Nazi Spymaster: The Life and Death of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris

Whilst researching the espionage/counter-espionage struggle between the Axis and the Allies in WW2, the name of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris came up more than once. Intrigued to know more about this enigma, I purchased 'Nazi Spymaster' for two main reasons: firstly, it was the most recently-published of the biographies available and, secondly, it was written by a German, which led me to believe that it would provide insights not offered by a British (or American) author.Sadly, whilst the subject of the book is undoubtedly interesting, it is a challenge to absorb the information presented, not least due to a staccato writing style, not dissimilar to a machine gun, in which bursts of information are separated by unexpected [and often inappropriate] pauses, with longer breaks, as when ammunition belts are changed. Many of these longer breaks mask the omission of key events, such as the success of the Allied deception plans prior to D-Day 1944, which completely fooled the Abwehr and, indeed, the whole German high command.in his defence, I suspect that, for some of the above shortcomings, Michael Muller has been let down by his translator, with the result that the book is very difficult to read and is made more so for someone for whom German is not their native tongue, since many of the references are offered only in the original German (i.e. with no translation into English). Furthermore, Muller seems to assume that his readers are fully au fait with both the myriad Nazi job titles with which the book is peppered [and for which the glossary at the opening is inadequate] and that they are also able to keep track of the hundreds of 'bit-part' players who drift in and out of the story.The above are the fundamental issues with the narrative: it is not so much a biography of Canaris as a history of the so-called 'Nazi resistance movement', in which Canaris may (or may not) have played a significant role. Much of the evidence presented by Muller is circumstantial at best and thus, for me, the jury is still out. It was probably worth making the effort to read the book but it is not highly recommended.