The Führer’s Prophecy is a superlative sequel to a stunning original by one of last year’s biggest breakout author: Brian Klein.
Part crime novel, part action thriller, part historical story and part mystery, it wears many hats and, somehow, manages to make it look like the height of fashion.
This is exactly what we have come to expect from Klein, who is also a BAFTA Award-winning TV director of Top Gear, representing a winning formula that led to his debut, 2021’s political thriller The Counterfeit Candidate becoming a number one Amazon bestseller.
And like that novel, which amassed thousands of rave reviews from both readers and celebrities alike, The Führer’s Prophecy will appeal to anyone who adores fast-paced, high-concept thrillers, as well as those who appreciate fiction connected with the Second World War and the Nazis.
Underpinned by the potent ‘What If?’ premise of Adolf Hitler surviving World War Two – in this case, taking up a new identity in Argentina where he raised a family while building a business empire – it reintroduces us to der Führer’s grandson, the villainous John George Franklin.
If you’ve already read The Counterfeit Candidate, you’ll know that Franklin’s race to the White House was stopped in its tracks when his real heritage, and aspirations to complete Hitler’s work, were exposed.
He’d been presumed dead but, as with all the best fictional baddies, he’s returned, a decade later, in 2022 when the world already has quite enough on its plate with Covid.
Using lockdown to his advantage, with all eyes elsewhere, Franklin has hatched a plan to achieve his infamous ancestor’s goal of exterminating the Jewish people by attacking Israel.
Being the son of Richard Franklin, CEO of the Franklin Pharmaceutical Corporation in San Francisco, he has had the time and resources to create a super drug that, when imbibed, renders the victim sterile.
His goal is to introduce this untraceable super drug to Israel’s water supply to effectively stop Jewish women being able to reproduce. It’s annihilation on a generational level, but annihilation all the same.
At the start of the novel, this super drug has already been tested on unsuspecting women and has been proven to be 100 percent effective in blocking the Fallopian tubes.
Now all that Franklin needs is hired muscle to help him deliver the drug – chiefly terrorist Matias Paz, whom he busts out of jail in dramatic style, striking the maximum security prison in an air raid, and the Taliban, who have a long-running hatred of the Jews and are more than happy to sell Franklin a fleet of helicopters inadvertently bequeathed to them by the Americans at the end of the War in Afghanistan.
This then, is a dark criminal underworld, where lives are easily dispensed with – often in brutal fashion – and the assembled crew are malevolent, back-stabbing mercenaries.
Fans of the first novel will go wild to hear that Chief Inspector Nicholas Vargas of the Buenos Aires Police Department and LA cop Troy Hembury also return, once again to bring down Franklin before it’s too late.
But despite their best efforts, they always seem to be one step behind the Nazi criminals.
The final showdown will be in the Holy Land itself, where the forces of evil will battle with law and order for the fate of an entire nation.
A wild rollercoaster that’s thrilling from the beginning to the end, The Führer’s Prophecy is the very definition of the term ‘gripping’.
Not one word is wasted in this thrilling tale which brings everything to the stage – plots and double plots, bullet-drenched battles, torture, and murder.
As tight as an anaconda’s embrace, the action-led plot ensures there is never a dull moment along the way and the storyline is made all the more urgent by well-timed flashbacks to the past.
Set during WW2, we see inside Nazi death camp Auschwitz, where the groundwork for Franklin’s plan is laid.
Here, in Block 10, ‘Angel of Death’ Josef Mengele’s conducts fertility-related experiments on Jewish women.
These scenes are harrowing to read but they bring an air of reality to the fantastic that pushes the present-day stakes even higher.
In another nod to the past, we come to learn where the book’s intriguing title originated, referring to Hitler’s public call for the “annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”.
This chilling speech, given at the Reichstag in January 1939, would soon come to be labelled ‘The Führer’s Prophecy’.
The way that these different strands come together so cohesively in the book, and how they are amply supported by a well-drawn rollcall of heroes and antagonists – including Hitler himself – is no doubt thanks to Klein’s expertise in delivering much-watch television.
Respected in the entertainment industry as Top Gear’s longest-serving director, standing at 28 series so far, he is also the man behind the camera of Sky Max’s most-popular entertainment show, A League of Their Own Roadtrip, as well as classic TV shows This Is Your Life, and the BBC’s Crimewatch and Watchdog.
On top of this, he has worked with some of the UK’s most popular stand-up comedians, filming a multitude of DVDs and Netflix specials for the likes of Jimmy Carr, Micky Flanagan, Frankie Boyle and Jack Whitehall, to name but a few.
He clearly knows, then, how to make something that is accessible, entertaining, and unmissable, with more hooks on display than you’d find at a fishing tournament.
Every scene seems to have a slight twist and turn, and the way Klein draws us in to his characters – even the most detestable ones – shows true skill.
I also loved the way the story develops, leading us across the globe, and how it shows us many different perspectives, from those of the cold-blooded killers to the casualties in waiting.
A superb thriller where Mossad and the Taliban come head to head, The Führer’s Prophecy builds upon its prequel and, with a jaw-dropping finale, sets us up for a third and final entry in what is now called ‘The Reich Trilogy’.
With The Counterfeit Candidate currently being adapted for the small screen, this is the perfect time to jump in and find out for yourself what all the fuss is about.
Audaciously entertaining, it has to be a genuine contender for this year’s best thriller and will no doubt prove just as big a hit as its predecessor.
The Führer’s Prophecy by Brian Klein (Spirit Entertainment) is out now on Amazon, priced £8.99 in paperback and audiobook formats, and £2.99 as an eBook. For more information, visit www.brianklein.tv or follow Brian Klein on Instagram.
If the book review for The Führer’s Prophecy by number one bestselling author Brian Klein has already piqued your interest then here is an exclusive extract to further whet the appetite.
It was an industrial-scale rant, even by his standards.
“I am sick to the very pit of my stomach. I am repulsed by this event. Thinking about it makes my flesh crawl … It’s the ultimate mark of failure and betrayal.”
The Führer was incandescent with rage. Adolf Hitler’s piercing blue eyes burned with fury as he let rip at Martin Bormann. The two notorious Nazis the world believed had died in Berlin were very much alive and mortified as they listened to the world news on a Zenith Console Radio Phonograph, which was in imminent danger of being destroyed by the Führer’s flailing arms.
For almost three years Hitler, Bormann and Eva Braun had been living in secrecy in the obscure town of El Calafate, situated near the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz. Bormann had masterminded the trio’s escape from Berlin twenty-four hours before the Red Army reached Hitler’s infamous bunker, and the three of them now lived under fake identities in an enormous farmhouse known as El Blondi, along with four guards, a maid, a housekeeper and a cook. They’d taken the surname Franklin, with Hitler and Bormann posing as brothers Gerald and Ronald, and Eva Braun playing the role of Gerald’s wife, Emilia Franklin.
The cultured voice on the radio that had sparked Hitler’s anger belonged to David Ben-Gurion, the executive head of the World Zionist Organization, who was declaring the establishment of a Jewish homeland to be known as the State of Israel. An Argentine commentator was talking over the Hebrew speech in Latin American Spanish, which Bormann was doing his best to translate.
“Führer, as we feared, Jews, whatever their nationality, now have a permanent homeland. With the unqualified backing of the United States – prompted by its despicable Jewish lobby, this new country of Israel will become a beacon for Jews across the world.”
The two men were inside Hitler’s vast pine-panelled study listening to the broadcast. Bormann was sitting in a brown leather armchair close to the radio, while the Führer paced the room spouting profanities every time his fellow Nazi threw him another nugget of information.
“Martin, the creation of this new country represents an enduring threat to everything we believe in. For so many years we were successful in culling this subhuman race and now the Western powers – in their madness, have given it the chance to procreate and prosper in a state of legitimacy.”
As the broadcast came to an end, Hitler, who had been animated throughout the transmission, appeared to run out of energy, as if a mystery force had somehow disconnected his batteries. He slowly walked across the room to his imposing desk and slumped into the chair behind it, shaking his head in denial of the new reality.
Bormann, the ultimate arch-manipulator, had known this day was coming for months and had prepared a surprise to lift his beloved Führer’s spirits.
“There might be a long-term solution to this new problem, Führer. I have arranged for a special house guest to arrive at El Blondi in the morning – a respected scientist who shares your passion for Operation Gesamtkunstwerk.”
