By Kevin Seabrooke

Full Reviews

Ghosts of Sicily: The True Story of the Naval Intelligence Agents Who Courted the Mob to Fight Nazis in America and the Battlefields of Italy (Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, Harper Select, New York, NY, 304 pp., April 14, 2026 $29.99 HC)

Berlin: Endgame 1945 (Prit Buttar, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY, 448 pp., 8-page b/w plate section, May 5, 2026 $38 HC)

The Dangerous Shore: How a Motley Crew of Scientists, Mobsters, Double Agents, Retirees, Volunteer Pilots (and a Boy Scout) Stopped the Invasion of America (Sara Vladic, William Morrow, New York, NY, 624 pp., March 10, 2026 $42 HC)

Bloody Skies: XV Fighter Command Against All Odds (Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY, 320 pp., 8 pp. b/w photos, March 10, 2026 $32 HC)

Safe Passage: The Untold Story of Diplomatic Intrigue, Betrayal, and the Exchange of American and Japanese Civilians by Sea During World War II (Evelyn Iritani, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY, 480 pp., March 10, 2026 $33 HC)

The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II (Stephen R. Platt, Knopf, New York, NY, 544 pp. May 13, 2025 $35 HC)

God Forgives, Brothers Don’t: The Long March of Military Education and the Making of American Manhood (Jasper Craven, Atria/One Signal Publishers, New York, NY, 352 pp., May 19, 2026 $29 HC)

Moonlight Crusaders; Special Duties Pilots over Occupied Europe (Paul Smiddy, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY, 384 pp., 8-page b&w plate section, May 5, 2026 $30 HC)

Short Bursts

The Typewriter and the Guillotine: An American Journalist, a German Serial Killer, and Paris on the Eve of WWII (Mark Braude, Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group, New York, NY, 432 pp., January 20, 2026 $32.50 HC) American Janet Flanner began writing a “Letter from Paris” for The New Yorker. She stayed on to cover the rise in fascism and became involved in the case of a serial killer stalking Paris.

Under the Red Banner: A History of the Soviet 43rd Guards Tank Brigade 1940-1945 (Shawn M Caza, Helion & Company, Warwick, UK, 464 pp., 3 b/w illustrations, 12+ b/w photos, 108+ b/w maps, 5 figures, 21 tables, 22+ graphs, May 31, 2026 $89.95 HC) Traces in enourmous detail the daily actions of a Soviet tank unit throughout World War II.

Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Most Controversial World War II General (Peter Mauch, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 512 pp., 27 photos, 3 illus., 3 maps, March 3, 2026 $32.95 HC) The complicated rise and fall of Japan’s most controversial military statesman.

Into the Firestorm: The Allied Heroes Who Flew World War II’s Most Daring Missions (Scott McGaugh, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY, 304 pp., 8-page b/w photo section, June 2, 2026 $32 HC) Uses after-action reports, letters, and diaries to chronicle the experience the “sitting ducks,” who were expected to fly low, straight, and arrive “on time and on target.”

The Bitter End: The Final Battles on the Eastern Front in World War II (Antonio J. Muñoz, Stackpole Books/dist. Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 288 pp., illustrations, maps and photographs, March 3, 2026 $34.95 HC) The collapse of the Eastern Front and the final year of fighting between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in World War II.

G.I. G-Men: The Untold Story of the FBI’s Search for American Traitors, Collaborators, and Spies in World War II Europe (Stephen Harding, Citadel/dist. by PenguinRandomHouse, New York, NY, 416 pp., Feb. 24, 2026 $29 HC) Agents from the FBI’s “European Operation” infiltrated underground networks, interrogated key suspects, and exposed spies and traitors within the Allied ranks.

The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin’s Greatest Enemy (Josh Ireland, Penguin Group-Dutton, New York, NY, 384pp., Feb. 24, 2026 $35 HC) Stalin sought to kill his rival Leon Trotsky, a key figure in the Bolshevik Revolution, for more than a decade. In1940, Soviet agent Ramón Mercader used an ice axe to murder Trotsky in his home in Mexico City.

Partisan Song: A Holocaust Story of Resilience, Resistance, and Revenge (James A. Grymes, Citadel/Kensington Publishing Corp., New York, NY, 352 pp., Jan. 27, 2026 $29 HC) The previously untold story of “Uncle Misha’s Jewish Group,” who were credited with more than 150 acts of sabotage against strategic targets in Ukraine.

Sonderkommando Elbe: The Luftwaffe’s Kamikaze Force (Walter S. Zapotoczny Jr., Fonthill Media, Charleston, SC, 224 pp., 41 mono illustrations, March 30, 2026 $34.95 HC) On April 7, 1945, 180 stripped-down Bf 109s took to the sky with orders to ram Allied bombers.Unlike Japanese kamikaze, Elbe pilots were meant to parachute to safety after the collision.

World War II Day by Day, September 1 to September 6, 1939 (David H. Lippman, 305 pp., 2025 $4.99 Kindle e-book) Chronicles the daily events from Poland to New Zealand and everything in between, that led to the world’s largest conflict—with perspectives from the Allied leaders down to pilots, sailors and soldiers.

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