Camp Stalag

by Bill Walker

Book Overview

When journalist and aspiring war novelist Frank Murphy returns from the 10th Annual World War Convention, he has no idea that the mysterious videotape he holds in his hands will change his life... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 158767033X
• ISBN13: 9781587670336
• Release Date: November 2001
• Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

strange entertaining thriller

In New Hampshire three hundred men are invited to spend two weeks in a replica of a WWII German POW camp; most of the chosen are the sons of soldiers who spent part of WW II in a Germen prison. Among the three-hundred, reporter Frank Murphy and his best friend Bill Seger are euphoric that they were selected. ---- However, the American guests are "abducted" and taken to the camp under the guise of realism. They soon learn that this is not Hogan's Heroes or even Stalag 17 and that this cannot be New Hampshire. Kommandant Heinrich Koenig makes Camp Stalag the real thing as he brutally treats the chosen with scorn and abuse. Soon murders occur while prisoners try to escape from the hell Koenig has made of his "dream" to have one last victory before he dies. Murphy and Seger agree if they do nothing else they will take down Koenig. ---- CAMP STALAG is a strange entertaining tale that uses reenactment to tell a twenty-first century WW II thriller. Frank and the Kommandant are interesting characters, both weird in their own way. Frank is hung up over his dad's war years as he glamorizes them while feeling strongly his lack of such experience lessens him as a man. Heinrich seems like a lunatic trying to revise history in a modern context. Thus these two antagonists in their crazy way keep Bill Walker's thriller from turning into a bad Hogan's Heroes' one joke plot, but instead make for a deep character study of two opponents reliving the past in the present. ---- Harriet Klausner

Great Plot, Gripping Suspense

I'm not sure where the previous reviewer is coming from, but I feel his/her comments are really misplaced, especially since he/she admits to not even having finished the book. Well, I just did and it really held me. I stayed up far too late to finish this and while I'm having to drink more coffee today to wake me up, I have no regrets. The characters are memorable, as is the story. Could it really happen, maybe not, but isn't that what we read fiction for? To escape to worlds that can't really exist? I was able to suspend my disbelief with no problems, finding the premise of a re-created German POW camp extremely fascinating. And for those of you who ask, "Why would anyone want to get dressed up in an old uniform and play war?", just ask that question of all those Civil War reenactors. They take it very seriously. Anyway, is this Hemingway? No, but that's not why I bought it. I wanted a unique and entertaining read and I got one. The writing is tight and keeps one turning the pages. Thumb's up!

World War Two meets the Millennium

"Camp Stalag" is a thoroughly original novel with a World War Two motif. It's central character, Frank Murphy, is obsessed with his late father's reminiscences of the war. He blames his own failures as a man on never having experienced the war first-hand--a period of history that seems more real to him than his own. Frank jumps at the opportunity to participate in a re-created POW Camp, where history and pretense soon blur under the command of an unbalanced Kommandant. "Camp Stalag" is the final revenge of Heinrich Koenig, an aging German who has the money, knowledge and ruthlessness to make his camp a living hell... and that's just the start! Author Bill Walker has taken an outlandish premise and made it work beautifully. His characters initially treat the entire adventure as a joke (even including numerous references to "Hogan's Heroes") until things go very, very bad. Not your average novel, to be sure! I'd love to see this made into a film; it's an exciting story with characters that will stay with you long after you've finished the book. A great read.