Out of Mecklenburg

The Unwilling Spy

With Hitler at the height of his power, suave, wealthy and aristocratic, Carl von Menen, a high-flying servant of the German Foreign Office, lives a duplicitous and dangerous life in Nazi Germany: he abhors the Nazi party and wants Hitler dead. But his hopes of seeing a Nazi-free Germany are scuppered when the German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, orders him to Argentina to keep a watchful eye on the emerging United Officers Group, a pro-Nazi organisation led by Argentine colonel, Juan Domingo Peron. Upon his arrival in Buenos Aires, von Menen is faced with danger and treachery, heightened by the far-reaching fear of the Gestapo and his covert dealings with Colonel Filipe Vidal. A seemingly obliging man, Vidal turns out to have a devious and sinister agenda – a plot to seize Peron’s power for himself, with the hapless von Menen as his accomplice. When he returns to Europe, von Menen finds Berlin in ruins, the Gestapo in overdrive and a merciless Red Army charging towards the city. Gambling with his own life, he contrives to convince a desperate Nazi party that Vidal has a pro-Nazi deal that not even Peron can equal. What follows is a desperate attempt to keep one step ahead of the Gestapo, a perilous voyage by U-boat to the South Atlantic and a maelstrom of heart-stopping events back in Buenos Aires... Inspired by Frederick Forsyth, James Remmer explores the covert operations of WWII with reference to the early years of Peron and to real events of the war years. The book offers a unique perspective into WWII and will appeal to fans of historical fiction, especially those interested in undercover operations during the Second World War.