I’m not sure where I learned about this book, the author’s first of two in what I guess is intended to be a series of books about “The Sentinels,” but after reading it, I’m not enthused about reading the second. The start was ominous and intriguing. A group of wealthy German industrialists in 1932 decided to take advantage of the growing popularity of Hitler. They were sure they were more powerful than Hitler and could control what he did, and they disagreed with at least some of his social agenda. But, they wanted to use his message of the need to rearm Germany as a means of enriching themselves. They did not plan on Hitler’s power outreaching their own, and as the war was obviously coming to a bad conclusion for Germany, they wanted to get their own collective wealth out of the country so they could continue to influence the world in the way they saw fit. Of course, if Hitler discovered their plans, they would have been executed.
Meanwhile, there were six doctoral students at Stanford, all from wealthy families, who were studying the money trail of conflict over the course of human history. They developed a thesis called “the power cycle” in which they felt confident that by watching specific expenditures of nations, that they could predict new conflicts, well in advance of the conflicts occurring. By so doing, they thought they could avert wars. And, they quickly saw what was happening in Germany, and they realized that if the industrialists could escape with their wealthy, that they would simply start the next dangerous cycle. They set out to steal enough of the industrialists’ money as a means of controlling their use of wealth – but of course, these were dangerous men to steal from.
The plot was okay, but not really too gripping. The characters were interesting, but the dialogue was weak. In the end, the story just did not capture me.
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