Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After reading Killing Jesus I had high hopes for this book. However, a few chapters into the book I asked myself what is this book is all about and why was it written at all. I couldn't find any facts in the book that hadn't been documented before in numerous books about Patton and WWII. It is certainly not a book about Patton, his life, his career or his death. Nor is it a book about WWII since it covers only the last six months of the war in the Western European theatre. Only the last chapter of the book is related to Patton's death. However the book doesn't reveal anything new but is more of a rehash of some old and debunked conspiracy theories that have been around since his death. Unfortunately O'Reilly plays fast and loose with facts. Some parts seem to have been lifted from other books and from Wikipedia unchecked. The book has many inaccuracies or conjectures unsupported by facts. Many of them seem to be insignificant and don't detract from the overall story but nevertheless give the informed reader the impression that the author is not in full command of the subject. As an example, the author states that on April 20, 1945, in the garden behind the Reich Chancellery it was the last time Hitler saw the light of day when meeting with young soldiers. Fact is that the last picture of Hitler was taken on April 29 when he made his last visit outside his bunker. Another example, the book states that Skorzeny and Hitler know each other well and go a long way back since Skorzeny used to belong to Hitler's personal bodyguard for a long time. First, Skorzeny was never a bodyguard to Hitler. Fact is that Skorzeny belonged to the 1st SS-Panzer Division "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler" between 1940 and 1941 as an engineer until he was wounded. The author makes the mistake to confuse the name of this division with the Fuhrer Begleitkommando, Hitler's real personal body guard. Secondly, fact is that they met only once before. That was a year earlier in July, 1943, after the successful rescue of Mussolini in Gran Sasso when Skorzeny was awarded the Knight's Cross by Hitler personally. Thirdly, why is Skorzeny even mentioned in the book? His commando did never operate in the Bastogne area nor did it ever affect Patton and his third army's race to Bastogne. The book is filled with stories like this about various personalities (such as Peiper, Blokhin, Citronova etc.), interesting stories by themselves, but most of them completely unrelated to the third army, Patton or his death. In the end, the book seems to be more of a potpurri of a number of unrelated personalities and events during the last few months of the war. All of them are certainly interesting stories by themselves but only few are related, directly or indirectly, to Patton and his death. My impression is that this book has been written for people, and especially the younger generations, who generally know nothing or very little about WWII. For those new to the subject the book is certainly an easy read but for those interested in a good and comprehensive biography about Patton, his life and the end of it, I would recommend "Patton - A genius for War" by Carlo D'Este. For those interested in how Patton died I would recommend "Target Patton" by Robert K. Wilcox, a book from which O'Reilly seem to have borrowed lots of material from. In the end I don't see any other reason for this cut-and-paste job other than riding on the coat tails of "Killing Jesus", just in time for Christmas sales.