Hart's War by John Katzenbach

 

The men at Stalag Luft 13 in Bavaria are captured soldiers in World War II, most of them aviators.  They are hunkered down, determined to survive and go home to the lives they left behind.  Most are grateful to have survived being shot down and just exist from day to day, eating from Red Cross packages to supplement their food rations and following the rules of the German guards.  But some are determined to escape.

Although all are in the same boat, there is always someone who gets an edge.  In Stalag Luft 13, that someone is Vincent Bedford, a Mississippi bomber who trades and can get you almost anything you want.  When a black airman, Lincoln Scott, arrives, he is ostracized and baited unmercifully by Bedford.  When Bedford is found murdered, Scott is immediately arrested for his murder.

The trial will be a military one carried out by the Americans under their judicial rules although if the decision is guilt, the Germans will carry out the firing squad sentence.  Their are three judges on the panel who will determine his guilt.  The prosecutor is a man who was a district attorney in Virginia while the defense is Tommy Hart, a man who plans to be a lawyer but was only starting law school when he joined the service.  He has spent his imprisonment reading law books and debating law with two men in the Allied camp, a British solicitor and a Canadian policeman.  Now he is starting his first trial in a murder case with a defendant heartily despised by many.

Hart and his team don't believe that Scott is guilty.  They think the prosecution's view of the case is wrong, in how it was done and the reason behind it.  Bedford was heartily disliked by most.  He could get you what you wanted but it always cost more than you wanted to pay.  Was the murder personal?  Was he just in the wrong spot that night?

John Katzenbach is known for his intricate novels of suspense and this novel falls in that genre.  It was later made into a movie.  The plot deftly combines the day to day life of a POW's internment with that of a murder, German overseers who have their own secrets and power plays and an escape attempt that would be the biggest ever.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.