The Bottom Line: A propulsive, high-stakes historical espionage thriller filled with cunning Nazis, patriotic heroes and intellectual banter.
The Last Rival begins in August 1946 – over a year after Germany’s unconditional surrender in World War II. In Washington D.C., ex-American intelligence director, spy and veteran “Wild Bill” Donovan and General George Marshall are mysteriously summoned to the White House to meet with President Truman. In a momentous discussion in the Oval Office, Truman explains that he wants Donovan, with the support of Marshall and other luminaries, to create and manage a covert intelligence organization.
The tantalizing prime directive of the new agency will be ensuring that no one person will be able to seize control of it – a decree with which Donovan is in furious agreement (“We don’t need another Hoover in this country”). The group will explicitly operate without the knowledge of congress, the CIA or the FBI. But the price of independence also means that anyone involved will be taking huge risks – and the U.S. government will disavow any knowledge of their actions.
Among the new recruits are Jim Bolden and Lew Weinman. Both were key figures on the development of the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos County, New Mexico – the development of the nuclear bomb that ended World War II. But while the war may be officially over, the core of the Nazi regime lives on under the codename “Odessa.” The team soon works to confirm intel on the survival and locations of Adolf Hillter, wife Ava Braun, top aides Josef Mengele, Martin Borman, Heinrich Muller, Friedrich Warzok and others.
Thankfully, author Kyle Palmer doesn’t fall into the all-too-common trope of starting the book with a mindless action scene. Instead, he takes his time building the case for the cause, the characters, and ultimately, the payoff. By the books’ second half, the book is a bonafide page turner.
Palmer is hardly the first writer to use the Odessa project as the basis of an espionage thriller, and given just how successful Nazi revenge thrillers tend to be, he certainly won’t be the last. In what is practically a subgenre of espionage fiction, Frederick Forsyth’s The Odessa File told the story through the lens of a journalist, Ira Levin’s The Boys from Brazil involved a plot to clone Hilter, and most screen adaptations focus on Israeli efforts to find and apprehend Nazi’s living in South America.
Palmer’s story differentiates significantly by positioning the surviving Nazis as close to developing a weapon that could result in either their return to power, or global destruction. It’s a satisfying setup packaged by Palmer through the lens of American idealism. From the first scene at the Lincoln Memorial to multiple pieces of dialogue exploring the theme of sacrifice as a cornerstone of patriotism, Palmer’s point of view is consistent from cover-to-cover. Multiple characters are portrayed – both in legend and in example – as willing to risk their lives for their country, exemplifying a deep-seated commitment to freedom and courage.
Palmer’s characters are an intellectual bunch. They routinely quote from Dostoevsky, Shakespeare and the Bible, and Donovan himself continuously demonstrates a deep understanding of history. The result is a tapestry of philosophical and historical musings that successfully balance the book’s action. The Last Rival is the kind of book that, while engrossing, is bound to send readers Googling various quotes and historical figures. That’s a good thing, as the book is about as educational as it is entertaining.
