Sergeant Savannah Hulin, daughter of Mike Whicker, reads her father’s book while stationed in Bagdad, Iraq.
A military intelligence analyst, Savannah served three tours of duty in Iraq.
Invitation to Valhalla is popular among American troops.
Mike and grandson Alex visit the Military Intelligence Museum at the Fort Huachuca Army base in Arizona. Fort Huachuca is the nerve center/training center for U.S. Army military intelligence. Here Mike and Alex check out a captured World War II German Enigma code machine. The Enigma code plays a role in Invitation to Valhalla and Blood of the Reich.
![Erika 001 copy[2]](http://mikewhicker.com/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Erika-001-copy26.jpg "Erika 001 copy[2]")
Carolyn Roth, a talented artist, created the above watercolor from a scene in Invitation to Valhalla. In chapter 17, Erika is strolling Paris is a yellow summer dress when she is given a flower by a young boy.
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Another talented artist, Jacob Elijah Walker, created this image for a poster sponsored by the Evansville Public Libraries when Invitation to Valhalla was the 2004 One Book One Community choice for southwest Indiana.
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Looming ahead on the Ohio River is the bridge from Indiana to Kentucky that Erika Lehmann plunge from in Invitation to Valhalla. The photo was taken by the author from the deck of LST 325, the last fully operational WW II LST in the world.
LST 325 is docked in Evansville, Indiana, and available for tours. (photo taken in 2007)
Erika’s Evansville apartment over this cafe. The cafe is still open for business.
Photo taken by Cookie Barrow.
Side of Cafe with second floor apartment. (photo by Cookie Barrow)
Photo by Cookie Barrow
The apartment has been abandoned for many years. This is the bathtub Erika was in when Axel Ryker broke in on her.
Photo by Cookie Barrow
Part of the WW II Evansville Shipyard was here.
Photo by Cookie Barrow
#1 by Rick Nightingale on December 21, 2009 - 1:19 pm
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I just finished the book and found it fascinating since I am from Indiana. Thank you for bringing this part of our history to light. My wife is originally from the Evansville area and we now have many more sights to go visit when we head down there. In fact, her Grandmother, Katie Hirsch, grew up just a few blocks from the cafe where Erika stayed and her Great Aunt is the photographer of the pictures posted here (Cookie Barrow). Thanks again for the great read.
#2 by Sarah Hirsch Smith on January 12, 2010 - 9:19 am
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I have read the book twice and have used it in teaching WWII to 6th graders at my daughters school. just donated a copy to the school as many kids wanted to borrow my book. my daughter is also a fan. This summer when we visited my Mom (Cookie’s sister Katie) we went to the old neighborhood and saw how close all of this happened! My Mom was just a few blocks away! As a teaching tool is was great to show how even back then our country was being infilterated. Can’t wait for the second book! Many new fans are being developed in Columbus GA.
#3 by Debbie Taylor on March 16, 2010 - 7:23 pm
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Mike-
Blood of the Reich is an awesome read! I could not put it down! I cannot wait to re-read it! I so enjoyed the journey with Elizabeth!
#4 by Faye Wilson on October 23, 2010 - 8:52 pm
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Getting ready to re-read “Blood of the Reich”. There is so much packed into the book, it requires a second, slower read.
#5 by Rita Stagg on March 9, 2011 - 8:59 pm
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Am just ready to finish the last few pages of “Blood of the Reich” for my bookclub discussion tomorrow and savoring this moment. Absolutely love it. I live near Evansville, Ind., and have family in Cincinnati, OH. Can’t wait to share the book with them. This will be one book I will re-read.
#6 by Jackie Elsner on July 4, 2011 - 2:41 pm
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Mike-
I read Invitation to Valhalla, Proper Suda, then Blood of the Reich, one after the other. I loved them all. I didn’t want to get to the end of the books because they were so exciting. I seriously would love to see them made into movies. That would be great! Like the others mentioned, you want to read them again to catch things you didn’t the first time, because you were in such a hurry to see what happened next. It is so cool to read a great story about events that occurred in your own town too. I hope you have another book in the works. Maybe you could write a book about Haiti.
Your Fan, Jackie
#7 by Lori Shaffer on November 13, 2011 - 4:54 pm
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Mike,
Two of your books were a gift to me from a friend and I greatly appreciated you hand delivering them to London last month! Sorry you were at Bletchley Park the day I picked them up. I’ve spent most of the weekend reading them. Started Invitation to Valhalla on Friday night and just finished Blood of the Reich. Well written; I couldn’t put them down. I am dying to know what happened to Erika! What a fascinating woman!
#8 by Heinrich on December 17, 2011 - 2:13 pm
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Correction: certainly FBI Agent Charles Pulaski would have known that robber and gunman Lester Gillis, sometimes known as “Babyface Nelson, if not to his face, found the Thompson machine pistol to be bulky and uncontrollable, and avoided its use, as at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Wisconsin, as described in Invitation to Valhalla. Gillis prefered the “rattler” a Colts Government Model pistol modified to fully-automatic fire, and in the .38 calibre super cartridge chambering rather than the more usual .45 of the army service weapon.
#9 by webmaster on December 17, 2011 - 5:39 pm
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Heinrich: Great info. But Nelson also used a Thompson on many occasions. He used one to kill two FBI agents in 1934.