I really like that it is written simply and is easy to understand. It breaks up the things to be done in the garden and yard into seasons so that you can easily tell what you can do during a particular time of the year! It's a great book!

Duffy has written an excellent book on the chaotic times as the Soviets invaded Germany from the east. Some things will never be known with any certainty, but Duffy manages to give a coherent account of a tumultuous time. I give only four stars because the book omits the actual capture of Berlin. In some ways Berlin was anticlimatic, because the Reich was disintegrating, but without Berlin in the book, it feels incomplete.

Mr Duffy has provided us with a definitive account of the last stage of the war in Europe. Sadly there appears to be little in the English language literature dealing with the operations of the Red Army to reach Berlin and bring to an end the war. We can count ourselves all the luckier that Mr. Duffy's book is such a gem. He sets out to tell us the operations in a seamless narrative, effortlessly switching between layers of command reaching from a German platoon commander to a Soviet Marshal and into the Fuehrerbunker. After this section, he discusses in detail the operational problems facing both armies. He does so in a very accessible way, providing references to the first section for the specific examples. Mr. Duffy has an impressive amount of sources that he draws on, and the literature list is exhaustive.
I came away from this book with a significantly increased respect for the capabilities of the Red Army that my grandfather fought. The operations described in here dwarf the Ardennes battles in every respect, and are a serious reminder as to who won the second world war, and why Europe looked the way it did for 50 years after 1945.
A must read.

Mr. Duffy's books are well researched and quite balanced . this books is the only one inEglish language which deal with last chapter of Nazi Germany and her military bankrupt.Although each Battle for vistula river, East Prussia , silesia is largely forgotten now (at least in the western countries),these battle were reflections of ruthlessness , irrationality and fanaticism of Nazi party and subsquent and obvious human sufferings .there is German Author Kurowski's book which is translated in English, however it is horribly translated and represented only German side. On the other hand, Mr. Duffy's books is well balanced and surprisingly readable .
unfortuntely , there is a mistakes on both side's tanks' capabilities( Mr. Duffy wrote German Tiger II was somewhat inferior to Soviet ISII heavy tanks but it's not true)but it's understandable..
anyway, this book is the most concise one of last year of Eastern Front .recommended to both Military history buffs and any other readers who are interested in Third Reich and its tragic demise.

Jett Gavallan is a corporate warrior on a very dangerous mission: he must save his best friend from the grasp of a Russian mobster while somehow salvaging a huge business deal that might just keep his business afloat. Careening from San Francisco to Moscow to Florida and New York, "The First Billion" is one of the most suspenseful and satisfying books I've read this year, at once a nail biting page turner and an instructive meditation on the risks of international business. I'd place the style somewhere between Ludlum and LeCarre, but Reich has a snappy panache that is all his own. Highly recommended.

As a nice touch on the side, the author's German name "Reich" means "Rich" in English and it is very appropriate for the title of this book "The First Billion." Reich's book is an excellent novel with a great cast of characters in a fictitious world of corporate intrigue and the big game of Wall Street. Not only is it an interesting read, but it's an adventure. I would also recommend another powerful suspense thriller which I greatly enjoyed and is along the same lines to some degree, which is Alec Donzi's THE CONSULTANT.

A very compelling novel, a page turner. Reich
has gotten back on track after a disappointng
second novel, "The Runner." This novel is very
timely, in regards to the current greed by a
few headline making CEOs. If you haven't read
his first novel, "Numbered Account," order it
along with this book.

It's about a boy that bets other boys to eat fifteen worms for fifteen days. If he wins he gets fifty dollars. The characters are Billy,Alan, Joe and Tom. Billt really wants to win to buy a minibike. When Billy was ready, they fried the worm and put ketchup,mustard and horseradish.He ate all of the worm. After, he started acting sick. Tom and Joe were Billy's friends. The worm didn't taste bad. Billy coudn't think of the word "worm". So, Tom changed his mindand made him think of "fish", and Billy ate the worm. This went on until the eighth worm. The ninth was two feet long. Billy knew something was wrong. The worm was plain when he took 2 bites, and he knew that two night-crawlers were glued and that he was cheated. They were arguing. The next day, Joe and Alan droppedby Billy's house and gave him two worms wrapped. Billy ate and finished 11 worms. Alan didn't want to tell his father that he lost 50$. Alan played a trick on him.He took Billy to the Shea Stadium, and stuffed him with junk food. They took him to the car so that he will fall asleep. If he slept through the night Billy will lose the bet. Instead he woke up, blasted a siren to wake everyone up. He then ate the last worm. He won the bet by eating fifteen worms in fifteen days. It was a good book but somewhat silly.

My whole class liked the book but none of us wanted to make a similar bet.

I thought this book was really great and I recommend to all young readers and I bet that it will give you a great laugh. It's about a boy called Billy who makes a bet with his friends that he can eat a worm everyday for fifteen days. If Billy wins the bet he gets 50 dollars and he is intending on buying a mini-bike.

How to eat Fried Worms,a story by Thomas Rockwell. This book is about four boys named Billy,Tom,Joe,and Alan. Billy is a dare devil. He makes a bet he'll never forget. His bet is to eat 15 worms in 15 days. Will he do it and get 50 dollars or chicken out and pay the price? Read the book to find out. I'll give this book five stars.

Set in the confusion following the end of World War II in Germany,The Runner is an exciting, intricately plotted, and wonderfully complex novel of conspiracy and political intrigue. It's July 1945, and Devlin Judge, a former New York City detective and lawyer has been assigned to prosecute Nazi war criminals. Judge has a more personal agenda though, to capture the former Olympic runner and Hitler S.S. man who killed his brother, Erich Seyss, known as the "White Lion." Judge's pursuit of the "White Lion" brings him up against men determined to foil him at every turn. As the conspiracy deepens, Judge the hunter, becomes the hunted and his pursuit of Seyss becomes a desperate race to save the future of Europe. Reich interweaves real life characters and events skillfully into this gripping plot, making for a thriller that can not be put down until it's exciting conclusion.

As much as I love both the unusual setting (post-war Germany) and the thrilling tension throughout the book, the multitude of inexcusable mistakes spoiled the enjoyment of this novel somewhat, at least for for me. Even though as a native German speaker I usually couldn't care less whenever international authors use the odd foreign language phrase incorrectly, Mr. Reich (who's presumably spent a few years in Switzerland) does not get a single German phrase right in this book; sometimes it's so bad that the remarks don't even make sense. Sorry, but this gets really annoying once you're past page 100 or so. On top of that, there are some pretty strange factual errors as well, mainly of geographical nature that could've been avoided by simply checking a cheap map.

Other than that, "The Runner" is a good thriller, comparable to "The Needle" by British author Ken Follett (who is a much better researcher, though). Next time Mr. Reich should hand his novel over to an editor who knows his business if he intends to venture out into a foreign setting again.

Having greatly enjoyed Reich's debut novel Numbered Account, I really looked forward to his next one. Although I had some doubts when I read that it involved a story about an American hunting a former SS-officer right after World War II, I couldn't resist. But I shouldn't have worried! The story is extremely captivating and especially the backdrop of the summer of 1945 provides a very interesting setting. The story is about an American lawyer, Devlin Judge, who decides to hunt down the SS-officer that killed his brother, Erich Seyss. Seyss is a former Olympian runner (which is not really relevant for the story) and also a master in impersonating the enemy (which is more interesting and proves instrumental in some interesting turns of events). Since Seyss just escaped, the story quickly turns into a cat-and-mouse game with a real conspiracy and a very interesting interpretation of Patton's actions!

Having read some of the reviews listed below, I am a bit surprised by some of them. Why do readers get so worked up by some minor factual errors that are not relevant for the story? Do they read a book to catch the writer in some mistakes, rather than enjoying the story? And, being a European, it is amusing to see how Americans get all upset since they feel that the memory of one of America's great hero's (Patton) gets soiled, while other readers feel the book is anti-German. Actually, Reich explained how Patton's actions in the book are based on real facts (okay, the story is fiction, but hadn't you noticed that?)and the book is overall quite neutral about either Americans, Germans or Russians. All groups contain both good and bad people; it is almost like real life!

Devlin Judge is a very enjoyable protagonist. One with a mission, a conscience, but also with doubts, self criticism and able to make mistakes. So, if you enjoy a good thriller with a very likable and believable hero, read this one!

Christopher Reich has done an excellent job plotting this novel. He weaves the various elements together very skillfully, and is particularly strong with the military elements. Frankly, I was a tad disappointed with the story that revolved around the Swiss Bank--I guess I was just expecting more. This part of the tale becomes downright dull at times. However, this novel was incredibly PLAUSIBLE. It's one where you really can't punch holes in the plot, because it all makes logical sense, and that is quite a feat in such a grand-scale story. Reich deserves high marks for this. In light of current world events, I found this novel eerily prophetic.

Where the story is weak, is Reich's actual writing. He's not a particularly strong stylist, even by bestseller standards. His dialogue, especially, can be downright wooden, most notably when he is describing the "romance" element in the story. Quite honestly, I don't think the novel would have suffered for leaving the love story out entirely.

I won't nitpick, though. The book is strong, and is very satisfying at the end. One thing I liked is that Reich was not shy about having his central character actually confront evil KNOWING what he would have to do to resolve the situation. As opposed to the sort of character who is after say a mass murderer, but must be THOROUGHLY persuaded before he will harm a hair on that murderers head. Reich does not insult our sensibilities with such drivel. A writer to watch in the future.

Numbered Accounts is a long book that definitely requires an investment on the part of the reader. The book is similar to a Tom Clancy novel in that you get flooded with details on how the Swiss banking system works. If you don't mind that, then you will enjoy the detail. Still, the book seemed to be about 100 pages too long.

Nick Newman goes to work with United Swiss Bank to find out why his father was killed. Then you throw in a terrorist using the bank money to buy a nuclear weapon and a takeover attempt by a rival bank, and you have the plot in a nutshell. I honestly considered quitting reading this book around page 250, but then the action picked up.

Author Christopher Reich takes his time in revealing the motivation, fault and crimes of the characters. As he slowly reveals more, I became drawn into Nick's fate. Nick finds himself in an incredibly complex situation and has to fight his way out of it using both brains and force.

This book is a business thriller and so the love interest with Sylvia Schon wasn't that interesting. I skipped over most of those parts. A previous reviewer said he felt cheated by Riech's treatment of this relationship. I didn't because I had my suspicious about her from the beginning. Reich could have perhaps made more of Nick's relationship with Anna, although he does give glimpses of the depth of their relationship.

The plot twists are pretty straightforward and the action is exciting. Perhaps one weakness is that the villian Mevlevi is introduced quite late in the book and it takes awhile to care about the scenes he is in.

Overall this is good book with average characters, but a highly detailed plot. A must read for those interested in the financial thriller genre.

Christopher Reich has made a stunning debut as a thriler writer. This is the kind of a book that makes you hope he takes his time to write the next one so he doesn't become a potboiler writer. "Numbered Account" pulls out all the stops. It is an intelligent, exciting and complex thriller. It manages to bring in plenty of characters who are so well drawn that you come to know and understand them. The lead character, Nicholas Neumann is a particularly intense and complicated hero who searches for his soul in a moral and fascinating way. Mr. Reich has managed to avoid the potholes of either a too simple plot or one that is so complex that you have to constantly turn the pages back to remember what is going on. That is good, because this book is so well written that you want to keep turning the pages in a foward direction while absorbing every word. His knowledge of the Swiss bank system is expertly transferred to the readers while his sense of drama and tension keeps you wondering what will take place next in this world involving finance,warfare, Middle East politics, drug dealing, affirmative action and sex. Quite a combo. Mr. Reich, I can't wait for your next novel but take your time and keep up the standards you have set in this knockout of a read.

In attempting to condense into one book what could cover volumes, the author has produced a book that consists primarily of widely known and uninteresting facts and theories. Though it has some interesting points, there are a number of better books available on WWII German military history. Overall, this book is a waste of time and money.

While providing some interesting points, the bulk of this book is merely re-hashed, widely known facts. Really a basic overview of WWII German military history. Not worth the time to read. Oddly, the edition I own doesn't even contain footnotes.

This was a very well written book concerning the "behind the scenes" of Germany during the Nazi era. This book is actually a series of articles about a variety of topics dealing with the German war machine. It covers technology (uboats, rocket program, jet aircraft, etc), mini-biographies of all the key German generals (Rommel, Rundstedt, Guderian, etc) as well overviews of the various campaigns (Barbarosa, N Africa, Italy, France(1940 & 1944), etc).

This book would make an excellent addition to any WWII history fan's library as a superb supplement. It is not a book for those learning about WWII for the first time, but a great work for those who already know basic WWII history.

This book is a bit of a heavy history more geared for academic study then edge of your seat page-turner. As with any book of this size there are always bound to be interesting bits of information, and this book does deliver that. There are a number of details on army group makeup, command structure and tactics as well as a good review of German Army campaign citations and medals. If you are interested in the topic then this is a good book to read, if you are a new comer to this field then this is not the first book to pick up.

The data in this book is filled with errors, from dates to biographies. It has too many flaws to be considered a good reference source. A few examples; Ailsby states that Richard Glücks, the infamous inspector of the concentration camps made some sort of spectacular escape, in true life, Glücks killed himself in British captivity. Ailsby also states that Herbert Kappler (the head of the Gestapo in Rome) escaped from his prison cell in the -80s and has not been seen after that. And again Ailsby has got it all wrong. Kappler escaped in -77 and died of cancer in -78 in Germany.

It seems that Ailsby's primary source on the Knight's Cross winners was Jost Schneider's "Their Honour Was Loyalty" that is clear from the way he copies Schneider's text.

So my advice is that keep away from this rotten apple.

I thought this was a good intro into the men that served in the SS. This book is an alpahbetical breakdown of the men, and some women, who served in different SS units. However, this is not a history of the SS. The book gives a brief (usually about a 1/2 page) bio of each of the members and breaks down what they did, how they came to join the SS, what medals they won, if they were tried after the war, what they did after the war, etc. The book does give a good look at all the differing aspects of the SS such as camp commandants, gauleiters, camp guards, Waffen-SS officers and soldiers, and even foreign ambassadors. This book is a good intro to the people that made up the SS, what they did, and the differing units that made up the SS.