Product Description

In January 1944, six British officers tunnelled out of Colditz, the German prison camp that was supposed to be escape proof. Three were captured after a few hours, while the remaining three stayed on the run. Two, Captain Ben Thomas and Pilot Officer Robert Beauchamp made it to safety, while the third, Lt. George Irby, was shot as he tried to cross the border. In January 1994, Thomas and Beauchamp are back in Colditz, this time at a Colditz Veteran's reunion. As the men discuss the war it becomes clear that Irby may not have died. Thomas and Beauchamp attempt to track down their comrade and discover that Irby was involved in something sinister, something far larger than merely trying to escape.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #533619 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

The Literary Review
Gripping, ingenious two-part spy story...Clear, compelling storyline, traditional in style and respectfully reminiscent of Le Carré’s bleak adventures.

About the Author
Guy Walters was a jouralist on The Times for eight years, travelling around the world and reporting on a wide variety of subjects. He is married to the author Annabel Venning and they have one son. He is also the co-editor of THE VOICE OF WAR, an anthology of World War Two memoirs.

Customer Reviews

Easy to read, but not very challenging
Although this is a fast-moving novel, it doesn't challenge or inspire the reader in any meaningful way. There is very little character development, the writing is not inspirational, and the plot, despite all the promise, is really very basic. The story operates in two time periods - the first half of the book deals with the two main characters (who do not have a stong relationship) during WWII and the second half with one of them attempting to rescue the other, thought to be imprisoned in East Germany, some 30 years later. Despite the potential for some great story-telling, the book fails to live up to expectations. Walters has done better before but this effort is far too casual and was a let-down for me.

Entertaing but seriosly flawed
Guy Walters writes an entertaining story, which is why I keep coming back to him even though two of his previous three novels have left me incredibly disappointed. The Colditz legacy follows a similar pattern to his last book, `The Occupation' as it is set both during the war years and in the latter half of the twentieth century. However, where `The Occupation' flitted between the two throughout the story, Colditz is split into two halves. This works better than `Occupation' as I got bored with the more modern story of an investigation into radiation poisoning which detracted from the (slightly) more interesting story of war time occupation in the Channel Islands. While the separation of the two time periods works better, `Colditz' never manages to grab either era by the scruff of the neck and, left my feeling rather unsatisfied by them both.

The first part of the book is set in Colditz Castle during the war, and was definitely the stronger of the two parts. The retreat through Greece was nicely dealt with and Captain Hartley's initial capture and escape by the German's was nicely realised. I found myself happily page turning at this point. His initial acclimatisation to Colditz and his relationship with his fellow prisoners was also well dealt with. However, where the novel falls down is the principle relationship between Hartley and Captain Royce. The relationship between the two men is never very believable, and you would doubt that Hartley would give a second thought to Royce (who he takes an initial dislike to), let alone escape with him. Also, even though it is a book about escapes, the escape from the castle and race to the border lacked both incident and suspense.

The second half of the book deals with the DDR and the cold war, and I felt that the story only scratched the surface of the possibilities with this premise. Also, some of the scenes with the Stasi seemed all too familiar and felt by-the-numbers. Throughout the second half I once again felt myself questioning Hartley's motives as it seemed all the way through his adventures in Eastern Germany that he was expecting the events of the downbeat ending a long time before it happened. Also, the suggestions of Royce's big secret hinted at in the early part of the book were resolved in the most disappointing of ways and felt a bit rushed.

Overall though, I still got swept up in the general story and finished the book quickly. I just wish that either the author or the publisher would have been braver with the length of the book, as it felt 200 or so pages short in both character and plot development. `The Leader' remains Guy Walter's best fictional work and I pray that he can get close to level of that novel with his next work.

Rushed and Unsatisfying
The Colditz Legacy is an unsatisfying book. Trying to be partly an account of life in the infamous Colditz POW Camp and partly a Cold War espionage thriller, it succeeds at neither.

The part of the story actually set in the WWII era-Colditz is so brief that as a reader you almost feel mislead by the title. It lacks any significant thrills (the escape is so straight forward and lacking in incident that it become anti-climatic), is full of stereotypes of one sort or another, and provides no new insight into life in this notorious prison.

The Cold War era stuff also adds nothing new to the cannon of spy fiction. Its portrayal of life in the former East Germany has been done better by other authors and the thriller aspects of the plot feel far fetched (we're asked to believe that an otherwise rational man who survived Colditz and rose to a senior level in MI6 would risk his life for a man he thought dead for thirty years and who he didn't even like that much when he knew him).

There is an attempt to be clever and mirror events in the 1940's with later events in 1973, but in trying to do so the author has to sacrifice versimiltude. Characters incarcerated in a supposedly escape proof castle break out with very little trouble, twice (despite one of them being old and infirm on the second occasion). After both attempts they are then free to cross Nazi and Communist Germany respectviely with barely any problems in order to repeat (with a twist) similar events when trying to cross a border into safe territory.

The central characters themselves are sketchily drawn, with supporting players nothing more than stereotypes or cyphers. The book's economical length means that events often feel rushed or time is truncated to such an extent that months are sometimes squeezed into mere pages of text. For a book about escapes there is comparatively little action and the conclusion is downbeat (in common with previous books by this author) and as unsatisfying as everything that has gone before.

Colditz and its 'legacy' has been handled far better elsewhere, as has the history of East Germany. Rather than waste time on this half-baked, rushed effort I suggest readers with an interest in these subjects seek out other sources of information on them.