Wild Bill Donovan

Those interested in the history of Donovan, the wartime OSS, and the WWII era in general will be drawn to this title, but for anyone else its appeal is uncertain. There's much to be said about Donovan's style of espionage and the story of the postwar birth of the CIA, but this ancestors-to-grave biography dissipates its energies. Furthermore, Johnny Heller doesn't succeed in establishing a thread or an arc for his narration. He is quite effective whenever the action picks up and draws him, and the listener, in. But through the bulk of the text he falls back on the practiced rhythms of the professional narrator, often without regard to syntax and with a monotony that builds in the listener's mind, chapter by chapter. Production values are high here, and this is still a title worth recommending. D.A.W. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine