Amerikan Eagle: The Special Edition

By: Brendan DuBois

Narrated by: Dan Orders

Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

It's 1943, 10 years after the assassination of president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Germany is at war with Russia and rules all of Europe - including Great Britain - and Japan is conquering China and East Asia. The United States is an isolationist nation, still struggling with the Great Depression, and is being governed by President Huey P. Long, former Louisiana governor and senator.

In Portsmouth, N.H., Sam Miller is a cop supporting a family and trying to stay on the right side of his boss, the law, and his conscience. Then a murder victim is found by the railroad tracks, a number tattooed on the victim's wrist, something never seen before by the police. It's a case Sam could walk away from. It's a case he will be ordered to drop. And it is case that leads him into a lethal vortex of politics, espionage, rebellion, and international intrigue.

As war rages in Europe, a new fascist power rises in America, overseen by President Long and his allies. And the people Sam thinks he knows best - his wife, his brother, his colleagues - reveal new identities. In a formerly close-knit city by the sea, where no one is above suspicion and no one is safe, a global summit is about to take place between President Long and Chancellor Adolf Hitler. On that day, history will be changed. And millions of people will live or die, all because Sam Miller has been a very good cop - faced with a very bad choice.

About the author:

Brendan DuBois of New Hampshire is the award-winning author of 17 novels and more than 140 short stories.

©2015 Brendan DuBois (P)2015 Brendan DuBois

Plenty of plot twists in this alternate history

There are loads of plot twists in this look at what life in the United States would have been like if FDR had been assassinated and Huey Long rose to power. I don't want to reveal too much, but we'd be cooperating with the Germans while living in a fascist state at home.

Part intellectual exploration, part cautionary tale, and part pure fun, Amerikan Eagle kept my interest the whole way through. It used carefully chosen historical details, some of them only appropriate for this alternate history, to bring the story to life. There were times when DuBois pushed my believability threshold to its limits, but he never went over the line.

I wasn't enamored with the narrator, both overall and especially with the voices of some secondary characters. But though I found the writing superior to the narrating, the latter wasn't a fatal flaw.

This was a satisfying, interesting alternate history. Recommended.

Weak Story

Very Formulaic.. Story kept going too long, unnecessary plot twist that made no sense.. killed time in the car

very entertaining

I often get bored or already guessed the ending in most books. I didn't see it coming and the narrator with the different voices made it entertaining to listen to.