Render Harmless

Josh Haman Series, Book 3

By: Marc Liebman

Narrated by: Bob Reilly

Car bombs set by a group called the Red Hand are going off all over West Germany, killing American, British, and German citizens. The Red Hand’s manifesto reads as if it was copied from Nazi propaganda. Now, just four years after the 1972 Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes and three decades after the Holocaust, the West German government is facing its worst political nightmare: Germans are once again killing Jews–and former Nazis who want to create the Fourth Reich may somehow be involved.

The West German police can’t find the shadowy members of the Red Hand, so the American and British governments decide to act covertly. Josh Haman, part way through an exchange tour with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm, joins the team led by his friend and SEAL Team Six member Marty Cabot. The hunt takes their team into East Germany to execute their written orders, which tell them “to find, neutralize, and render harmless to the United States and her allies the members of Red Hand.”

©2023 Marc Liebman (P)2023 Penmore Press

Detailed

Very similar style to Tom Clancy. Considerable, too much, technical weapons detail. Hard to buy a story line where good guys win every direct conflict, mass bombing excluded.

A story of action, compelling characters, and a not-too-subtle reminder that dictators must be stopped.

I’ve just finished listening to “Render Harmless” by Marc Liebman.

Marc’s 2014 novel, set in the late 1960s/early 1970s is a fascinating and terrifying look at a resurgent Nazi terror faction and their efforts to form a Fourth Reich.

In today’s world, I cannot help but compare Putin to Hitler, and wonder how Europe might have been saved the enormous loss if those nations which later came together to win WWII had instead said “No” to Hitler’s annexation of Czechoslovakia and Austria.

I cannot help but think that we are witnessing a very similar unfolding in eastern Ukraine. The difference this time, of course, is that Ukraine has allies who provide weapons, ammunition, fuel, food, etc to the exceedingly brave Ukrainians who are standing up to Putin and saying “No. Not this time. We are going to take back all our land and make you wish you had not underestimated Ukraine.”

Well, that’s what I thought about after reading this book.

What do you think?