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Title details for Jack of Spies by David Downing - Available

Jack of Spies

#1 in series

by David Downing
Clive Mantle
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available

Jack McColl is a globe-trotting salesman for a luxury car firm. He is also a part-time spy for the fledgling Secret Service on the eve of the First World War. As 1913 ends he is in China, checking out the German naval base at Tsingtao between automobile demonstrations in Peking and Shanghai. Caitlin Hanley is a young Irish-American journalist with the sort of views that most British men would find dangerously advanced. McColl is no exception, but once captivated he finds himself unwilling to give her up even when Caitlin's radical politics and family connections threaten to compromise his secret career. Then the pair become involved in a plot that threatens the Empire in its hour of greatest need.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Jack McColl

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 18, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781787061705
      • File size: 337958 KB
      • Duration: 11:44:04

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In this sparkling production, set just before the outbreak of WWI, narrator Gildart Jackson employs his husky baritone to capture the many facets of Jack McColl. He supplies confidence to the Scotsman's persona as a luxury car salesman and provides caginess to Jack's alter ego as a novice agent in Britain's fledgling intelligence service. Jackson's voice clearly reflects the conflict McColl feels when his spying clashes with his budding relationship with Caitlin Hanley, an Irish-American journalist. While Jackson delivers a strong portrait of McColl, his depiction of Caitlin, as well as those of other secondary characters, isn't as distinctive. However, portraying McColl, Jackson takes listeners around the globe to China, San Francisco, New York, London, and Dublin, weaving a measured accounting of how one man fights the good fight, despite obstacles and misgivings. D.E.M. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 3, 2014
      British author Downing’s engaging if slow-moving first in a WWI-era spy series introduces Jack McColl, a globe-trotting Scottish car salesman moonlighting as a British agent. Months before August 1914, McColl is trying to sell his company’s luxury car, the Maia, in China—and sniffing around for clues as to what the Germans and the Chinese are up to for his British government handlers back in London. He and Caitlin Hanley, a beautiful American journalist he meets in Peking, embark on a round-the-world journey that takes them to San Francisco and on to New York. Later, McColl heads to Mexico, and finally to Britain. Along the way, he survives a stabbing, falls in love, and tracks a German spy, gathering intelligence on a variety of revolutionary movements. Fans of Downing’s WWII-era spy series that concluded with Masaryk Station will appreciate the author’s command of history and period detail, though some may find the book reads more like a travelogue than a thriller. Agent: Charlie Viney, Viney Agency.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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