Agent in Berlin

The Wolf Pack Spies 1

By: Alex Gerlis

Narrated by: Duncan Galloway

Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

To live among wolves, first you must become one... An unmissable new spy thriller from best-selling master of the genre, Alex Gerlis.

War is coming to Europe. British spymaster Barnaby Allen begins recruiting a network of agents in Germany. With diplomatic relations quickly unraveling, this pack of spies soon comes into their own: the horse-loving German at home in Berlin's underground; the young American sports journalist; the mysterious Luftwaffe officer; the Japanese diplomat and the most unlikely one of all... the SS officer's wife.

Despite constant danger and the ever-present threats of discovery and betrayal, Allen's network unearths top-secret plans for a new German fighter plane – and a truly devastating intelligence prize... an audacious Japanese plan to attack the United States. But can they prove it?

The race is on. An unputdownable and atmospheric Second World War espionage thriller, Agent in Berlin will grip you to the very end. Perfect for readers of David Young, Robert Harris and Rory Clements.

©2021 Alex Gerlis (P)2021 Alex Gerlis

Critic reviews

Gerlis proves himself a master of spy fiction to rival John le Carré, Robert Harris and other leading lights with this gripping and entertaining novel set mostly in the frenzied world of pre-war Berlin.
-- David Young, author of Stasi Child

Everything slots together perfectly in this hugely atmospheric and powerfully character-driven story set in Germany at the rise of Nazism... a brilliant new addition to the genre.
-- Chris Lloyd, author of The Unwanted Dead

Amazing plotting, packs a real punch.
-- Mark Billy Billingham, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Hard Way

The first volume of a promising new series, Alex Gerlis handles an ensemble cast with panache.
-- Financial Times

An unmissable spy thriller from bestselling master of the genre Alex Gerlis.
-- Spybrary Podcast

Highly recommend

Looking forward to book 2. Narrator was great. This was my first book by Alex Gerlis

Better than other reviews suggested

I thought the story was good. The author spent a little too much time mentioning Berlin street names like we were following on a map. I liked the various accents that made the story come alive

WW2 spy story

Well I thought that the book was well researched but left a lot of the sub plots hanging. I mean the author spent a lot of time developing these subplots but they were mostly back ground noises to a simple story.

Solid book. Distracting narration.

I did the audio version of this book as narrated by Duncan Galloway.

This book was a World War 2 spy novel, one of my favorite genres. In terms of the story itself, Alex Gerlis has written an engaging fast-paced story, which I enjoyed. I wasn’t familiar with him before so this was a welcome surprise. I enjoyed the variety of characters and the depth of the storyline that carried out over several years. There were some parts that I thought were slightly too modern in their perspective and didn’t ring true of the time period but overall, the book was well plotted.

I’ve only recently started listening to audio books, and I found Galloway’s interpretation really over the top at times. He does a lot of distinct voices for the many characters which was very useful, as there are a lot of characters. Very distractingly though some of the voices he gave characters were so unrealistic and frankly annoying to listen to, especially for the first third of the book. It was a challenge to get beyond this, but because I enjoyed the story I wanted to keep going. I’ve read several rave reviews of the narration of this book. I have no idea what those readers were hearing, but I cannot imagine it was this book.

My advice if you want to consider this book is to read it instead.

This story is like a Toyota Avalon… Sneaky exciting well constructed Excellent etc.

Nothing groundbreaking here. Just an excellent storyteller. Good story. Good narrator. Actually great narrator. Does the little things And doesn’t forget the little things that are pertinent to each character even if it’s an hour later. Really good. Just solid across-the-board. Kind of takes you away from the 20 20–20 22 experience (y’all know what I mean). Kind of bad when World War II is better. Great story.

Historical view.

Another good spy book by Alex Gerlis. Good plots, great writing, pacing and solid narration.
Looking forward to the next one.

REALLY GOOD STORY, REALLY BAD NARRATOR

The stout is very good and I really like the author. However, the narrator was NOT GOOD AT ALL!!!!!!

I Love WWII Spy Novels…But

I wanted to love this book…but it left me wanting. I am not sure why the book was written. The characters are not developed extensively and the suspense falls short. It is though the author couldn’t bring out the suspense of the battle between the Gestapo and the spy’s. One word might be “bland”. I couldn’t get behind it or the characters. What did not help was the limited range of the narrator. Perhaps different narration might have pumped the storyline up more.

Plodding at times - marginal narration

The story itself was fine and Alex Gerilis is a very good writer. Keep in mind, this is book one of a series which often is less developed than subsequent instalments. But this book at times dragged, while at other times, maybe most times, was very engaging and fast paced.
The narrator however was at times, very annoying and cartoonish. Sometimes, trying to add unique voices and accents is a bad idea. In this case, it was, in my opinion a very bad idea. Now I am sure it is much like an American attempting to read in a British accent, or maybe an American trying to effectuate a German accent. In this case, the narrators American accent was just bad. As soon as it was attempted, the cadence slowed and every word was over pronounced or articulated in order to get the accent "right". For me, it would have been better to just read and go on with the story. Of course, that's me being picky and unable to do better myself. Your experience may be much different.