Review by Ubyamos -- The Warramunga's War by Greg Kater

[Ubyamos]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Warramunga's War" by Greg Kater.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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The Warramunga's War by Greg Kater is a historical fiction novel published by Zeus publications, Australia in 2018. It tells a story of two native Australian Army Officers James Munro (Also known as Jamie) and Jack O'Brien (Also known as Jacko) who are pulled from fighting the war in Australia and sent to Cairo, Egypt to perform spy duties for the army there. In Cairo, they join another Australian Army Officer based in Cairo by name Matthew Macaulay (Also known as Matt) and a British MI6 operative by name Johnny Cook (Also known as Johnny). The four of them, with the help of local girls in Cairo extracts information from the German spies in Egypt. They send this information to the Generals in the army in Egypt who then used it to plan war strategies. Sometimes they also use the local girls to feed the German spies with false information. After the war in Egypt, Jamie and Jacko returned to Australia. In Australia, they are attached to the CIS (Commonwealth Investigation Service) unit and given the task of tracking down two fugitives who were suspected to be German spies. The tracking down and arresting of these criminals takes the remaining half of the book.

The story was continuous without many distracting plot twists. This helps to keep the reader focused on the main point and makes it more interesting to read. The conversations also flowed naturally except in few places where they seemed incomplete or rushed. The author always drops a hint or hints on what the next chapter will talk about at the end of a particular chapter. This took away the suspense but it was okay since the book was not a thriller anyway.

I loved the setting this book. Australia and Egypt are far from my country and I like reading books that the setting is in other countries. It gives me a chance to learn few things about those countries. I also like the author's detailed background description of the towns in Australia during the time that Jamie and Jacko were tracking down those criminals. It helped me to have an idea of how this part of Australia was back then in 1945.

I did not like the fact that the phrases and sentences in French were not interpreted in a glossary at the end of the book. It would have given me a chance to learn a little French, instead I had to guess what they meant and read on.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I would have given it 4 stars if not that I found some typographical and grammatical errors and some poor choice of words and of course the part where I had to guess the meaning of some French phrases and sentences. I will recommend this book to anyone who likes war time stories and stories about road trips.

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The Warramunga's War
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[Bonnie Shelby]

The fact that the book takes place in Australia and Egypt interests me as well. It looks like a captivating read. Great review!

[JR Mercier]

I would have liked to know what those French phrases meant but this sounds like a great read. Great review.