Dark Invasion: 1915: Germany's Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America

Combining the pulsating drive of Showtime's Homeland with the fascinating historical detail of such of narrative nonfiction bestsellers as Double Cross and In the Garden of Beasts, Dark Invasion is Howard Blum's gritty, high-energy true-life tale of German espionage and terror on American soil during World War I, and the NYPD Inspector who helped uncover the plot--the basis for the film to be produced by and starring Bradley Cooper. When a "neutral" United States becomes a trading partner for the Allies early in World War I, the Germans implement a secret plan to strike back. A team of saboteurs--including an expert on germ warfare, a Harvard professor, and a brilliant, debonair spymaster--devise a series of "mysterious accidents" using explosives and biological weapons, to bring down vital targets such as ships, factories, livestock, and even captains of industry like J. P. Morgan. New York Police Inspector Tom Tunney, head of the department's Bomb Squad, is assigned the difficult mission of stopping them. Assembling a team of loyal operatives, the cunning Irish cop hunts for the conspirators among a population of more than eight million Germans. But the deeper he finds himself in this labyrinth of deception, the more Tunney realizes that the enemy's plan is far more complex and more dangerous than he suspected. Full of drama and intensity, illustrated with eight pages of black and-white photos, Dark Invasion is riveting war thriller that chillingly echoes our own time.

About the Author :
Howard Blum is the author of the New York Times bestseller and Edgar Award winner American Lightning, as well as Wanted!, The Gold of Exodus, Gangland, and The Floor of Heaven. Blum is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. While at the New York Times, he was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He is the father of three children, and lives in Connecticut. Pete Larkin is an accomplished voice-over actor, award-winning audiobook narrator, and on-camera host. He was the public address announcer for the New York Mets and has worked as a radio jockey in New York, Baltimore, and Washington, DC.

Review :
[A] terrifically engaging and pertinent tale...Blum creates some memorable portraits...and keeps the heroic good-versus-evil plot simmering along in a nicely calibrated work of popular narrative history. Instructive, yes, but also as engrossing as good detective fiction. -- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)" A must-read for lovers of suspense and anyone who wants to understand how the basis of our homeland security system was born...Expertly told by Howard Blum with shocking betrayals, surprising heroism, artful cons, and heart-in-the-throat chases, Dark Invasion grippingly brings to life two sets of equally fascinating antagonists-cops and terrorists-as they contend over a nation's fate. -- "Tom Reiss, New York Times bestselling author of The Black Count and The Orientalist" A suspense-filled tale, Dark Invasion uncovers a fascinating corner of history when courageous New York City police officers fought insurmountable odds to defend America against sophisticated German saboteurs at the start of World War I. -- "Ronald Kessler, New York Times bestselling author of In the President's Secret Service" A worthwhile page-turner, combining the best features of a police procedural and a spy novel with a firm base in verifiable events. -- "Publishers Weekly" I read Dark Invasion without stopping. It is a well-researched and exceedingly well-written account of a pre-World War I series of terroristic attacks on the United States, in this case perpetrated by Germans. It is full of good stories and characters. -- "Norman Stone, author of The Eastern Front: 1914-1917" In his gripping and expertly crafted narrative, Blum demonstrates that the best stories are true. Told in the great tradition of spy thrillers, Dark Invasion is the startling tale of German secret agents operating in the United States during World War I and the determined effort of a New York detective to stop them. The result is a book that is not only engrossing, but helps explain why America entered the Great War. -- "Scott Miller, author of The President and the Assassin"