Black Orchestra is the first in aa short series of spy/suspense novels. It is an engaging tale and suspenseful enough to keep me reading all the way to the end.
The hero is not the usual pick. He is working for a spy organization in Nazi Germany as a loyal German citizen. nevertheless, he gets tangled up into a few intrigues, each of which is suspenseful and all of which are linked.
The novel is written in a very straightforward style with little time spent in descriptions that would detract from the movement of the story.
I enjoyed the read and actually gave it one more star that I originally thought I would. Its suspenseful nature and well-told story overwhelmed my concerns about the writing style which sometimes seemed too straightforward, providing answers where a little more suspense could have been used. But, as I said, the story was engaging enough that I believe it deserves a favorable rating.… (mer)

Excellent crime thriller. I was drawn into the story from the first page.

Ben Jordan is Detective Inspector with two wives. One is the normal ring-on-her-finger variety, the other comes in the form of his job, and his dedication to the latter shatters his relationship to the former. If that wasn’t bad enough, his inclination to empty bottles of the alcoholic variety lands him in rehab. His first case thereafter is a tough, emotionally draining child-kidnap case: the abduction of a young daughter with high-profile parents. Jordan needs to find little Emily before it’s too late. He finds he has to deal with the lowest of the low: paedophiles and human traffickers. He is aided by two police officers, dedicated and committed to the task in hand. Their tenacity and persistence to find Emily seems to be above and beyond the urgency of the job…and the team has twenty-four hours…

This was fast-paced, focussed, and compelling. Toner is a skilled story teller. I thought he was particularly adept in conveying the personal lives of the police officers with efficiency: enough to make them human, enough to make the reader care about them without disturbing the flow of the plot. His characterisation was equally adept: from the gentle, plucky, and likeable young Emily to the despicable low-life perpetrators.

This was a book (and author) I was glad to have come across.
… (mer)

Black Orchestra is the first in aa short series of spy/suspense novels. It is an engaging tale and suspenseful enough to keep me reading all the way to the end.
The hero is not the usual pick. He is working for a spy organization in Nazi Germany as a loyal German citizen. nevertheless, he gets tangled up into a few intrigues, each of which is suspenseful and all of which are linked.
The novel is written in a very straightforward style with little time spent in descriptions that would detract from the movement of the story.
I enjoyed the read and actually gave it one more star that I originally thought I would. Its suspenseful nature and well-told story overwhelmed my concerns about the writing style which sometimes seemed too straightforward, providing answers where a little more suspense could have been used. But, as I said, the story was engaging enough that I believe it deserves a favorable rating.… (mer)

British agent Kurt Muller’s task seems clear. Go to Germany with fellow agent Pilgrim and bring home British-Canadian agent, Erika. They find Erika who refuses to leave. She has discovered the Nazi’s atomic bomb program. The trio face enormous obstacles in their efforts to stop the first test.
Kurt’s enemies are not only without. Someone cut his parachute rope and there are other signs someone wants him dead.
The backdrop to the action, set in 1943, is the horror of the Nazi regime and the futility of war.
Second World War fiction and thriller aficionados will enjoy this. It’s the sequel to Black Orchestra. Eagle is a stand-alone work but Orchestra will give you the background. I enjoyed both. Orchestra has a stronger emphasis on relationships and characters’ motivation.… (mer)