I’m a huge fan of historical fiction so it gives me enormous pleasure to welcome Brian Klein, author of The Führer’s Prophecy to Linda’s Book Bag today. Brian has kindly written a fabulous guest post all about writing this sequel to The Counterfeit Candidate which I’m delighted to share with you today.

The Führer’s Prophecy is available for purchase here.

The Führer’s Prophecy

30 January 1939. Adolf Hitler makes an infamous speech at the Reichstag threatening “The annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”. This vile public proclamation is seized upon by his fanatical supporters who christen it “The Führer’s Prophecy”.

November 1943. A sinister plot hatched inside Block 10 of the notorious Auschwitz deathcamp is known only to a handful of Nazis as Operation Gesamtkunstwerk. It’s a plan originated by Hitler, Himmler and Mengele and now, almost eighty years later, it’s finally ready to be actioned by the direct descendants of the Führer.

April 2022. As the world emerges from the Covid pandemic, an encrypted zoom call involving five participants, based across four continents, approves a plan that could have unimaginable consequences for the State of Israel. Chief Inspector Nicolas Vargas of the Buenos Aires Police Department and Lieutenant Troy Hembury of the LAPD join forces with Lea Katz, an elite Mossad agent, in a race against time to try and prevent the unthinkable consequences of Operation Gesamtkunstwerk.

Writing a Sequel

A Guest Post by Brian Klein

I didn’t really expect to write a sequel, even though I did leave the ending of The Counterfeit Candidate open for one. To be honest I was overwhelmed by the public reaction, as thousands of reviews demanded a sequel. In addition, the film company who optioned the rights to the novel pointed out that an America streamer such as Netflix would insist on knowing there could be a season two. Those two factors combined to inspire me to work on a new idea for a sequel.

My ideas come from looking back at history for inspiration. I studied Modern History and Politics at university, and I find that looking AT true stories and real characters inspire me to then fictionalise events based on a ‘What If’ theory. Just like its predecessor, The Führer’s Prophecy deals with a ‘What If’ scenario, where Hitler does not die in 1945 and the possible consequences of that fact in the present day.

Given the fact that I’m Jewish, it’s extremely difficult writing about one of the evilest men in history, who was obsessed with wiping out the Jewish race, but equally I have to remind myself I am writing a novel and therefore I try and make him a three-dimensional character, however hard that may be.

The main characters in The Führer’s Prophecy are now ten years older, and I guess somewhat wiser than before. John Franklin is now a man in hiding, looking for revenge and obsessed with carrying out an attack on the Jewish people – hence his fanatical approach to Israel. Vargas and Hembury have seen it before and so nothing surprises them about the lengths Franklin will go to, in orderto fulfil his grandfather’s prophecy.

The Führer’s Prophecy is a phrase used by Hitler sympathisers and followers which arises from a speech Hitler made in January,1939 at the Reichstag. During it he publicly proclaimed his desire to wipe out all the Jews in eastern Europe and so in the novel, his descendants vowel to deliver that pledge through an attack on Israel.

I find it inspirational to work with real-life characters and to imagine how they might have behaved had they not died when they did, and what choices they might have made that could have changed history and affect the way we all live today.

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I think The Führer’s Prophecy sounds fabulous Brian and am delighted it is on my TBR. Equally, I fear history may not have led us to a more humane approach to others than the one you describe here…

About Brian Klein

Brian Klein is an award-winning Television Director, with over twenty-five years’ experience in the industry. His work regularly appears on Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC and Sky. Amongst his directing credits are twenty-eight seasons of the iconic car show, Top Gear and seven seasons of A League Of Their Own Roadtrip, Sky One’s highest rating entertainment show. He has also directed two feature-length films for BBC Worldwide and five entertainment specials for Netflix. The Führer’s Prophecy is a sequel to his best-seller, debut novel, The Counterfeit Candidate.

For further information, visit Brian’s website. You can also find Brian on Instagram.