Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou — Historical Fiction by Steven Burgauer

Reviewed By Dr. Wesley Britton of Bookpleasures.com November 21, 2016

Don’t let the rather misleading title of Steven Burgauer’s new World War II novel fool you.  Yes, there’s a ring of Nazi spies plotting to blow up a boat building factory in New Orleans.  But the scope of the book reaches far beyond Louisiana and involves many more characters and situations than the small band of unlucky German agents.

The various settings indeed center on New Orleans where Andrew Jackson Higgins, an actual historical figure who in reality did what is described in the novel, is building landing craft for the allies, especially boats that can travel in shallow water, land safely on shores and beaches, and return to the water by a simple change to the propellers.  But we also spend much time in New Orleans bordellos and meet mixed-blood prostitutes, some keenly interested in Haitian voodoo with helpful connections for the U.S. government.  These connections include Sicilian mob families who provide helpful intelligence on the German and Italian defenses of Sicily where an allied invasion is planned using the Higgins boats.

We also spend considerable time with Navajo code-talkers before we spend even more time in bloody South Pacific island hopping by U.S. forces.  We go to London and visit British intelligence where one Commander Ian Fleming makes several appearances.  Burgauer throws in scenes in Cuba, an amphibious invasion by a U.S. squad in Tunisia, as well as a number of U.S. locations described in many a soldier’s backstory.

In short, a lot of moving parts keep this story going with so much rich detail providing every page with verisimilitude, notably in the settings and multi-cultural panorama of the mixed-blood women, soldiers and officers, Mafia bosses and henchmen, and the Navajo code-talkers.  Considerable research is demonstrated from street slang to military technology which, admittedly, often slows the flow in order to get in historical descriptions from World War I battles to engineering specs for Higgin’s boats.  Sometimes, these bits are a tad repetitious, as when Burgauer makes sure all readers know what the acronym, SNAFU, stands for.

While the title isn’t the best choice for what this book includes and some passages can easily be skimmed, Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou is for World War II buffs, those who like historical fiction in general, fans of New Orleans legends and lore, and readers who like espionage yarns spun out with an epic sweep.  In other words, it’s a book for a wide variety of readers.

Reviewer Dr. Wesley Britton: Dr. Britton is the author of four books on espionage in literature and the media. Starting in fall 2015, his new four-book science fiction series, The Beta-Earth Chronicles, will debut via BearManor Media. For seven years, he was co-host of online radio’s Dave White Presents where he contributed interviews with a host of entertainment insiders. Dr. Britton teaches English at Harrisburg Area Community College.

http://www.bookviral.com/nazi-saboteurs-on-the-bayou/4593247975

“In a war that rips apart entire worlds, who can truly be the winner?  Add a dash of romance to the intrigue for a solid World War II thriller that’s intricate, frighteningly realistic, and hard to put down.”

— Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review, December 2016

Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou comes with an intriguing author disclaimer: that the CIA and U.S. Department of Defense continue to deny that the events outlined in this book ever happened — which makes it all the more intriguing a piece of fiction that skirts the line between factual history and a thriller.

The story centers around an event that took place in 1942.  It is not set in the usual military battlefields of Europe or the Pacific but in New Orleans, where the Higgins boat landing craft key to military operations in the Pacific is being manufactured.

A fictional Nazi plot to disrupt the manufacture of these boats involves world arenas as disparate as New Orleans, San Diego, North Africa, and beyond.  Winding this series of events into a short, two-week period may seem ambitious, but in this case it serves to heighten tension, condense the action, and results in a terse story that excels in detailing a tightly-crafted series of events where no word is wasted.

From a half-drunk aristocratic German’s death in a brothel and the discovery of a book that holds a map of the naval facilities nearby (indicating he might be a spy, to other German presences in America and the forces they represent), chapters unfold with the staccato precision of an intrigue and adventure saga spiced by Louisiana dialect and military encounters alike.

It’s a desperate race for all sides as time runs out, and readers will find themselves immersed in the desperate search for a hidden book that involves death and individuals who come from disparate backgrounds: “Deputy Marshal Nolan Greeley was new to the Gulf Coast area.  His previous assignment had been in the Colorado Rockies, not far from where he grew up, the oldest son of German immigrants.  His parents and kin still spoke the language at home.  So did he.  But that job in the mountains had gone south on him when he kept showing up in the field half-drunk.  So the U.S. Marshal Service transferred him down here, to the Gulf Coast District.  For the moment, Greeley rented a home from a woman he met in a local bar his first week on the job, a ramshackle house near New Orleans on the so-called ‘German Coast.’  If he screwed this up, the Gulf Coast would be Greeley’s last stop before a forced retirement.”

An important strength to this story lies in Steven Burgauer’s ability to not just describe a scene, but to take readers aboard ships and land alike for a kind of action that translates well to “you are there” impacts: “Now the big guns onboard the taskforce ships let go a salvo.  The cruiser USS San Juan (CL-54), the destroyers Monssen and Buchanan.  The sound blew away the last vestiges of sleep.  Brock was instantly awake and alert.  Now came the deadly symphony of artillery.  Booming cannon fire.  Banks of deadly rockets.  Shells launched from armored tanks on deck.  All from a menagerie of Navy ships positioned in and around the LSTs in the sea.  “CRA-A-ACK!” Again from the San Juan.  Sixteen, five-inch guns.  Sixteen, one-point-one-inch guns.  The ship heeled over following each discharge from its big guns.”

This attention to detail embraces characters, plot, subplots, and different settings, lending an authentic and riveting feel to events.  From boat contracts and naval forces to sabotage efforts, genuine World War II history is deftly woven into the story line to the point where it’s hard to separate fact from fiction.  In a war that rips apart entire worlds, who can truly be the winner?  Add a dash of romance to the intrigue for a solid World War II thriller that’s intricate, frighteningly realistic, and hard to put down.

“This is a sweeping story of heroism and heartache, bravery and betrayal, set against the backdrop of the cataclysmic events forever remembered as World War Two.  Five stars to Steven Burgauer and his tale of historical World War Two fiction.  May we never again need to live through such a terrible conflict.”

— November 20, 2016, Publishers Daily Reviews

It is 2 a.m. on July 30, 1942, and Heinrich von Brockdorff lies dead in a French Quarter whore’s bed.

It’s a quiet start to a saga that spreads from Mahogany Hall in New Orleans to the war-torn islands of the South Pacific and beyond.  For von Brockdorff is no ordinary “john.”  He is — or was — a strategically placed German spy on American soil.

This is a sweeping story of heroism and heartache, bravery and betrayal, set against the backdrop of the cataclysmic events forever remembered as World War Two.

On July 31, 1942, one day after von Brockdorff dies, his grandson stands sweltering in a sandy foxhole on the tropical island of Fiji.  U.S. Marine PFC Russell Brock never knew his grandfather — and he certainly doesn’t know his grandfather is dead.  He has other things on his mind — such as how to survive the upcoming amphibious assault on heavily fortified Japanese positions.

He will be jumping off the steel-reinforced front ramp of a specially made Higgins boat — also known as an LCVP — Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel.  Coincidentally, the shallow-draft landing craft was made in New Orleans, the scene of his grandfather’s untimely demise.

In a series of cunningly wrought vignettes, author Steven Burgauer pulls together far-flung people, places and events to tell — through fascinating historical side notes and fiction-based-on-fact — the story surrounding the humble LCVP’s genesis and its crucial role in winning the war.

Interwoven with this central thread are the lives and deeds of many colorful characters: crime boss Nico Carolla; luckless prostitute Kentucky Rose; Andrew Jackson Higgins, namesake of the landing craft; PFC Stanley Whitehorse, one of several Navajo Indians vital to developing a war-winning, unbreakable code; Sebastian Grimm, a young captain in the Waffen-SS, and many others.

Of particular note is the author’s gift for dialect in dialogue, often using it to paint compelling word pictures of people and places in the Deep South:

“He had crooked toes.  Dey peeped out of shufflin’ shoes.  His trousers was all torn an’ tattered.  He wore an old frockcoat.  It be all threadbare and smellin’ like burnt cinders.”

Central to the loosely connected stories is the ingenious development of the LCVP, from a small plywood craft capable of carrying only a few dozen men to one that was built entirely of steel, and which could carry many more men or entire pieces of mechanized equipment, including tanks.

The author painstakingly details how Higgins and his dedicated team designed and mass-produced the boats, guarded by both U.S. Marines and a deadly cadre of New Orleans Mafiosi.

It’s a unique arrangement with the mobsters that eventually reaches as far as Sicily and Tunis, where Nico Carolla’s family members, aided by local community residents and fishermen, help the Allies harry and defeat fascist forces on their native land.

Readers are treated to history lessons at every turn in this outstanding read that blends fictional characters with real-life war heroes.  Even famed spy novelist Ian Fleming takes a turn in the story, dispensing out diversionary tactics to be used against the enemy in novel ways.

But what of von Brockdorff and PFC Brock?  And, more importantly, what becomes of the tattered Nazi codebook found sewn into von Brockdorff’s shirt lining?  What secret does it carry that is central to the future of the war — and perhaps the entire world?

These characters come to life for the reader as they pass through the pages and into the imagination.  Nico gets a life-changing surprise and barely survives a rival mob hit.  U.S. Marines firefight their way across several islands, exchanging precious blood for mere feet of Japanese-held soil.  And the Navajo code-talkers call down a rain of artillery shells on the so-called “Sons of Nippon,” each Native American zealously guarded by heavily armed Marine sergeants.

There is so much more in this book that cannot be detailed here.  Suffice to say that fans of both meticulously researched history and little-known wartime events will enjoy it tremendously.

Five stars to Steven Burgauer and his tale of historical World War Two fiction.  May we never again need to live through such a terrible conflict.

          — November 20, 2016, Publishers Daily Reviews

“ . . . a novel for those who love non-fiction . . . ”

        — December 13, 2016, The Book Bag (UK), Ani Johnson

A sudden death in New Orleans’ red light district, the invention of a more effective US military landing craft with a big future, a crime family with links back to occupied Sicily and two Germans lurking suspiciously in America’s southern states.  All these are connected and, as World War II hots up across a fortnight in 1942, the links become more obvious as well as more dangerous.

American author Steven Burgauer informed, scared and touched our hearts when he brought us The Road To War: Duty & Drill, Courage & Capture, the diaries of an American officer trapped in France after D Day.  That time out, in order to add emotional depth to factual memoirs, he fictionalised it slightly.  This time he does it the other way around by treating us to the fictional story of a Nazi plot in the Deep South’s bayous while adding some encyclopaedic facts.

Pretty soon we begin to realise that it’s the facts that take precedence, but that’s not a complaint.  The way Steven writes makes this book different: a novel for those who love non-fiction.  On the way there are some unforgettable characters, who together provide a broad gateway to the history of two weeks during 1942, within post-Pearl Harbour period of the conflict.

For instance via Kentucky Rose and her colleagues we learn not just about the harsh lifestyle of black prostitutes but the barbaric realities of being black in 1940s America.  Their brothel owner and pimp Nico Carolla treats them better than most but this can be a lethal way to earn money.

Nico himself is rather interesting.  As a real life American with a finger in a racquet flavoured pie or two and links to crime families in the Sicilian old country, he is of special interest to American intelligence and the FBI, bringing as much benefit as it does danger.

There are other real people peppered throughout piquing our interest, not all of them as famous as the wartime leaders we’re allowed to observe.  As Exhibit A I offer you Andrew Jackson Higgins, designer/creator of the Higgins landing craft.  Although landing craft in general have been around for a while, there is always room for improvement, especially as the marines approach the Pacific Island landings and the accompanying hazards.

Yes, we definitely travel and not just to the Pacific Islands.  In fact we travel as widely in geography as we do in facts.  We take in places like Bletchley Park and its code breakers, along with the Navajo code breakers back in the States, as well as picking up factoid nuggets like the existence of ‘The Green Book.’  This particular directory listed the places that black Americans of the era are safe to frequent.  Oh and be prepared to smile when you discover what the US marines used to keep their gun nozzles dry.  (Some of you are probably ahead of me on that one!)

By the time the novel’s panoramic plot builds to its crescendo we’ve developed an almost Pavolvian response.  The plot is one that draws us in once we’re used to the patois and dialect of the south, but there are other things to think about than storyline and pacing.  It doesn’t take long for us to realise that conversational cues like ‘What do you mean?’ and ‘What’s that?’ signal a thorough and fascinating explanation that’ll ensure we come away with our history appetites happily sated.

(Grateful thanks to the author for providing us with a copy for review.)

Further Reading: If this appeals, we definitely recommend Burgauer’s The Road to War.  If you’d like to read more of the marines, try The Suicide Run by William Styron.

REVIEW

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Nazi_Saboteurs_on_the_Bayou_by_Steven_Burgauer

PROFILE

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Category:Steven_Burgauer

INTERVIEW

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=The_Interview:_Bookbag_Talks_To_Steven_Burgauer

4 stars out of 5

“The Book Reviewers,” a division of Full Media Ltd. (UK)

November 8, 2016

Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou by Steven Burgauer

“An engaging, slow-burning wartime thriller with an epic feel and a large cast of characters.”

New Orleans might seem an unexpected location for a thriller set in World War II, but in Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou we discover that the city is home not only to a boat-building company vital to the Allies, but also to German-American Nazi sympathizers: a volatile combination.  However, the wider implications of the events that ensue cause ripples throughout the US and UK military, as well as within the New Orleans branch of the Mafia and beyond.  Although the book depicts a number of real-life characters, the statement at the start of the book seems to imply that the events within it happened, but are not acknowledged by any of the relevant authorities — which of course makes it all the more intriguing.

The action is centred around New Orleans, and paints a very vivid picture of the city and the lives and livelihoods of those who lived there during World War II. I have not been to New Orleans, but I feel very much as if I dropped in there for a while in the oppressive heat of late summer 1942!  We also find ourselves in other parts of the world, among codebreakers in the UK and US Marines in the South Pacific.  It took me a while to realise the links between some of the characters and locations, but all is revealed in good time.

The story is peppered liberally with ‘ripping yarns’ and incidental background knowledge.  Characters often share stories and information about the events of World War II up to 1942, as well more general history.  These digressions make for a longer narrative and at times interrupt the flow of the story, but they are ultimately relevant and often interesting.

There are a lot of characters to become acquainted with and initially it feels as if there are almost too many to keep track of, but this changes as the story goes on.  The book is peopled with boat builders, members of the Mafia, codebreakers, prostitutes, spies, marines — including Navajo code-talkers — and German-American New Orleanians.  They are generally portrayed deftly, and mingle very successfully with the real-life characters.  The non-fictional characters, such as Andrew Jackson Higgins, Chester Nez and Ian Fleming, and their roles in World War II, have been researched well and give the story additional weight.

I really enjoyed this well-realised, thought-provoking thriller and its varied cast of characters, as well as the fact that it offers an unusual angle on World War II.  It feels very cinematic at times, and had me thinking about which actors I would pick for the main roles.  And my knowledge of military slang has definitely improved, to boot!

Sarah Nisbet

Summary: Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou is an engaging, slow-burning wartime thriller with an epic feel and a large cast of characters.

Author’s website: https://sites.google.com/site/stevenburgauer/

http://thebookreviewers.com/nazi-saboteurs-bayou-steven-burgauer/