REVIEW: Killing the SS

Killing the SS
Author: Bill O'Reilly

I'm not a fan of Bill O'Reilly. I never liked his political commentary shows. He just isn't someone I enjoy. But to be fair -- I don't like any of the main stream political commentators from left or right, or even the middle. I prefer to form my own opinions based on neutral factual information.....not listen to rants from journalists about their personal opinion. This isn't a personal judgment on Bill O'Reilly....I'm just not someone who watches rants from either side (I equally dislike Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity....whatever person is ranting on CNN, FOX, etc (I don't know all their names because I don't watch)....I avoid this sort of program in general.) I was trolling about on my local library's digital site when this series came up in my "suggested reading''  Hmmm.....a series about famous deaths and assassinations. Intriguing. I listen to a lot of non-fiction audio books about history, so I clicked and started reading book blurbs on this series. Imagine my surprise when the author's name caught my attention. Bill O'Reilly. Really?? Instead of turning me off, it just made me want to read the series even more. I wanted to know what other info Bill has to share besides politics.....

I'm glad I took the time to listen to this book. Although it really offers nothing new about the pursuit, capture and convictions of Nazi SS members following World War II (and the many that escaped any sort of trial or conviction), I found the narrative interesting. There is some updated information on some of the Nazi hunters that I didn't know about....the Mossad was more involved in the process than was first known as they kept their actions secret for decades. I would NEVER want to be on the wrong side of the Mossad. It makes me realize that those who lived in hiding and technically escaped justice lived in fear and paranoia for the rest of their lives. That is somehow a worse punishment than being caught. (I chuckled darkly a few times and had that momentary thought.....the one that goes....you killed my family members and had a public trial & execution or hid like a dog for decades in some out of the way country....debt paid, murderers.)

My one problem with this audio book is Bill O'Reilly's narration. There are frequent mistakes, strange pauses, and times where it's obvious that he had lost his place in the script and stumbled over a sentence, mispronunciation of German names and places, etc.  He also has a strange cadence to his reading.  Strange pauses....weird inflection.....out of place emphasis on some words or portions of sentences.  It made it difficult to listen at first until I got used to his strange narration and could willingly block it out.  I don't understand why some of the mistakes were not edited out -- he stumbles over words, hangs on the end of words because he's lost his place in the script, leaves weird pauses at the wrong places. It's just a bad performance. I was surprised at this. Bill O'Reilly has been on television and radio for years. But he just didn't do justice to reading his own book. There are several other titles in this series I would like to listen to on audio....but I'm hoping he doesn't narrate them all. He is difficult to listen to.....just a strange performance and poor editing.

Interesting facts. Poor narration. I am going to try other titles in this series. The series includes books on the crucifixion of Jesus, the assassination of Lincoln, John Kennedy's death, the Revolutionary war, and several other interesting topics. I will switch to the print books if the audio performances are all as bad as this one. I'm giving it a middle of the road rating....3 stars. I'd give the information a solid 4, but the weird narration dings it down a notch. Just a hard listen....strange performance.