The Informant

Starred review from July 8, 2013
Set in 1941, Rosenheim’s excellent sequel to 2012’s Fear Itself takes FBI agent Jimmy Nessheim to Los Angeles, ostensibly to ensure that J. Edgar Hoover comes out looking good in a movie Hollywood is making about the Bureau. In reality, he’s running a Japanese informant, Billy Osaka. When Osaka disappears, FBI assistant director Harry Guttman orders Nessheim to find him. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Guttman is playing his usual dangerous game by following leads in the suspicious shooting death of a source who alerted him to Soviet efforts to recruit Americans as spies. Guttman must do so without incurring Hoover’s wrath for disobeying orders to let that matter lie. As the calendar shifts from October to November 1941, the shadow of what is to come on December 7 looms large, adding urgency to Nessheim’s mission. Rosenheim is even better this time out at melding interesting leads with a thrilling story line and vivid descriptions of such locales as L.A.’s Little Tokyo. Agent: Gillon Aitken, Aitken Alexander Associates.