The Wicked Son: 1943

By ME MIKAEL CHERN, MS OLENA CHERNOVA, MR MICHEL DE HERDT

The Bad Son, like A 'Swiss Summer', unfolds as a historical novel. A novel-because it offers interpretation to the unknowns of human relationships. It portrays a Reich entering its stage of decomposition, a silent resistance, and a singular man orbiting at the heart of power.
As strange as it may seem, the central role of Walter Schellenberg allows the story, through both his official position and his complex personality, to navigate freely through the uppermost corridors of the Third Reich's machinery.
In 1943, as the cracks in Hitler's empire widen, Walter Schellenberg - head of foreign intelligence at the RSHA's AMT VI Ausland - walks a deadly line between circumstantial loyalty and the will to steer the regime toward ending the war. He shares little with his superiors, yet works alongside them while secretly building upon the conspiracy begun in the spring of 1942, of which he remains the architect. A delicate and treacherous web to weave in the face of accelerating events. One misstep would mean his end. As the Reichsf hrer's trusted man, he is also handed an investigation - one that, likewise, could end his life with the slightest error. Set within the real events of the Second World War, The Bad Son blends espionage, diplomacy, and psychological drama to explore the cost of clarity - and the danger of action taken too late. It reveals a hidden war, waged as much by secrets, ambitions, and shadowy alliances as by weapons.
Part of a four-volume saga, The Bad Son spans the period from April 1942 to June 1945, tracing week by week the key moments of the conflict: Stalingrad, Kursk, the landings in Sicily, the fall of Mussolini, cities reduced to rubble. Historical figures appear as they were - in their roles, shaped by the conscience of their time. Conspiracies, negotiations, and secret rivalries among German, Allied, and neutral intelligence services are depicted without evasion, placing the heads of intelligence services at the story's center. Through this lens, the novel invites readers to reconsider what resistance can look like at the heart of a regime built on terror - and whether a man inside the machine can truly alter its course.
All the major historical twists, including lesser-known and surprising ones, are preserved. Fiction intervenes only to explore the human dimension - and offer one plausible answer to questions history has left unresolved. More than ever, conspiracy appears as the only remaining path to overthrow a dictatorship.
The Bad Son will continue to follow the investigation into a now-legendary plot.
All historical developments, including lesser-known and surprising ones, are faithfully preserved. The novel intervenes to restore the human dimension and suggest plausible answers to certain unresolved mysteries. Every character appears with the rank and role they held at the time of the events.
The complexity of this era is often overlooked in favor of schematic views and oversimplifications. While the novel does not claim to offer a perfectly accurate account of events, it seeks to encourage readers to explore the hidden dimensions of that time in greater depth.
Now more than ever, conspiracy remains the only means of bringing down a dictatorship.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F7H2XQFN
• ISBN13: 9798282346251
• Release Date: May 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 536 Pages
• Weight: 1.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"