Double Eagles

One of the very best books I have read in a long time. A marvelous story. Meticulous research on all levels, e.g., historical and WWII aircraft, achieved by the author.

The theme, as represented by the two-headed eagle of the title, evolves around the two main characters, true heroes in their own way, an American fighter pilot, Paul Bausser, and a German ace fighter pilot, Hauptmann Branden, better known as Prince Wilhelm-Karl of Brandenburg.

After they are brought together in a surprising way, they become part of a top secret allied plan named Gemini, the purpose of which I will not give out here. They each go their way, one by purposeful design, and the other by ingenious means, but each requiring high courage and confidence, and each with high success.

We meet many actual historical figures, both high level leaders and famous aces, allied and German, all in perfect context of interaction with our two main characters, Paul and Willie (the German Prince / ace). We meet their Mothers and girl-friends in a very complex set of relationships, but which fit right into the story line perfectly.

The book is full of action, Europe, Pacific, and US. This is a wonderful, believable tale of two heros, their families, top secret missions and plots, and twists right up to the end.

As I said, one of the best books I've read in a long time. The author is certainly to be complimented, not only on the wonderful story line and theme, but the enormous amount of research which he obviously put into this work.

Bill Getz tells a great story. This one obviously entailed tons of research into interesting details of World War II. An intriguing tale of spy and counter spy involving the Germans, British and US intelligence agencies. Hard to put down.

For a first time author, this is a FIVE star book. I've rated it four stars when comparing it to established authors from major publishers.
The plot was very believable which made the story more interesting than far-out historical fiction. In the first few pages, I was concerned about the amount of "color" in the book, afraid that it would be one of those tomes with tons of palaver and few morsel's of action. However, in Double Eagles, there was enough action and the color provided excellent historical insights into the 3rd Reich. Living in German-controlled Europe from age 5-10, I'm naturally curious about what happened and DE contains a lot of information about actual events and people. Because of my interest, I knew that some of events in the book happened. I'm, therefore assuming that the additional information in DE about that era must have also been accurate. Generating all that color must have taken a TON of research.
One critical review "dinged" the book for editing - a fair remark, but only if you measure it against books by a major publisher. For me, editing problems did not detract from the story. One reader did not like the "sudden" ending. I consider it an excellent way to end the book because it was the only way such a tale could have a happy ending. A longer ending would detract from the logical conclusion.
Good show!

I enjoyed Double Eagles, both as a suspense story and for it's historical substance! Bill Getz obviously lived some of that and researched it well!