I enjoyed this novel. It had a great setting, intriguing characters, and edge of your seat suspense inherent to all spy novels. Yet, when all is said and done, I was disappointed at the ending. The story really seems to have just cut off and the reader is left blinking wondering what happened.

I liked the characters of Natalia, Adam, and Rabbit. They were very fleshed out and three-dimensional in some very trying circumstances. I was engaged enough by them to be sucked into their struggle to survive and find the missing evidence against the Russians needed to keep Poland free. The author did an admirable job breathing life into these three leading characters.

The choice of setting this novel in Nazi-occupied Poland, specifically the Warsaw Uprising of '44, and immediately after the war with Russia solidifying its hold on Poland was an engrossing change from the typical. Most Resistance novels like this I've come across are set in Nazi-occupied France, Belguim, or Holland. Poland was a nice change of pace.

And boy does the author not hold back on the horrors of war and the anxiety of Soviet oppression! The tank scene towards the beginning of the novel where Natalia and Adam meet? Dude... still shudder thinking about that. The author brings all the terror, pain, and loss inherent to this time frame and setting to horrific life. It brings a realism to the story that is both shocking and sticks with the reader.

I felt the ending left something to be desired, really. When all is said and done, the story ends pretty much where it began. And while it's probably realistic in that not everything gets resolved in favor of our heroes, I just feel that in our fiction we need a bit more resolution. I don't know... In the end, I just felt disappointed at how the story ended. So much loss and for not much result...

This novel stands as a middle of the road spy thriller. The reader is kept on the edge of their seat, engaged with the characters and the setting. But ultimately, I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth in how little resolution I really got. The twist in the end almost made me throw my Kindle across the room in frustration. I don't know if I'd recommend this book or not since resolution and payout is so important for a spy thriller, at least for me. But the characters, suspense, and setting are wonderful. So I'll leave it up to the individual. ( )

This historical fiction had too many boiler-plate thriller moments, mainly in the first half of the book: man comes to rescue of woman, hospital volunteer & death bed moments, man/woman bonding, hero bares his sole, running through a war-ruined-city at night, man/woman split up, etc. I could picture the action in many different action movies. I would like to have read creative / original plotting. ( )

This novel is a little bit of everything. If you enjoy spy thrillers, historical fiction or a good love story you will enjoy this well written novel. The 800 pound gorilla in the room however, is always the true story of what happened to over 20,000 Poles in the early part of WW-II when under orders from Joseph Stalin, they were massacred in the Katyn forest.

Most people were not familiar with this event, understandably so since the general focus of the period covers the atrocities committed by the Germans in Poland, until recently when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin finally ‘came clean’ and admitted to the events. Unfortunately, a horrible plane crash killing the Polish President and a large number of the country’s leaders occurred as they were flying to a ceremony commemorating the horror that took place during the war, bringing yet more grief to Poland.

The novel flows smoothly and I can attest that the author has spent a lot of time researching the events, strategies and weapons of the period. It is well written and although there are a few areas where the pace slows a bit, you are soon caught up in the story again.

I enjoyed the story, appreciated the research Douglas W. Jacobson applied to it and the almost happy ending to the love story when the boy…well, you’ll just have to read it yourself.

Before writing my review, I wanted to wait on continueing events regarding the background to this story. See this link for further information - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/world/europe/11poland.html?pagewanted=all

www.daniellittle.com ( )

I enjoyed the book as a summertime read, more interesting than your standard war suspense novel, with light touches on the prose. However, I read this book following a brilliant Eric Ambler novel half as thick that was able to keep the story taut with character development still involved. I understand the required humanizing required of the characters and was glad that it was shown the resistance was not just young men, rather all those that could, but i felt it was several chapters too long and the love story aspect kinda glopped in. Overall a good read, focusing on WWII, but offering something just a bit different. I look forward to reading the next book from this author. ( )

I am a fan of historical fiction, especially by authors who have done the required research to be able to paint a picture for readers who are familiar with the time/place/events in question. And while I can overlook some inaccuracies and omissions, 'The Katyn Order' is more fantasy than historical fiction. Practically every element of this novel is lacking. The author has created a world placed in the 1940s that has characters using syntax that belongs in the year 2010. Poland itself is viewed through a Manichean lens, a nation full of heroes, aside from that one guy who can't hold his liquor. The main characters lack depth, and at times their wanton killing takes away from any real empathy or sympathy the reader might feel for them. All too often their emotions feel forced, including their ready acceptance of the situation they find themselves in, with the end result hardly ever being believable.

Practically every character that is portrayed from the Soviet Union is at best a one dimensional caricature and simply labeled a 'Russian', and hatred for 'Russians' seems to surpass the hatred the main characters feel for the likes of Stalin and Beria (who are Georgian by nationality). Even when you do have a sympathetic Russian character, he speaks English (in fact far too many of the Russian characters have a working knowledge of English if not perfect fluency, hardly believable) and is in fact Polish. Additionally, it is hard to believe that this same Polish general who was purged and then released in 1941 would be condescending to an NKVD officer. The author should research the dynamic that existed between the Red Army and the NKVD. Soviet soldiers and officers feared the NKVD, and they did not deride them when in their presence. Furthermore, no Red Army or NKVD officer would address their superior as 'sir', that was done away with in the wake of the Russian Revolution and deemed bourgeois. The author's lack of research (he should have spent more time researching history rather than architecture and city layouts) is also evident when he creates a fictitious NKVD division, the '105th Frontier Guards Division'. There were actual NKVD divisions during the Second World War, but none were labeled 'frontier guards'. The author should remember that history is better than fiction, and that there is no need to make something up when it already exists.

Going through the prologue sets up what becomes a never-ending cavalcade of mistakes and generalizations. The scene is the shooting of Polish officers at Katyn. Instead of NKVD troops, who did the actual deed, the author has Red Army soldiers executing Polish prisoners. Overlooking this inaccuracy, the author rarely hesitates in painting every Polish character, save one, as the epitome of all that is good and righteous, while those around them are mere showpieces always ready to be done away with at the author's whim. That includes the author regularly pointing to the fate of Jews but hardly ever getting into the dirty facts of Polish complacency with Germans (while in fact Poles are first 'among the righteous', there were also just as many, if not more, who hunted Jews or betrayed them to the Germans). Finally, practically the entire first half of the book deals with the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944. What the author fails to mention is the numerous attempts by the Red Army to break through to the Poles and even the commitment of the 1st Polish Army, under Red Army command, to aid the insurgents. It was the failure of the Home Army to establish contact with the Red Army that partly doomed the uprising, not the Red Army's supposed inactivity. Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Give this one a pass. ( )