Killing the SS

De: Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard - contributor

Narrado por: Bill O'Reilly

Confronting Nazi evil is the subject of the latest installment in the mega-best-selling Killing series.

As the true horrors of the Third Reich began to be exposed immediately after World War II, the Nazi war criminals who committed genocide went on the run. A few were swiftly caught, including the notorious SS leader Heinrich Himmler. Others, however, evaded capture through a sophisticated Nazi organization designed to hide them. Among those war criminals were Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death” who performed hideous medical experiments at Auschwitz; Martin Bormann, Hitler’s brutal personal secretary; Klaus Barbie, the cruel "Butcher of Lyon"; and perhaps the most awful Nazi of all: Adolf Eichmann.

Killing the SS is the epic saga of the espionage and daring waged by self-styled "Nazi hunters". This determined and disparate group included a French husband and wife team, an American lawyer who served in the army on D-Day, a German prosecutor who had signed an oath to the Nazi Party, Israeli Mossad agents, and a death camp survivor. Over decades, these men and women scoured the world, tracking down the SS fugitives and bringing them to justice, which often meant death.

Written in the fast-paced style of the Killing series, Killing the SS will educate and stun the listener. The final chapter is truly shocking.

©2018 Henry Holt (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Bill should let someone else read

Amazing book, just horribly narrated in my opinion. Bill is somewhat mechanical and almost sounds bored if not aggravated and rushes the story in my opinion

Interesting content not marred by narrator. Much.

This review is for the audiobook Killing the SS, by Martin Dugard and Bill O'Reilly, read by Bill O'Reilly. Let me say up front that I don't have serious problems with the book or audiobook, but I can imagine that some readers or listeners might. I will explain.

I have not researched the veracity or completeness of the book. Although my perception is that it rings true and sounds right, I understand that O'Reilly's and Dugard's previous efforts have had some noted errors, although none that I know of were reviewed as false or malicious in those mistakes, whether large or small.

I enjoyed the stories recounted, several with significant detail such as that of the capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann. Some were less detailed, such as that of Otto Skorzeny. All were generally interesting.

My primary issue is with the audiobook narration. O'Reilly's reading was a ham-fisted example of arrogance in that he seems oblivious of even the most basic pronunciation of non-American words, both person and place names. I was less appalled than amused. His reading is confident, even when he stumbled over apparently difficult pronunciations. It is this confidence that led me to describe his reading as arrogant previously. With the magic of audio editing, he could easily have paused in his reading to ask for clarification of such pronunciations, or corrected the error after the fact. He apparently could not be bothered to do either.

However, the audio was clear, the levels consistent, and his speech, diction, and enunciation were as good or better than some -- many -- audiobooks I have heard. Further, let me reiterate that the errors were, to me, more amusing and illustrative than distracting -- they made me consider the correct pronunciations and thus enhanced my attention to the details.

Don't get me wrong -- I have no axe to grind against O'Reilly. He is slightly to the right of my Libertarian views. His treatment of women is appalling. His arrogance is annoying. None of these thing keep me from enjoying these two authors' "Killing ..." series of Lincoln, JFK, Jesus, Patton, and now the SS. They are good, light history stories told with flair and interest. Whether their accuracy is 100-percent reliable is a different issue.

So, I gave two stars for performance because of the lack of basic attention to detail in pronunciation. I gave the story four stars because it kept me coming back for more listening time. Overall, I gave it four stars to recommend it to you.

Killing the SS

Very good story. Lots of info I didn’t know. Performance seemed rushed. Bill O’Reilly needed to take a breadth Occasionally. Otherwise it was great.

Good history book

This book was well researched just like all the KILLING books, but it was almost impossible to finish due to the reader. O'Reilly's monotone voice, weird pauses and slurred unimpassioned reading is awful.

History made interesting.

Fantastic. Interesting. I remember the Nuremberg trials as a kid. I remember the pictures in the newspapers. I remember my parents talking about it. This re-telling of it filled in all the gaps and completed the history for me.