Bells of Hell, The

By Michael Kurland

Counter-intelligence agent Jacob Welker recruits a number of civilians to help foil a suspected terrorist attack by German spies in New York in 1938.

March, 1938. Otto Lehman arrives in New York on the S.S. Osthafen to be immediately confronted by two men with FBI badges . . . only, that isn’t his real name and the men aren’t with the FBI. The next day Lehman is found tied to a chair, beaten to death and naked, in an abandoned Brooklyn warehouse.

The sole witness to the crime, Andrew Blake, a homeless man struggling through the Great Depression, claims those responsible were speaking German. With the threat of the perpetrators being Nazis, President Roosevelt’s own covert counter-intelligence agent Jacob Welker is brought in to investigate.

Welker recruits Blake along with Lord Geoffrey Saboy, a British ‘cultural attache’, and his wife Lady Patricia, to help him to thwart a Nazi terrorist attack. But who exactly are the Nazis, what is their target and when will they strike?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781448303403

Michael Kurland

A native of New York City now living in California’s Central Coast, Michael Kurland served four years in a branch of Army Intelligence, both in the United States and in Europe. He is the author of over 40 books, ranging from fantasy to mystery. He has been nominated for the Edgar award twice, for A Plague of Spies and The Infernal Device, the latter of which was also an American Book Award finalist.

Reviews for Bells of Hell, The

[readinggeek451 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Historical suspense, set in 1938, against the background of a Nazi plot in New York. The action ranges from New York to Washington to Berlin, following diplomats, government investigators, and a reluctant imbedded agent.A bit old-fashioned, but quite satisfying.

[vicki_weisfeld · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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’s The Bells of Hell 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.Lord Geoffrey Saboy is a British ‘cultural attaché’—that is, a spy in the British Secret Service—working in Washington, DC, along with his wife, Lady Patricia. Lord Geoffrey is gay, so though the couple is close, he doesn’t begrudge his wife her amorous dalliances, some of which are for pleasure and some in service to her own approach to sleuthing. An old friend of Lord Geoffrey’s, US counter-intelligence agent Jacob Welker, has the ear of President Roosevelt, which occasionally comes in very handy.In March 1938, a Communist agent from Germany, arrives in New York, and in a matter of days, is found naked, tied to a chair in an empty warehouse, tortured to death. Unbeknownst to his Gestapo killers, there was a reluctant witness to this execution, unemployed printer Andrew Blake. Many arms of officialdom take notice when the salesman’s identity is revealed, as worries about the German-American volksbund (the “Bund”) are on the rise. Welker talks a reluctant Blake into taking a job printing literature for the Bund. Blake is terrified by the murder he saw and almost paralyzed with fear his spying will be discovered. He laments every assignment and drags his feet in accepting each new task, proving once again that true courage is not going boldly into the unknown, but knowing the danger and going anyway. And when his German masters, in turn, ask him to spy on the Communists, he’s a pretzel of hesitation.Kurland develops the plot in a number of interesting ways by giving Lord Geoffrey his own brush with the Nazis when he accompanies HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, on an official visit to Germany. HRH find Hitler impressive and forceful, and Saboy responds that one likely acquires the habit of being forceful when no one dares disagree. If you are familiar with the real-life affinity HRH had for Hitler, this plotline is especially intriguing.Meanwhile, intelligence from multiple sources suggests the Gestapo is planning a major terror event in New York, which they plan to set up so that blame lands on the Communists. But what, where, and when is this to take place? These questions preoccupy the British couple and Welker, their American friend (and possible future amour of Lady Patricia).The nicely plotted story moves along at a sprightly pace. Though the characters are dealing with deadly serious matters, they maintain their lighthearted, let’s-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.