{"id":8360,"date":"2020-01-27T06:55:51","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T11:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8360"},"modified":"2020-01-27T06:55:51","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T11:55:51","slug":"the-bells-of-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8360","title":{"rendered":"****The Bells of Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"cocktail\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

By Michael Kurland \u2013 If Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man<\/em> series could be a refreshingly witty corrective for 21st<\/sup> century gloom-and-doom, then Michael Kurland\u2019s The Bells of Hell<\/em> <\/a>may be just the book to prove it. There are dark deeds afoot by Nazis and Communists in the late 1930s, but the main characters in this historical thriller are plunging into these events with their equilibrium and senses of humor intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord Geoffrey Saboy is a British \u2018cultural attach\u00e9\u2019\u2014that is,\na spy in the British Secret Service\u2014working in Washington, DC, along with his\nwife, Lady Patricia. Lord Geoffrey is gay, so though the couple is close, he\ndoesn\u2019t begrudge his wife her amorous dalliances, some of which are for\npleasure and some in service to her own approach to sleuthing. An old friend of\nLord Geoffrey\u2019s, US counter-intelligence agent Jacob Welker, has the ear of\nPresident Roosevelt, which occasionally comes in very handy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 1938, a Communist agent from Germany, arrives in\nNew York, and in a matter of days, is found naked, tied to a chair in an empty\nwarehouse, tortured to death. Unbeknownst to his Gestapo killers, there was a\nreluctant witness to this execution, unemployed printer Andrew Blake. Many arms\nof officialdom take notice when the salesman\u2019s identity is revealed, as worries\nabout the German-American volksbund<\/em> (the \u201cBund\u201d) are on the rise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welker talks a reluctant Blake into taking a job printing\nliterature for the Bund. Blake is terrified by the murder he saw and almost\nparalyzed with fear his spying will be discovered. He laments every assignment\nand drags his feet in accepting each new task, proving once again that true\ncourage is not going boldly into the unknown, but knowing the danger and going\nanyway. And when his German masters, in turn, ask him to spy on the Communists,\nhe\u2019s a pretzel of hesitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kurland develops the plot in a number of interesting ways by\ngiving Lord Geoffrey his own brush with the Nazis when he accompanies HRH\nPrince Edward, Duke of Windsor, on an official visit to Germany. HRH find\nHitler impressive and forceful, and Saboy responds that one likely acquires the\nhabit of being forceful when no one dares disagree. If you are familiar with\nthe real-life affinity HRH had for Hitler, this plotline is especially\nintriguing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, intelligence from multiple sources suggests the\nGestapo is planning a major terror event in New York, which they plan to set up\nso that blame lands on the Communists. But what, where, and when is this to\ntake place? These questions preoccupy the British couple and Welker, their\nAmerican friend (and possible future amour of Lady Patricia).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nicely plotted story moves along at a sprightly pace. Though the characters are dealing with deadly serious matters, they maintain their lighthearted, let\u2019s-not-take-ourselves-too-seriously banter. Kurland captures the spirit of the times: the oppressive gloom in Germany, the uncertainties regarding impending war in Britain, and the fear of the extremists of right and left who threaten America. You may be as delighted as I am that The Bells of Hell<\/a><\/em> is billed as \u2018A Welker and Saboy Thriller,\u2019 signaling the possibility of more about this engaging trio in future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: wikipedia<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Kurland \u2013 If Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man series could be a refreshingly witty corrective for 21st century gloom-and-doom, then Michael Kurland\u2019s The Bells of Hell may be just the book to prove it. There … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"****The Bells of Hell - characters in Michael Kurland's new historical series, set in the darkening world pre WWII, show that courage isn't going boldly into the unknown, but knowing the danger and going anyway.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[193,40,266,268,126],"tags":[446],"class_list":["post-8360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-espionage","category-fiction","category-history","category-politics","category-reading-2","tag-world-war-ii"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Flaming_cocktails_converted.jpg?fit=283%2C396&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2aQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8361,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8360\/revisions\/8361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}