The Kaiser's Web

Here comes the time for my yearly ritual, a new Cotton Malone book. They never fail to make me excited and I definitely needed that today, when I'm feeling sick. And I'm even more glad that I got to read this early.

Every book in this series has been something I've read mostly in a single sitting because the author captures my attention right from the prologue and I can't stop myself. As someone who loves books related to Nazi Germany and WWII, the plot of this one was fascinating and I really loved how the author mentioned all the actual historical events in his note. That's definitely one of the things which brings me back to this series every year - in the middle of all the impossible plot lines and amazing chases and action sequences, I also get to know some real history and visit some amazing new places through the book. I especially loved the descriptions of the locales in South Africa and some of the estates which were visited by the characters.

It was also exciting to see Cotton and Cassiopeia together for a whole book after a long time. They really do make a wonderful team and I enjoyed this adventure with them. All the side characters were also well developed, especially the two politicians whose dramatically opposite ideologies were fascinating to read about. I was actually surprised that the author didn't shy away from expressing his political views through the characters, but his alarm over the rise of far right political parties and their violent extremism all across Europe is genuine and something we all need to keep an eye over.

In the end, this book gave me everything I was expecting - a cool adventure, an interesting twist on historical events, lots of political intrigue and some fun globetrotting. If these are some elements you enjoy, you should totally read this book. Even though this is part of a series, I think it works fine as a standalone. But as a huge fan of the series, I would always recommend that you start at the beginning and enjoy the journey.