Night of the Assassins, by Howard Blum

So many crucial stories in history turn on tiny events, the "what ifs" that could have changed the fate of the world.  In Howard Blum's Night of the Assassins: The Untold Story of Hitler's Plot to Kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin, Blum recounts plenty of those types of events.  With World War 2 rolling along toward a seemingly inevitable loss, Hitler's only hope might be to assassinate the Allied leaders.  If he can get them all at once, what a statement that would make!

Blum tells the story chiefly from the perspectives of Mike Reilly, the son of Irish immigrants, who, against expectations, came to be the head of FDR's secret service security detail, and Walter Schellenberg, a German intelligence officer.  Schellenberger devises Operation Long Jump and starts the task of trying to discover when and where the rumored meeting will take place.

This book is a great example of taking a personal view of crucial historical events.  Schellenberger, Reilly, and the other players' challenges and frustrations are palpable.  It's hard enough to protect the President, but a president who uses a wheelchair, during wartime--Reilly had his work cut out for him.  Schellenberger had the challenge of planning a mission with an undetermined date or place.  He got some decent intelligence and made some good guesses, and realistically came close to pulling it off.  (Spoiler alert: the mission failed. :) )

Blum gathers tons of first-hand accounts to bring the events alive.  Much of this reads like a spy novel.  Some of the action sequences are summer blockbuster worthy.  A Churchill doppelgänger was successfully taken out (along with a plane load of innocent people) by German fighters.  I had never heard the story of Mussolini's being freed from a mountaintop prison by German soldiers who arrived by gliders to take over the prison.  During FDR's trip across the Atlantic, his battleship was nearly hit by a friendly fire torpedo! 

This is the kind of history that is fun to read, a real page-turner giving a glimpse into a little-known vignette of WW2  history.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!