Who has Buried the Dead (Optimum Publishing International) is a richly detailed global thriller set in Second World War Poland. It brings the reality of the pain and suffering of Poles endured in the German/Russian invasions and occupation of that nation and tells the little-known historical tales of the Polish underground and Poles fighting on the Western front. It also discloses one of the last great secrets of the Second World War which, much like Enigma, has a very vital Polish component.
Who Has Buried the Dead cover (Source: Optimum Publishing)
A historically rich cast of characters interplay with “fictional” ones. From larger-than-life personalities like Zhukov, Stalin, Beria, Churchill, Wild Bill Donovan, Władysław Sikorski, Zygmunt Berling, and Harry Truman, to historical places and realities like the Rape of Shanghai, Russo-Finnish Winter War, Katyn Mass Murders, Siege of Sevastopol, the famous Great Escape out of Stalag Luft 3 in Kagan, Poland, Warsaw Uprising, the Soviet capture of Berlin, and New Mexico Atomic bomb tests, Who has Buried the Dead is historically accurate to a fault.
This novel is a must-read for Poles around the world — in particular, the next generation of Polonia — because it provides valuable historical context into Poland’s role in the fight for freedom.
Tragically, the script of the millions who died in Hitler's death camps and on the streets of European cities in the “Night and Fog” (Nacht und Nebel) raids, the complete destruction of Warsaw, and Stalin's evil thrust to totally eliminate entire nations and races, is now being played out before the world in real time as Russian artillery strikes in Ukraine continue unabated and even Poland is threatened. Putin is working from Stalin’s playbook... and adding new and more brutal chapters daily.
Ed Carson (now retired) president of Random House, Harper Collins and finally Penguin Canada, recently read Who Has Buried the Dead and believes this book has the makings of an international best-selling thriller.
A perfect Christmas gift, Who has Buried the Dead is available at a presale price of $28.95 (Canadian) at www.chapters.indigo.ca and on amazon.com. It will be sold across the United States at most Barnes and Noble stores.
Written about and for Poland and the world-wide Polish community, Who has Buried the Dead is a must-read for all who have a sense of history and an appreciation of the true meaning of the words duty, honor, and sacrifice.
The author, KGE ”Chuck” Konkel, is a serving senior Canadian police investigator with several decades of law enforcement experience. He began his policing career as an Inspector in the Royal Hong Kong Police before the most recent Communist takeover. He works closely with Interpol, the National Police Forces of Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium, in addition to the RCMP and FBI, in matters involving organized crime both in Canada and Europe. Konkel has lectured at the Polish Police Academy in Legionowo, Poland with FBI funding and was personal advisor to the late Commandant of the National Police of Poland, Marek Papala in Warsaw only a few months before Papala was murdered. Konkel was warned by “western friends” to leave Poland immediately before this happened because not only Marek Papala's, but Konkel’s own life, was in imminent danger.
In a separate case, Konkel executed a search warrant in a closed area near Moscow searching for cars stolen from Chicago and given as “gifts” to the highest ranking Russian and Communist Ukrainian political figures. The site in question proved to be a site integral to making missile components.
His father, Edward Konkel, was a proud Polish Second World War veteran who survived two POW camps and one concentration camp. He was ultimately placed in the infamous Oranje Hotel outside of Den Haag, the Netherlands, for 48 hours to be shot, but was allowed to live.
Konkel was born in Rotterdam to a Dutch mother. After the war, the family immigrated to Canada because Edward Konkel would have been put to death by the Communist regime in Poland.
KGE Konkel has previosuly written two thrillers — both well received nationally and internationally. The Glorious East Wind (Random House Canada/ McGraw Hill US) is about the final years of British Hong Kong and accurately predicted the Tiananmen Square massacre. As a result, he appeared in major media across Canada and on Larry King Live, NBC-National with John Miller, PBS National Radio and David Letterman, among many others. The second novel set in Mexico — Evil Never Sleeps (Harper Collins) — was seriously considered by the famed Chinese director/producer John Woo for a feature length film.
Konkel holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations and has spent years researching Who Has Buried the Dead. He has discovered the last remaining great secret of WWII, one which the KGB, CIA and MI5-6 desperately sought in the final days of that global conflict.
