Shortlisted for 2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. It is 1937 and an aimless young historian, back home after six years idling, is summoned to Berlin. He is both thrilled and uneasy to be tasked with an extraordinary assignment: find the Holy Grail and bring it back for the glory of Nazi Germany. Otto Eckhart is right to be anxious. Events soon take a troubling turn and, with a dire threat hanging over him, he is set on an impossible course from which there is no obvious escape. The feckless dreamer must use all his ingenuity and courage to defeat his inner demons and outfox Himmler’s SS and Gestapo. In hunting down the sacred chalice of The Last Supper, can Eckhart discover his own Holy Grail and come of age as a man? Otto Eckhart’s Ordeal is a darkly humorous tale inspired by true – and incredible – events.

Longlisted * 2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, Best Published Novel *
"Can [Eckhart] find the Grail, rescue his father and get the girl (Himmler's secretary)? It's well worth reading this funny and well-written offering to find out." * Soldier Magazine (UK) *

Niall Edworthy, a former reporter with international wire agencies AFP and Reuters, has written over 40 books, many of them ghosted. Otto Eckhart’s Ordeal is his exciting fiction debut. His work has covered a broad range of genres and subjects and include a highly acclaimed account of a British tank regiment at war in Iraq, the comic adventures of an Essex roadworker on the world darts scene, the autobiography of a rugby World Cup winner, and the harrowing story of a young Londoner unjustly jailed in Russia.