Princess Fuzzypants here: Just like the best of historical fiction this one takes real people and historical facts and blends them with an exciting and plausible story. I am a new-comer to the Mattie and Winston series but I think I may go back and read the previous books. I really enjoyed this one. I love Winston Churchill. To me he is the greatest man of the 20th Century, flaws and all. To set up stories that involve his fight against Hitler and his attempt to warn the world of the danger with a fictitious globe trotting journalist goddaughter is pure brilliance.

Some of the dangers in which Mattie, and Winston, find themselves might be suited for an action movie but at the heart is the complacency and the compliance, both actual and assumed, that allowed Hitler to commit his evil deeds and lead to WWII. As Churchill said in the book, the events outlined in the story brought the inevitable two years closer to fruition. I was fascinated at the end of the story to read what had happened and what was from the imagination of the two authors.

When I finally had time to devote to it, I was unable to stop until I reached the last page. It is gripping. It is exciting and it is well done. Five purrs and two paws up.

Michael and Kathleen McMenamin (http://www.winstonchurchillthrillers.com) are the author of nearly 10 novels. The Göring Gamble was published in March of this year, and it is the 9th book in the Mattie McGary + Winston Churchill Adventures series. It is the 33rd book I completed reading in 2024.

Due to scenes of violence and mature situations, I categorize this novel as R.

This chapter of the McGary + Churchill Adventures begins in March of 1933. Hitler is pushing for rearmament. Nazi Air Minister Hermann Göring is driving the growth of the Luftwaffe. To accomplish that, Germany needs high-performance aircraft engines. While their own industry is gearing up to the demand, engines must be obtained from outside of Germany. Secret deals are made with suppliers in the US, Britain, and France to provide those engines.

All three countries are desperate to keep knowledge of the sales from the public. Having former Allies against the Germans in WWI collaborating with them now to breach the terms of the Treaty of Versailles would be a scandal. Hearst photojournalist Mattie McGary is made aware of the secret deals by her godfather Winston Churchill.

McGary begins meeting with sources to verify the story of the sale. Soon, she finds sources disappearing or dead and her own life at risk. The powers at be do not want the sales revealed. In particular, the US Army MID, under the direction of Harold Canfield, wants McGary dead to both contain this story and to settle past grudges.

With many of the original sources gone, McGary and her husband, lawyer Bourke Cockran, must become creative. They seek the help of known Jewish gangsters to help ferret out the needed information. The closer McGary gets to having the story confirmed, the more danger she and those around her are in.

I enjoyed the 19+ hours I spent reading this 668-page WWII-era thriller. I have had the opportunity to read a few other novels in this series. They are The DeValera Deception, The Parcifal Pursuit, The Gemini Agenda, The Berghof Betrayal, and The Prussian Memorandum. They have all been excellent war-period thrillers. This novel is fiction, though many facts and persons of the era are woven into the plot. It is full of action, intrigue, and politics. I give this novel a rating of 4.5 (rounded to 5) out of 5.

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