Agent in Berlin

The Wolf Pack Spies 1

By: Alex Gerlis

Narrated by: Duncan Galloway

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 unravelling, 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

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.

Great narrator who's able to make the dialogues sound real. intriguing story.

Not a clear ending, but that is of course difficult when a war is still raging. I guess I need to read all books in the series to get the conclusion I want.

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.

Intimate View of Espionage

Mr. Gerlis weaves in a lot of details of history and setting which add to his story of WWII espionage from the British MI-6 perspective. It’s a particularly good view of a more realistic telling of the spy game where people are used with little emotion, managed by aloof government officials and where they are also expendable.
These are not the spies of Hollywood dressed in tuxedos and enjoying fine wine and classy resorts, but everyday folks being drawn into clandestine service, often reluctantly. The story is very much in the style of Alan Furst, just not quite as polished.
The only negative for the audio version is the narrator. His male German characters are all high pitched, nasal voices and the American accents are completely wrong, some sort of mixture of a soft Dutch and flat toned dialogue. It distracts from the story.
Overall I enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

great story, overdone narrator

Loved the story, but the narrator tried too hard and did not succeed with the different voices.

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!!!!!!