Birdcage Walk

A decorated P-51 Mustang pilot turned OSS spy penetrates Nazi Germany on the eve of D-Day in this propulsive World War II thriller of espionage, sacrifice, and courage.
June 1944. The Allied invasion fleet stands ready to strike, but critical intelligence has gone dark behind enemy lines. When the OSS recruits Captain Max Becker—decorated P-51 ace—for a covert mission into Hitler’s Reich, he trades his cockpit for the fog-shrouded streets of occupied Germany. His assignment: activate a dormant resistance network and return with intelligence that could determine whether D-Day succeeds or fails. Moving between tense English briefing rooms and treacherous European cities, Becker must outwit the Gestapo and hold his cover intact as suspicion closes in. Meticulously researched and propulsively told, Birdcage Walk puts readers at the hinge point of history.

John R. “Rick” Taylor (OUTLAW 3 and GRUNT AIR 6) is a decorated Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Army for almost ten years. His duty assignments included Aviation, Military Intelligence, and Air Defense. He started flying at age 13 and later became an Army Aviator, flying combat and intelligence missions in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and other less-than-friendly parts of the world. His first-hand military and intelligence experience gives him the background needed to write aviation thrillers and spy novels like Grunt Air, The Caves, and Black Bart. He has now written a WWII spy novel called Birdcage Walk, which will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Today he is an oil and gas executive who has returned to post-war Vietnam to engage in petroleum exploration operations in the Mekong Delta. He has met with many former North Vietnamese combat leaders, including the legendary military architect of the war, General Vo Nguyen Giap. In the early and mid-’80s he was an activist for the return and full accountability of POWs and MIAs from the Vietnam War. He wanted to know what happened to the 514 that are still unaccounted for today.

His job has taken him to England, Germany, France, Korea, central Russia, Libya, Chechnya, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, several South American countries, and Malaysia. He was a principal in the early post-war Bosnia war damage assessment and reconstruction planning efforts. Taylor still enjoys his love of flying, as well as sailing and his Masonic membership. He currently lives deep in the heart of Texas.