New York Station

November 27, 2017
A multifaceted protagonist who’s a refreshing change from formulaic genre leads lifts this gritty spy thriller from Dudley (St. Kilda). In 1940, Roy Hawkins, an American spy who has been working for the British in Paris, wants to help in the resistance against the Germans, who occupied the city in June, but his orders are to leave France. Hawkins is dispatched to New York City, where his chief of station enlists him to stop a traitor from sharing shipping schedules with the Germans that could be used to guide U-boat attacks. A more complex assignment soon follows. Radio host Walter Ventnor—who refers to the Roosevelts as the Rosenfelds, preaches a focus on Fortress America, and spouts pro-Hitler propaganda—has allied himself with Dr. Hans Ludwig, a representative of the Nazi government. Hawkins must make sure that Ludwig doesn’t get his hands on a secret U.S. Navy system, sonar, which America has refused to sell to embattled Britain. Fans of Alan Furst and Joseph Kanon will find familiar pleasures.

While stories of espionage and election rigging dominate our news, this audiobook raises the specter that the Nazis attempted similar actions during WWII. Lawrence Dudley's novel, narrated with precision by Christopher Lane, features MI6 agent Roy Hawkins, who in the early 1940s, is transferred to New York, where he discovers an emerging group of Nazi sympathizers. Because the audiobook includes many passages based on Hawkins's thoughts, rather than dialogue, Lane must use a nuanced style to distinguish those moments. While the story does have its convolutions, overall this is an entertaining story that in some ways presages the emergence of the alt-right today. D.J.S. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

November 1, 2017
August 1940. MI6 operative Roy Hawkins is reassigned from Paris to New York. But why? Paris is barely surviving under Nazi occupation and needs all the help it can get, but America is not even in the war. Bafflement turns to outrage, though, as Hawkins uncovers a conspiracy of almost unbelievable complexity and audacity. Can he stop the conspirators before they alter the direction of the war and the course of world history? Or will he allow his love for an American woman cloud his judgment and miss his chance to save a life? This is a thrilling WWII spy adventure with a classic love-versus-duty story, robust characters, and a nice sense of time and place. (The author makes sure we know we're in America of 1940 without a lot of window dressing.) A good, solid thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)