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

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.

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.

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.

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

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!!!!!!

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.

Highly recommend

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

Please get this recorded with someone else!

Alex Gerlis is a great author and the story is one that is very hard to leave. However, the narration is appalling. Firstly, when he is speaking as a character the voices he uses are terrible - I think of a mouse or a rat speaking. Also, an Englishman will pronounce Lieutenant as "Lefftenant" - not "Lootenant".

The narrator used for the Richard Prince series did a much better job!

Hideous Narrator

Big fan of Alex Gerlis stories and the previous series (spy masters and Richard prince) have been decently narrated. This chap has totally ruined the book. His accents and voices are just awful to have to listen to. Made the book a total failure for me. Gerlis and his stories deserve better than this!!

Laboured and meandering.

The narration was very poor. The German accents cringeworthy and off putting. The posh British accent was even worse. For comparison listen to Jeff Harding in the Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther series which is top rate narration and story telling. As a result the story suffered. However, the story was weak. There is nothing new here. No plot no twist nothing new in the WWII genre. No edge of your seat page turning must listen theme. The over emphasis on homosexuality didn’t ring true. No villain and weak characters that I found hard to invest in. Apart from Noel and Sophia who stood out but would be average characters in a better written book. They were worthy of development that didn’t happen. Very disappointed.

Great audiobook!

This is the first of the “Woolpack” series and it’s a great story. The German accents used by the narrator are sometimes a little overdone and therefore amusing, but they don’t detract from a very well constructed and absorbing narrative. I really enjoyed it.

Good story but a bit slow

Good story but a bit slow at times, I would recommend a listen it is worth it

Horrendous narration

Sounds like the narrator is an autocue then suddenly offensively bad accents for Germans, Jewish people and others - don’t waste a credit on this terribly done book

Terrible narration

Story OKish- not the best. However I’ve abandoned finishing- I couldn’t stand the awful narration. It’s a mistake for the narrator to try and adopt foreign accents both male and female - it ends up a mess. I’m sure Inspector Clouseau appeared at one point trying a German accent. Please just read the story.

Very good

I really enjoyed listening to this book, there was a good story based on partly facts and fiction. I enjoyed the narration very much, Will look to forward to the next books in this wolf series.

Agent in Berlin. By Alex Gerlis

Unfortunately, I found it difficult to get past the accents, which were more like a comic parody of the characters they were supposed to be.
Although when the narrator was talking in a normal voice, this was pleasant to listen to.

Struggle a little

I struggled with this book, I didn’t feel it was a story as such, I could see I wasn’t going to get an ending so to speak. I will listen to the next books in the series if only to get an ending! I get some of the narration comments, there were times I felt lost in in the narration of what was happening