Said in the third person narrative, “In a Pursuit of Platinum” revolves around three characters: Ben Peters, Alena and Ludwig Weber. Whether this adventure is true or not, the quest to extricate from the grips of the German Alena and her son and drive them in a Bentley loaded with the most precious of metal Platinum from occupied Paris through the Pyrenees, Spain and Portugal to hopefully reach the shore of England is at the most shocking, if not a nail-biting political saga that for most part kept me on the edge of my seat.
Alena and her son were more important than the platinum both for the Nazis and for England but what made her such a valuable target: thus the title of this book “shocking secret”. All through the story I was confuse enough to wonder if I was reading a non-fiction or a fiction and if that secret was real or not. Many parts of their journey didn’t seem realistic: how could a Bentley loaded down could cover the rough terrain through the mountains without losing some of the platinum or falling in hidden crevices. How did the group managed to escape the hands a War Lord, crossing police blockades and a multitude of traps to only come out with some dents on the Bentley and some scratches on their bodies. Parts were so unrealistic that I questioned if this really could have happened. I deducted parts could have been product of the author imagination in order to enhance his narrative and make his book entertaining and others could have been the real facts….which is which I could not detect, the author never mentioned a word. A fact: “The Freedom Trail (Chemin de la Liberté) did exist and was a WW11 escape route to Spain.
Having said this, the story is nevertheless quite a page-turner I enjoyed reading from start to finish. The style is colourful and it moves at a fast-paced. The writing and evocation of the time in Paris is quite convincing. The characterization is good and is expertly played out, first class act by all of them. Good overall even with its abrupt and disappointing ending.
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