Whatever the Cost

by Michael Kurland

Overview

Counter-intelligence agent Jacob Welker is on a special mission to find a group of scientists who could change the course of World War II in this smartly written historical espionage thriller.

September 1939. Germany has declared war on Poland, and in German Pomerania, Professor Josef Brun is on the run from the SS, carrying secret documents that could change the course of the war. If he can make it to France or Britain. If he can survive . . .

In America, counter-intelligence agent Captain Jacob Welker is handed a special assignment from President Roosevelt. Einstein believes the Nazis are aware of a new super weapon made possible by advances in atomic science, and only a small group of scientists can stop them winning the race to develop it. Enlisting the help of his British friends, Lord Geoffrey and Patricia Saboy, Welker must find the scientists and get them out of Germany from under the Nazi's noses. As a dangerous new world of physics gathers pace, can Welker prevent the war taking a catastrophic new turn?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780297613
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	11/30/2021
Series:	A Welker & Saboy thriller , #2
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.55(w) x 8.74(h) x (d)

About the Author

A native of New York City now living on 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 forty 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. The first title in the Welker & Saboy series, The Bells of Hell, is also published by Severn House. www.michaelkurland.com

Editorial Reviews

'A delightfully daft romp in which the Saboys do most of the sleuthing, combining banter and booze in a manner that suggests Nick and Nora with a splash of Noel Coward and a nod toward Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence' - Booklist

From the Publisher

An inherently riveting and deftly crafted political suspense/thriller of a novel by a master of the genre

Midwest Book Review on The Bells of Hell

02/08/2021

It’s August 1939 in Edgar finalist Kurland’s suspenseful sequel to 2020’s The Bells of Hell, and Winston Churchill meets with Lord Geoffrey Saboy to discuss the imminent war with Germany. Geoffrey goes to Paris as a cultural attaché with his wife, Lady Patricia, though their real work is spying for the British government. Their happy marriage of convenience—Saboy is gay, and Patricia, who has “large and varied sexual appetites,” pursues her own affairs—adds spice to the plot. In Germany, physics professor Josef Brun is on the run from the Nazis, guarding documents relating to secret experiments with radioactivity. In the U.S., President Roosevelt receives a letter from Albert Einstein alerting him to the possibility of making a superweapon with uranium ore. FDR sends his top spy, Office of Special Intelligence agent Jacob Welker, to Europe to spirit away a group of scientists and bring them to America. Kurland expertly weaves Saboy’s sometimes madcap antics into Welker’s serious work without betraying the rules of a good espionage novel. Readers will eagerly await the next in the series. Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron & Assoc. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

This latest in Kurland's novels about the notorious Professor Moriarty makes for fun reading. Calling Moriarty the hero of these books might stretch the meaning of hero ... but he's a fine sleuth and sure makes for a compelling protagonist. Splendid stuff

Booklist on Who Thinks Evil

This thoroughly involving thriller stands proudly alongside Dan Fesperman's The Letter Writer (2016), Elmore Leonard's Up in Honey's Room (2007), and John Dunning's Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime (2001), among others. Great stuff

Booklist Starred Review of The Bells of Hell

This thoroughly involving thriller stands proudly alongside Dan Fesperman's The Letter Writer (2016), Elmore Leonard's Up in Honey's Room (2007), and John Dunning's Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime (2001), among others. Great stuff

null Booklist Starred Review of The Bells of Hell

This latest in Kurland's novels about the notorious Professor Moriarty makes for fun reading. Calling Moriarty the hero of these books might stretch the meaning of hero ... but he's a fine sleuth and sure makes for a compelling protagonist. Splendid stuff

null Booklist on Who Thinks Evil

An inherently riveting and deftly crafted political suspense/thriller of a novel by a master of the genre

null Midwest Book Review on The Bells of Hell

2020-12-26
An unorthodox pair of English aristocrats travel to the Continent in 1939 in hopes of sneaking out scientists who are crucial to the war effort.

No less an authority than Albert Einstein has written to President Roosevelt urging him to relocate a slew of physicists working in Germany on a fearsome new technology that could create the bomb to end all bombs. So Capt. Jacob Welker, founder of the Office of Special Intelligence, heads into a vortex. So do Lord Geoffrey Saboy and his wife, Patricia, whose irregular domestic arrangements—each one basically provides cover for the other’s roving eye—guarantee lightweight complications. When one of Patricia’s trysts brings her into possession of a list of parties who’ve already suffered a high mortality rate, the couple, aided by a cadre of informants horrified by what life under the Third Reich has become, redouble their efforts to track down as many potentially turncoat scientists as possible. Even as they talk to professors Herman and Angela Mittwark, professor Josef Brun, of the Kepler Institute, is already on the run from the Gestapo with some vital scientific papers. Will Brun meet up with the couple seeking to rescue him as part of the retinue of Geoffrey’s alter ego Jeffrey the Great’s magic act before he disappears himself? Freely mingling real-life heroes and villains with his fictional cast, Kurland resolutely ignores the implications of his title, making wartime intrigue look so easy and fun you may want to try a spot of it yourself in between your own engagements.

A good time is had by all but the Gestapo in this knockabout demi-suspenser.

Kirkus Reviews