Peter Kirsanow is the author of 4 novels. W.E.B. Griffin Zero Option was published early last month and is the 9th book in the Men at War series. It is the 62nd book I completed reading in 2024.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to scenes of violence, I categorize this novel as R.

The story begins in August of 1943. The main characters of the novel, American Army Major Dick Canidy, and First Lieutenant Eric Fulmar, are struggling to stay ahead of the German soldiers that are pursuing them. They are on a dangerous mission for the OSS to find scientist Sebastian Kapsky and get him out of occupied Poland. They barely succeed in escaping but lose important papers Kapsky was carrying to the Russians.

Both German Intelligence and the Russian NKVD see Canidy and Fulmar as obstacles. Both would like to see them eliminated. Two different groups of Brandenburgers from the Nazi Wehrmacht special forces unit are dispatched to kill the pair of Americans while they are recuperating in Gotland.

The Big Three meeting between Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill is scheduled for Tehran, Iran. FDR and Director of the Office of Strategic Services Bill Donovan want Canidy and Fulmar in Tehran. Both American and British intelligence believe that Tehran will be flooded with agents from their Russian ally. It is also expected that German agents may also menace the conference.

Canidy and Fulmar travel to Tehran. They are to keep their eyes open around the American, British, and Russian embassies looking for anything suspicious. The hope is that their operational experience will help them to identify any potential threat.

NKVD Major Taras Gromov had already encountered Canidy and Fulmar. Unbeknownst to them, he had assisted in their escape from the Germans in Poland. Of course, that was to further his agenda of getting hold of the Kapsky papers to advance Russian scientific research. After all, Russia was only allied to America and Britain for the defeat of Nazi Germany. Gromov was in Tehran with a mission to cause chaos at the conference. He was to implicate the Germans in a failed attempt on the lives of the big three. That, hoped the Russians, would spur America and Britain to open a new front with the Germans in the west. He also hopes to eliminate Canidy.

SS Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny has been dispatched to Tehran with a group of Brandenburgers to attempt the assassination of the big three. He has just completed the spectacular rescue of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from Italian police custody. If any German can pull off the assassination, it will be Skorzeny.

With a million residents in Tehran, the chance of Canidy and Fulmar discovering their adversaries is slim. Plotting and intrigue driven by both the Nazis and frenemy Russia permeate the city. Will Canidy and Fulmar survive? Can they prevent disruption of the conference?

I enjoyed the 10 hours I spent reading this 374-page WWII-era thriller. This action thriller is very loosely based on the real Nazi Operation Long Jump – a planned operation to assassinate the Big Three. I like the cover art, but I do not see how the image relates to the story. I give this novel a rating of 4 out of 5.

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I will admit that the second book written by Mr. Kirsanow was a better novel than the first one (The Devil's Weapons). In this book the author stays closer to the original characters developed by WEB Griffin in the original series. The story was fast paced and full of action and does a good job of picking up where the first novel left off. From the book, one can infer there will be additional books to add to the series.

However, for those readers who enjoyed the original series, these books do not follow the series well and the interaction with the characters is missing. The new author has lost some of the more important characters and in reality, only has kept Cannidy, Fulmer and Donovon.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Book #9 in the Men at War series first started by W E B Griffin in 1998 and continued by Peter Kirsanow after Griffin's death. W E B Griffin was well known for his war series books of which there were many. His books have become favorites of veterans for their true to life accounts of soldiers and their challenges. While each of the books make a great stand alone, the series is one that many fans recommend to be read in order. Kirsanow continues Griffin's legacy, writing some of the best thrillers published recently. ZERO OPTION is set during WWII as the Allies' Commanders will meet to plan the next strategies against the Nazi. Intelligence has alerted to an assasination plot against the Commanders with Dick Canidy deployed to stop the attempt. As Canidy and his team search for clues, he must first insure the safety of these VIPs.

Stalin is impatient for the Allie’s to open a second front against Germany. With a conference between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt approaching in Tehran, a plan is proposed that should force Britain and America to take action. If an assassination attempt is made against the leaders that can be blamed on the Germans, they are sure to act. Major Dick Canidy and Lieutenant Eric Fulmar are two of Donavan’s best agents in the OSS. After a disastrous rescue mission of a German scientist, they are currently recovering. They were betrayed by two Icelandic sisters who were also working for the Russians. Now they have been asked to leak the assassination attempt to Canidy. Their return is far from welcome, but they are offering to sell him information that could change the course of the war. Canidy is wary of the information but after passing it on to Washington, he and Fulmar are ordered to Tehran to gather information. It is a city teeming with spies and the two men have targets on their backs.

ZeroOption is part of the Men at War series by the late author W.E.B. Griffin, but it can be read as a stand alone. Peter Kirsanow carries on Griffin’s series with a story that is packed with action from the opening pages and will please fans of the series. I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Group/Putnam for providing this book.

Really interested in reading this book by Peter Kirsanow, as I've read his 2 other books and they were great...this book, not so much.
The story was good, just redundant....It had a good cast of characters, the plot was good, but didn't live up to my expectations.
Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book is set in WWII and is packed with action from start to finish. Although it is part of a series it could be read as a stand alone. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

Peter Kirsanow's book Zero Option, is part of W.E.B. Griffin's Men at War series, and if Mr. Griffin were still alive, I would be willing to bet,he would say how wonderfully this book brings honor to his work. The action, history, military jargon, drama, and technical knowledge shown in the book gives the reader the same comfort in knowing he takes the military aspect as seriously as Mr. Griffin did, and even though the story is fiction, the events surrounding the main story is real and needs to be respected. I've read The Corps series, Brotherhood of War series, Badge of Honor series, Honor Bound series, Men at War series (up to The Spymasters), and Clandestine Operations series. I got into his books because my dad and grandmother both read his books. My dad was a Marine Corps Vietnam Vet and I am a Navy Vet. They both thought Mr. Griffin's books would be something I would enjoy and it turned out I really did enjoy the books. When Mr. Griffin passed, I was afraid there wouldn't be anyone to help carry on with his books and Mr. Griffin justice, but Mr. Kirsanow has gone beyond doing Mr. Griffin justice, and taken the Men at War series to a new level.

This book continues when the main characters continue the mission that they thought was finished. But their boss Donavan has other ideas. They travel to Iran for a meeting of the Allied armies. The usual problems creep up and they solve it in very interesting ways. Another great book!