"Books on Suomussalmi & Tali-Ihantala" Topic

I recently posted something on a different thread aboutthese two books by Jack Whitaker. They suggested I post it here as well, so here goes.
I love reading about Finland in WW2 – these two books (photos at bottom) popped up and I bought them sight-unseen. They are both so brand new (published in 2026) there weren't any reviews. I was quite excited.
What a disappointment. Here are my thoughts:
Where was the battle fought? Don't know – no maps.
How many men were on each side? Tanks? Guns? Don't know.
What sources were used? Don't know – no bibliography (just a one paragraph "Note on Sources.")
What Finnish units were present? Don't know. No specific formations ever mentioned.
What other Finnish officers were present and what was their impact? Don't know – Siilasvuo is the only one mentioned by name.
What was the composition of a Soviet Division? Don't know, other than giving the division numbers, there is no description of Soviet forces.
Who were the Soviet commanders? Don't know – they are never mentioned.
What was their fate? Don't know.
How many tanks and guns did the Soviets have? Don't know.
What type of tanks were present? Don't know.
How many tanks and guns were captured? Don't know.
What does a motti look like after the battle? Don't know – not a single photo

You'd think a book that was 150+ pages could answer some of these questions. There was some good information in there, but it was like prospecting for gold. You have to go through a lot of stuff to find a little bit of the good parts. Mostly it was just repetitive generalities.
Maybe the book on Taili-Ihantala will be better. But I doubt it.
I don't recommend it.

Very odd. I read several books on the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 that had been written in the decade or so after the war. I very quickly found out that, if they mentioned somebody by name, he would be killed during the next few paragraphs. Otherwise, the person was referred to as the commander, or the radio operator, or whatever. I gather this was to protect the people involved. I'm wondering if something vaguely like that is going on in your book, but I would have thought that the Winter War having ended 80 years ago the participants are no longer around.

Grelber