4 out of 4 stars
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The Warramunga's War, written by Greg Kater, is a historical fiction which was inspired by his father's experience during the war in the Middle East. The fictional characters even interact with actual historical figures and real life events.
Lieutenant James Munro and Corporal Jack O'Brien were part of the army that was fighting the pro-Nazi Vichy French in Syria and Lebanon in 1941. They were both Australian-born, but Jacko was half Warramunga. Later, they were both reassigned to Cairo as part of the MI6 team. Their job was to quietly track down and round up German spies who were secretly transmitting information to Rommel, the German general known as the Desert Fox. Besides searching for German spies, they were also helping the local police try to find a rapist/murderer who had killed six women and left their bodies in abandoned buildings. Were they successful in either of these missions?
After the war was over, Jamie and Jacko worked three years for Allied Intelligence in New Guinea and parts of Southeast Asia. After this, they were sent to Australia to hunt down two German spies who had posed as American engineers and disappeared from sight, slipping away from the MI6 team. And so started another hellish adventure of tracking down dangerous fugitives. Would it ever end?
I found this book refreshing in that there wasn't all the blood and gore that is usually found in war stories. Even though, there was never a dull moment. It felt like I was there experiencing the action right beside the others. The author used many minor characters giving them each a unique personality. Their interactions with the main characters were captivating. I enjoyed the use of the Australian slang, all new words to me, which Google helped me to understand fair dinkum (meaning to proclaim a fact or truth). Besides the Australian slang, there were also French words, German words, and the Aborigine's language of Tok Pisin that were sporadically thrown in at just the right moments.
The story flowed together well. The author cleaned up all of the loose ends by the end of the story. However, I could feel the hint of another story coming on. Since I really enjoyed the first book in this trilogy, I hope to be able to read the next two books as well. I recommend The Warramunga's War to anyone who likes to read war stories or adventure stories. There was a tiny bit of romance included which added a little intrigue to the story. The author kept it clean, so there were no sexually explicit scenes. The only thing I was disappointed with though, was that Jamie's personality was rather dull. His character could have been developed a bit more.
Because of the difference in punctuation rules in Australia as opposed to here in America, I ignored comma placement. If it had been an American book, it would have failed Comma 101. Other than that, I only came across a few minor errors of small words being left out, such as the word "as" when saying "as well as". The spelling of a girl's name was changed partway through the book from "Fahmy" to "Fahmi", and then it went back to the original spelling again. Because of the great plot line and the author's wonderful writing skill, I rate this book, The Warramunga's War, a 4 out of 4 stars.
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The Warramunga's War
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