The Fifth Column: A Novel

The story is extremely contrived. Language quite stilted. The story itself had possibilities, but not in this author’s hands. Very disappointing.

Pearl Harbor has been attacked. Japan and Germany have declared war on America. German Spies have infiltrated into America. Ready to strike. This is an action filled heart stretching read of a father who will do anything to protect his young daughter. He will face death if need be. A tremendous read. Enjoyed immensely!

The Fifth Column by Andrew Gross is an interesting historical fiction book about nazi infiltration in American society before WWII. The hero of the book is portrayed as a big loser at the beginning of the book. He ends up in jail for killing someone in a fight. His wife wants a divorce and he has no job after getting out of jail.
The real excitement begins when he start suspecting a family of being spies for Germany. At first nobody believes him. He persists and starts to uncover a real spy ring. The book has a great ending.
I recommend this book.

I like novels about WW II so this was right up my alley. It was just before the USA got into the war which I found interesting. We think of WW II as all black and white now, but back then there were lots of opinions on how the USA should respond to the war in Europe. The author elucidated that well. The story was clever and the suspense was real. But, I found the writing to be rather ordinary. There weren't any passages I wanted to reread for example. I recommend it for a summertime read on the beach; not a winter time read by the fire.

This plot is contrived. Might be a good idea but not well written. Plot is too predictable characters have no depth

The United States is on the threshold of entering World War II. Charlie Mossman, a Jewish college instructor, husband, and father who drinks a bit too much accidentally kills a young man while engaging in fisticuffs with Nazi sympathizers.

Two years later, he is released from prison. His wife has moved on, but does allow him visits with their daughter, Emma. Charlie soon suspects that the Swiss couple living across the hall from his wife and Emma may not be who they claim and decides to investigate.

Although the story does take a while to play out and there are no real surprises here, this was a fast, easy, engrossing read. While there are some minor anachronisms, much of the background of the story is historically factual and fasciniating.

Audiobook an entertaining way to enliven a two-day drive, and very well read. Sounds like it was written in the '50s. Much of the 1st-person narrator's conversation seems strained or lecture-like. Simple plot, linear, uncomplicated, minimal sub-plots/conflicts, with several short chapters in 3rd person to orient the reader to things unknown to the protagonist. Language level/complexity quite elementary and simple. ("Wolf Hall" it ain't!) Some outrage devoted to Nazi atrocities sounds as though it were tendentiously written for an America still trying to comprehend the enormity of what Nazi Germany did, adding to the feel of a book written 70 years ago and kept in a drawer ever since, with a number of explicit sexual descriptions and liberal use of the F-bomb added on to bring it up to date.

There are anachronisms and other inaccuracies. One is the use of microencapsulation technology, surely decades before it was developed. Another is the mischaracterization of a certain chemical contained within the inert microcapsules – described as the size of a grain of rice, yet small enough to have become suspended in water to be conveyed to the kitchen taps of New York City and drunk by unsuspecting Gothamites. Most glaring is the narrator's reading off of a telephone number with an area code and a numeric prefix. This was in 1941, whereas all-numeric exchanges and area codes, with direct long-distance dialing, weren't in use until at least a decade later. On second thought, for those who know, the most egregious is the wholly impossible-for-1941 feat of clandestine nighttime photography, with film processed by the corner drugstore, accomplished with a cheap camera bought for the purpose by the narrator, who knows nothing about photography.

Andrew Gross does it again! He created a gripping novel about the brink of WWII full of espionage and danger at every turn for the main protagonist, Charlie Mossman. Charlie tries to get his life back together after a horrible altercation resulting in the death of a young man. He pays for his mistake and loses his job, his marriage and his self-respect.

The author keeps the action going as Charlie discovers some suspicious activity from neighbors living across from his wife and child. He can't help himself as he gets deeper into the lives of this older couple who are not what they seem. What he finds is beyond what he could imagine.

This story moved along and made this reader hold my breath as things become tense and tenuous for Charlie. I didn't expect some of the revelations while others were not surprising.

It was an enjoyable and quick read not his best work but still a worthwhile read. I highly recommend the author's other books too.

Didn’t realize the diverse opinion of Nazism in this country st the time

A real nail biter. Highly recommend. This is my third straight Gross book and I can't wait to keep going.