KURT MULLER

Full Name:	Kurt Müller
Series Name:	Black Orchestra
Nationality:	German
Organization:	British Intelligence
Occupation	Agent

Creator:	J. J. Toner
Time Span:	2013 - 2018

ABOUT THE SERIES

Kurt Müller is an agent with British Intelligence.

Eventually.

When we first encounter him, he is encountering a corpse. Rather an interesting introduction.

The year is 1940. German forces have just broken through all defenses in Belgium, the British were in full retreat to Dunkirk. Austria and most of both Poland and Czechoslavakia are under Hitler's control.

Müller is a young man recently out of college who has a thankless and tedious job in the signals department of the AbWehr, the German Military Intelligence. He was so assigned because of his knowledge and expertise in English, coming from having an Irish mother and having gotten his undergraduate degree from Trinity College not long before we meet him. Since most of his work just involves receiving Morse code, his language skill is for the most part wasted.

That is until his uncle made a comment and things changed quickly. His uncle was not really an uncle so much as having a sister who was married to Müller's father's brother. Still, it is a contact and when the 'uncle' invited him to a weekend party, he went and happened to mention his job and suddenly he is transferred to a more interesting job of actually breaking codes with the Enigma device. This 'uncle' was Reinhard Heydrich, notorious head of the Reich Main Security Office, the bosses of the Gestapo.

Müller's future might have been a promising one if he had wanted to play off his influence of his 'uncle', which he did not want to. And if he ignored his conscience, which he was unable to. What he would learn would drive him to the other side, first through the Resistance and then later with British Intelligence.

BOOKS

Number of Books:	4
First Appearance:	2013
Last Appearance:	2018


1			The Black Orchestra Written by J. J. Toner Copyright: 2013 A fellow signalman with the Abwehr is found dead at his listening station by Kurt Muller. The police immediately rule it a suicide even though the evidence clearly points otherwise. As Müller decides to go against orders and look into it himself, he moves into the realm of the Resistance and the fight between Good and Evil and choosing between his duty to his country and his duty to do what is right.

2			The Wings Of The Eagle Written by J. J. Toner Copyright: 2014 The assignment for Kurt Mülleer and a young associate is to parachute back into Germany to find and rescue a British agent. The mission grows incredibly harder when he then learns he must stop Nazi scientists from building their first nuclear weapon.

3			A Postcard From Hamburg Written by J. J. Toner Copyright: 2015 Seeing a picture of his girlfriend, Gudrun, in the possession of a captured German agent was worrisome. Then he receives a postcard from her in Germany and he knows without a doubt she is being held by the Gestapo and he must get her free even though he is in London at the time.

4			The Gingerbread Spy Written by J. J. Toner Copyright: 2018 To throw confusion into the mix regarding Operation Overlord, D-Day, British Intelligence doing all sort of innovative stunts. Then they pick up a transmission from near London that might be giving the whole show away and the evidence points to Kurt Müller being the one sending it.

MY COMMENTS

I was impressed with the way the author went about conveying the mood of first early-war Germany and later mid-to-late-war England, not through long descriptions but through simple, everyday conversation. The nervousness and unease (and the false expression of hope) of the former and the determination of the latter really comes through.

Kurt Muller is an interesting character and I liked following his activities. One good sign about the series was that at the end of the (so far) last adventure, I was genuinely curious what would happen next to Herr Muller.

GRADE

My Grade: B+

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