Fear Itself
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
A homegrown Nazi conspiracy threatens to destroy America in this historical FBI thriller: “A stirring successor to Frederick Forsyth” (The Independent).
Washington, DC, 1940. Jimmy Nessheim, a young special agent in the fledgling FBI, is assigned to infiltrate a new German American organization known as the Bund. Ardently pro-Nazi, the Bund is conspiring to sabotage American efforts against Adolf Hitler. But Nessheim’s investigation soon uncovers something far more sinister—and it leads directly to the White House. Drawn into the rarified world of Washington’s high society, Nessheim is caught in a web of political intrigue, secret lives, and a lethal plot that could rewrite history.
With sharp wit and a keen eye for period detail, author Andrew Rosenheim brings to life an America at the crucial period before it entered World War II. He seamlessly weaves into the narrative larger-than-life figures such as J. Edgar Hoover, Clyde Tolson, and Lucy Mercer Rutherford, as well as historical events like the 1939 pro-Nazi rally held at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This top-notch historical thriller from Rosenheim (Stillriver), the first in a new series, introduces 26-year-old Jimmy Nessheim, an FBI agent in the Chicago field office. In 1937, a jealous J. Edgar Hoover is looking to rid the Chicago office of staff members tainted by their connection with real-life G-man Melvin Purvis, who led the manhunts that tracked down Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and John Dillinger. Fortunately, FBI assistant director Harry Guttman rescues Nessheim s career by tapping him to go undercover in the Chicago German-American community. In doing so, Guttman directly contravenes Hoover s opposition to such covert work, but the resourceful Nessheim believes his mission has the director s blessing. With Nazi Germany eager to keep the U.S. out of the impending European war, the stakes are high. While Rosenheim s prose and character portraits may not match those of Alan Furst at his best, this intelligent page-turner will only whet reader s appetites for more.
