Robert B. (SGTBob) reviewed Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General (Audio CD) (Unabridged) on + 156 more book reviews
The book's title is "Killing Patton", but Bill and Martin bring this book to life in highlighting the final days of Gen George Patton.
I love the format In which Bill and Martin assemble and present the historical facts outlined in this book and I can honestly say that I am still skeptical that Gen Patton was murdered. That being said, let's get to the review.
As usual, Bill and Martin bring to life the events of the time. I often felt like I was right there with the soldiers as they fought the battles. The detailed photos, maps and charts helped me to understand exactly what was going on during many of the battles fought.
The book is an easy read and it was hard for me to put it down, once I began reading.
I gave it 5 stars because it was that good.
Why can't high school history books be written like this? If they had been, I am sure that I would have done better in my High School History classes. :-)
I love the format In which Bill and Martin assemble and present the historical facts outlined in this book and I can honestly say that I am still skeptical that Gen Patton was murdered. That being said, let's get to the review.
As usual, Bill and Martin bring to life the events of the time. I often felt like I was right there with the soldiers as they fought the battles. The detailed photos, maps and charts helped me to understand exactly what was going on during many of the battles fought.
The book is an easy read and it was hard for me to put it down, once I began reading.
I gave it 5 stars because it was that good.
Why can't high school history books be written like this? If they had been, I am sure that I would have done better in my High School History classes. :-)
Susan R. (Sue-in-AZ) -
I've read all of O'Reilly and Dugard's "Killing" books. This may be the best by far.
They did such a wonderful job of taking historical events and making them read like fast-paced and exciting fiction.
And no spoiler alert here - we all know from the title that Patton dies in the book! And we also know all along who's going to win the war....not Germany! But this is the first I've ever heard of Patton's personal story. Very compelling reading. I recommend this book to anyone, even those who wouldn't ordinarily read history.
They did such a wonderful job of taking historical events and making them read like fast-paced and exciting fiction.
And no spoiler alert here - we all know from the title that Patton dies in the book! And we also know all along who's going to win the war....not Germany! But this is the first I've ever heard of Patton's personal story. Very compelling reading. I recommend this book to anyone, even those who wouldn't ordinarily read history.
Mary S. (mscottcgp) -
I've read a few of Bill O'Reilly's Killing... books(Killing Lincoln and Killing Jesus) and they were pretty good on the whole. I listened to this one and was unimpressed. First of all, his voice is unsuited to the narration of an audiobook. There are gaps in the narration like he got to the end of a page and realized he was in the middle of a sentence; it was very distracting since he did this about 15 times.Secondly, he mispronounced SEVERAL words and not because of his NY accent.
He pronounced "sentries" as "centuries" which was confusing the 1st time and irritating the next couple of times.I finally wrote down a lot of these mispronounciations:
vertebra
Beatrice
rations
confluence
and then there are words that either aren't words or were used incorrectly (acrosst/acrossed), pivotable unstead of pivotal.
As far as the content of the book was concerned, it was more about the battles of Europe in WWII and a primer on WWII than it was about Patton specifically.Pretty much a rehash of several WWII books. Since I already read a lot of WWII books, I was disappointed to not learn much about Patton, the man and soldier.
He pronounced "sentries" as "centuries" which was confusing the 1st time and irritating the next couple of times.I finally wrote down a lot of these mispronounciations:
vertebra
Beatrice
rations
confluence
and then there are words that either aren't words or were used incorrectly (acrosst/acrossed), pivotable unstead of pivotal.
As far as the content of the book was concerned, it was more about the battles of Europe in WWII and a primer on WWII than it was about Patton specifically.Pretty much a rehash of several WWII books. Since I already read a lot of WWII books, I was disappointed to not learn much about Patton, the man and soldier.
Paula G. (Paulathegreat) reviewed Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General (Audio CD) (Unabridged) on + 150 more book reviews
While the book was interesting, there is very little in it about actually killing Patton.
Mary H. (maloha) reviewed Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General (Audio CD) (Unabridged) on + 17 more book reviews
Dugard is a fantastic historian and needs to get more credit for the composition of this book than he currently gets. Excellent research and writing that still propagates the questionable death of Patton.
R E K. (bigstone) - , reviewed Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General (Audio CD) (Unabridged) on + 1453 more book reviews
Wow! An incredible book that helped this reader better understand the character of General Patton. My past point of reference was based on the negative publicity the media splashed across our eyes during this war. The authors helped me see inside this driven man whose patriotism was so strong that he spoke whatever he felt. When he thought a soldier was avoiding combat he said so in no uncertain terms and I cringed with that soldier. Yet his men loved him. He was an intelligent and intuitive man who could outwit the enemy nearly every time. When he didn't it appeared that he was often outvoted by those above him. After reading this novel, I can only say I admire the man who did so much for us and our country. If you read this novel, perhaps you, too, will discover similar feelings. As to whether or not his death was an accident or not, we will probably never know. All reports about the crash have disappeared probably forever.
Mike J. (mikej) reviewed Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General (Audio CD) (Unabridged) on + 73 more book reviews
I enjoyed the book as a historical look about General Patton and the war he fought. But if you are looking for a book the delves into the Machiavellian schemes to kill him, this book is not what you are looking for. I liked Killing Lincoln in that it was as much about Booth as it was Lincoln. Of course then we knew who did it. In this book, there is only a brief wrap up at the end that even hints at murder. It is still a good behind the scenes look at the leadership of WWII and a good read.
