Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Black Cross
    Unavailable
    Black Cross
    Unavailable
    Black Cross
    Audiobook21 hours

    Black Cross

    Written by Greg Iles

    Narrated by Dick Hill

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "A truly fine novel…Totally absorbing and ingenious."-Nelson DeMille

    "On fire with suspense."-Stephen King

    It is January 1944-and as Allied troops prepare for D-Day, Nazi scientists develop a toxic nerve gas that would repel and wipe out any invasion force. To salvage the planned assault, two vastly different but equally determined men are sent to infiltrate the secret concentration camp where the poison gas is being perfected on human subjects. Their only objective: destroy all traces of the gas and the men who created it-no matter how many lives may be lost. Including their own…

    "Stunning…From the very first page, Greg Iles takes his readers on an emotional roller-coaster ride, juxtaposing tension-filled action scenes, horrifying depictions of savage cruelty, and heart-stopping descriptions of sacrifice and bravery. A remarkable story from a remarkable writer"-Booklist

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateOct 20, 2009
    ISBN9781441811448
    Unavailable
    Black Cross
    Author

    Greg Iles

    Greg Iles spent most of his youth in Natchez, Mississippi. His first novel, Spandau Phoenix, was the first of thirteen New York Times bestsellers and his new trilogy continues the story of Penn Cage, protagonist of The Quiet Game, Turning Angel, and #1 New York Times bestseller The Devil's Punchbowl. Iles' novels have been made into films and published in more than thirty-five countries.

    More audiobooks from Greg Iles

    Related to Black Cross

    Related audiobooks

    Suspense For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Karin Slaughter

      Jul 2, 2020

      This American crime author has sold more than 35 million copies of her books globally. This month she’s celebrating the release of her 20th novel in as many years. It’s also the 10th book in special agent Will Trent’s series. “It feels really great a

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Resister

      Feb 23, 2018

      The Resister
      6 min read

    • Article

      Reduced To Rubble

      Feb 20, 2020

      Reduced To Rubble
      4 min read

    • Article

      History

      Jun 30, 2021

      A NEW HISTORY OF VIKINGS FROM SCANDINAVIA TO THE SILK ROADS CAT JARMAN Wm Collins, 336pp, £25 As a 17-year-old, Financial Times reviewer William Dalrymple was one of ten diggers who made an important archaeological discovery in a vicar’s garden near

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Final Voyage of the Ourang Medan

      Jan 28, 2021

      The world learned of the bizarre incident in January 1948, when a Dutch weekly newspaper printed an unusual article headed ‘Mysterious Demise of the Ourang Medan’.1 Its sensational introduction was sure to pull readers in: “A riddle of the sea. Since

      13 min read

    • Article

      Reissues

      Jul 13, 2022

      Pick of the paperbacks this issue: THE BOOK OF SAND (, 4 August, Penguin), by Theo Clare – a nom de plume for Clare Dunkel, best known for her crime fiction as Mo Hayder, and who sadly died last year. It has two strands: one centres on a group living

      1 min read

    • Article

      Pièce De Résistance

      Jul 12, 2022

      Pièce De Résistance
      14 min read

    • Article

      Enthralled by Egypt

      Jan 18, 2024

      Interesting as your feature on Napoleon's “many faces” was (Christmas), it surprisingly omits his fascination with ancient Egypt. In 1798, a large party of French savants, including scientists such as Joseph Fourier, accompanied Napoleon's military e

      4 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Dec 27, 2019

      Anniversaries
      5 min read

    • Article

      Stories Of D-Day Heroism Shape History

      May 24, 2019

      On the 75th anniversary of World War II’s great amphibious assault, a trio of books provides both broad context and individual voices.

      2 min read

    • Article

      History

      Sep 22, 2021

      History
      14 min read

    • Article

      History

      Sep 20, 2023

      JOYA CHATTERJI Bodley Head, 849pp, £30 Married to Anil Seal, Chatterji is ‘one half of the power couple that has led the study of South Asian history at Cambridge for fifty years,’ wrote Oxford historian Zareer Masani in the Literary Review, and is t

      10 min read

    • Article

      Demobilising The Wehrmacht

      Apr 16, 2020

      Demobilising The Wehrmacht
      7 min read

    • Article

      MUSEUMS & EVENTS

      Mar 19, 2020

      MUSEUMS & EVENTS
      4 min read

    • Article

      Geography

      Sep 20, 2023

      CANDICE MILLARD Swift,349pp,£18.99 Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, the rival Victorian explorers who sought the origin of the Nile, were both intensely driven characters. Burton disguised himself as a Muslim, even getting circumcised, in order

      3 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Nov 28, 2019

      Reviews
      8 min read

    • Article

      HISTORY at Your Fingertips

      Nov 1, 2018

      HISTORY at Your Fingertips
      5 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Mar 18, 2021

      Anniversaries
      4 min read

    • Article

      “We Were So Pretentious!”

      May 11, 2023

      JEREMY Mason is leafing through the small black notebook in which he jotted down the titles of books he read during the ’60s. It also lists the books he shared with Drake during their two teenage seasons in France. “In September 1966,” he says, “when

      1 min read

    • Article

      10 Best Books Of February: The Monitor's Picks

      Feb 13, 2018

      From a history of the war in Afghanistan, to a story about a 1950s road race in Australia, to a young adult novel about a teen who loves crossword puzzles, here are our top 10 picks among new February releases.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Fall And Rise

      Jun 20, 2021

      Fall And Rise
      4 min read

    • Article

      BOOKS & AUDIO BOOKS

      Feb 20, 2020

      SINCLAIR MCKAY explores why the bombing of Dresden 75 years ago continues to haunt our imaginations so vividly, and what this tragic episode was like for those who lived in the city What perspective does your book offer on the bombing of Dresden in

      2 min read

    Reviews for Black Cross

    4.5/5

    43 ratings13 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Very well researched and exciting with believable characters. I enjoyed it
    • 5/5
      Never read a book like this before! Every page kept me in awe! Absolutely love Charter 31. I absolutely loved the entire book! Thank you Greg Iles. Can’t wait to read another one of your amazing books!
    • 5/5
      Reading this it is hard to believe it isn't a real account of actual events so complete is the background detail and the use of real figures such as Churchill and Eisenhower in fictional encounters. A thoroughly gripping, credible story of desperate British attempts to prevent the Nazis from using their considerable poison gas expertise during the forthcoming Allied landings in France and the brave few who helped. Had been reading the denouement up until 1:30 in the morning! Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Yes, another book about the Holocaust. However, Greg Iles manages to really bring home the ethical dilemma of whether the death of a few to save the lives of many can be justified. This is a chilling tale of people who are surprised at the depths of their beliefs and their reactions to the tests of those beliefs which they come upon unexpectedly. It is about lies told to achieve the "greater good". It is about the value of human life. It is about good and evil. Very good novel!
    • 4/5
      Twists, turns, non-stop suspense. This book has it all. Lies is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. 600 pages of World War II fiction that dwarfs "The Guns of Navarone."
    • 4/5
      I didn't know what to expect when I picked up this book. I knew Greg Iles for his contemporary thrillers. This was a breath of fresh air, a war story in the nail-biting tradition.Yes, the plot was overdone in the later part of the story. Yes, there is no way the narrator could know all those events. But that only takes the slightest shine off a novel that I had a hard time putting down. Iles suspends my disbelief very easily.The framing of the tale is fun. You never know what that old fart next door might have accomplished in his past!It must have taken a lot of research to come up with the details. I enjoyed the ring of authenticity to so much of it.
    • 3/5
      Greg Iles’ “Black Cross” was a good read (listen, in my case), but a bit too long for its own good. “Black Cross” tells the story of an American chemical scientist who’s working for the British during WWII. While a pacifist, he’s working to develop chemical weapons. When he’s lead to believe that his brother, a US pilot, has been KIA, he and a German Jew are brought together to take part in a secret mission to invade a Nazi “medical facility” where chemical weapons are being prepared and tested to thwart the Allied invasion. Their job is to use gas to kill all Nazis (and prisoners), then take pictures of the Nazi lab. The idea is that by using this gas, Hitler will be bluffed into thinking the Allies have lots of chemical weapons and aren’t afraid to use them.What transpires is a story of survival for the camp’s prisoners and our main characters as well as the moral dilemmas they both face. Most of the history is accurate (based on the Afterword) and certainly the details of medical testing and other forms of torture and abuse by the Nazis are unfortunately accurate and disturbing.But again, the book could have been much tighter had it been shorter. Iles spends too much unnecessary time on the training for the mission, character development in the concentration camp, etc.I must also say that while the narrator did a great job with German, Polish, English, and Scottish accents, I cannot stand the way he (and many other male narrators) enunciate every single word. It sounds so unnatural. Just being picky, but this style of reading makes even the most mundane sentence way melodramatic!
    • 5/5
      I've listened to a lot of audiobooks, but this is the first one that had me wanting to drive around in my car (where I listen) just to keep the story going. It's extremely suspenseful; the last couple of hours are almost unbearably intense. Because some of it takes place in a WWII concentration camp, it is at times quite graphic and hard to take, but I don't think he was being sensational, just conveying the depths of horror that some people had to endure in that place and time. The reader is absolutely wonderful, does a great job with all the accents and differentiating between the characters, and I didn't notice a single edit, remarkable in a book of this length. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Even though I hate stories told in flashback, I thought this was a hell of a good spy thriller.
    • 3/5
      After a glowing recommendation, I had high hopes for Black Cross. Unfortunately, I just never really got into the story. Some elements of the plot seemed overly complicated and there were quite a few places where I said, 'Gee, and why would they do that?' I guess the biggest problem that I had with the book is that the characters felt more like cardboard cutouts than real humans. Sure that had feelings and motivations, but they felt more like emotions retrieved from a 'create your character' checklist. I will admit to having become quite emotional during a sequence late in the book where some of the characters are asked to make an agonizing set of choices. 
    • 5/5
      What a great novel. WWII fiction depicting a raid on a concentration camp that was developing poison gas for the Nazis. Story is as simple as that. No real twists or turns to keep you guessing, just straight forward fiction that keeps you from putting this book down. Greg Iles is becoming one of my favorite authors. I have a few more sitting on my shelf now and will be looking for the rest of his soon. Great stuff.
    • 5/5
      I'm pretty stingy with five-star ratings, but if I could, I'd give this book more than five stars. It hooked me from the first page, and I found it difficult to put it down. The characters are all wonderfully done and complex, even the Nazis (unfortunately, most historical fiction books I've read from this era tend to make Nazi characters two-dimensional evil villains; Schörner is probably the best done fictional Nazi I've read - Iles captures both his blood-chilling ruthlessness and his more refined qualities perfectly). The ending felt rushed and rather fake, but I'm willing to forgive that for the rest of the novel. I'm definitely going to be reading more books by this author in the future.
    • 5/5
      When a young Atlanta physician attends the funeral of the grandparents who raised him, he is approached by silver-haired rabbi who claims to have known his grandfather well. Retuning together to the family home, they open his grandfather's safe. There they discover four mysterious objects. They are the relics of a man haunted by something he did one winter night in 1944, an act that brought him unparalleled honors, but left wounds in his soul that would never heal. As the story of these secret souvenirs unfolds, the grandson's concept of honor is stretched to the breaking point and his notion of heroism redefined forever. In January 1944, four people held the fate of the world in their hands. They were not statesmen or generals, but an American doctor, a German nurse, a Zionist killer, and a young Jewish widow. At the command of Winston Churchill, these four strangers are brought together in a place almost beyond imagination. It is a small SS-run concentration camp serving as the incubator for a weapon of staggering lethality, a weapon U.S. General Omar Bradley later admitted could have wiped out the D-day invasion force on Omaha Beach. What they were forced to do in the name of victory and survival demonstrates with terrible clarity that in a world where all is at stake, war has no rules. Black Cross explodes the myth of World War II as "the good war." It is a novel of transforming power, in which healer must become destroyer and a young killer is tempered by love into a savior. Peopled with men and women as compellingly human as he historical figures who manipulate them. Black Cross will pull you into a steadily tightening web of danger and deception that seems impossible to resolve until the explosive final chapter.