Welcome to Litsy!

Note: You may read this synopsis without fear of spoiling your enjoyment of reading the book. It is carefully written not to reveal any details of the plot. If the Princeton Graduating class of 1908 were ranked financially, Logan Dean would be last. His deceased father was a congressman and so he managed to be admitted. When the novel opens he is a tough NYC investigative reporter who distinguishes himself by trying to bring to his stories a sense of history. His newspaper, the New York World, is owned by Pulitzer who is appalled over the pro British slant all the newspapers have adopted so he sends Dean to Berlin to report the war from the German side - not necessarily favoring the Kaiser. But the Germans don´t welcome him because they have an authoritarian approach to news gathering. Dean is a journalist who wants to get into the thick of it but without taking sides. However he stumbles on something so horrific that it changes his attitude and causes him to fight. However he views it as an act of a deranged individual of high rank, and not official German policy. As a normal young man he has instincts toward the opposite sex and has gotten involved with a German national who has a shady past. His relationship with her evolves through several stages. But on a trip to the Netherlands (a neutral country) he meets a British doctor who literally bowls him over. Their affair continues sporadically throughout the book. Dean is slowly changing his mind from that of a neutral reporter from a neutral country to an anti- war activist. Exposure to various wartime events, poison gas, bombing civilians, treating soldiers like donkeys, the battle of the Somme, etc. has its effect. He is called on to visit England for long periods of time and he sees the British are not that much different from the Germans. Either side will do anything to win. In the course of his work he becomes involved with many well known people of the time. Among them; the Kaiser and his family, Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, the Irish hero Sir Roger Casement, the master chef, Escoffier and General Sir Douglas Haig. All the above notwithstanding, the main story deals with Logan Deans struggle with Haessler, the German Chief of Internal Security. It´s a story that involves ego, intrigue, sex, humiliation, and murder. The book will appeal to three types of readers; the action adventure lover, the history buff, and to those who like an historical romance. A reviewer wrote, There is enough action to satisfy any adventure fan, history buffs will love the coverage of the happenings prior to the entry of the US into the war, but Dr. Celia Gray is the most appealing character in the book. Dr. Carl Calendar, Chairman of the Humanities Dept. at Brookdale College wrote in his review, The scholarship is impeccable, and even a dedicated student of Irish nationalism like myself learned a lot about the Irish/German alliance during the war. What I especially like is the way it put me back into the World War I era and the wonderful way it recreates the feeling of being in these venerable cities (London and Berlin), not only the sights, sounds and architecture, but in the personalities of the British and the Germans.