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Lenin's Roller Coaster
- Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
- Series: Jack McColl, Book 3
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Thriller & Suspense
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London, 1921: Ex-Secret Service spy Jack McColl is in prison serving time for assaulting a cop. McColl has been embittered by the Great War. He can't stomach spying for the British Empire anymore. He's also heartbroken. The love of his life, radical journalist Caitlin Hanley, parted ways with him three years earlier so she could offer her services to the Communist revolution in Moscow. Then his former Secret Service boss offers McColl the chance to escape his jail sentence if he takes a dangerous and unofficial assignment in Russia, where McColl is already a wanted man.
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In April 1938, a man calling himself Josef Hofmann arrives at a boarding house in Hamm, Germany, and lets a room from the widow who owns it. Fifty years later, Walter Gersdorff, the widow's son, who was 11 years old in the spring of 1938, discovers the carefully hidden diary the boarder had kept during his stay, even though he should never have written any of its contents down. What Walter finds is a scathing chronicle of one the most tumultuous years in German history, narrated by a secret agent on a deadly mission.
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In April 1938, a man calling himself Josef Hofmann arrives at a boarding house in Hamm, Germany, and lets a room from the widow who owns it. Fifty years later, Walter Gersdorff, the widow's son, who was 11 years old in the spring of 1938, discovers the carefully hidden diary the boarder had kept during his stay, even though he should never have written any of its contents down. What Walter finds is a scathing chronicle of one the most tumultuous years in German history, narrated by a secret agent on a deadly mission.
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Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the city for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian’s evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish émigré living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian’s family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise.
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By 1939, Anglo-American journalist John Russell has spent over a decade in Berlin, where his son lives with his mother. He writes human-interest pieces for British and American papers, avoiding the investigative journalism that could get him deported. But as World War II approaches, he faces having to leave his son as well as his girlfriend of several years, a beautiful German starlet. When an acquaintance from his old communist days approaches him to do some work for the Soviets, Russell is reluctant, but he is unable to resist the offer.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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As the war approaches its end, Prince once more has to risk everything. Berlin, 1939: a German intelligence officer learns a top agent is quickly moving up the British Army ranks. He bides his time. Arnhem, 1944: British paratroopers have been slaughtered in one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War. A shell shocked officer is convinced that the Germans knew they were coming. But who betrayed them? Back in London, Richard Prince, detective and spy, is approached by MI5 about a counterintelligence operation.
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February, 1944. A bitter winter grips occupied France, where Marc Reece leads a circuit of British agents risking their lives in order to sabotage the German war effort from within. But Reece has a second mission, secret even from his fellow agents - including Charlotte, the woman with whom he has ill-advisedly fallen in love. He must secure a document identifying a German spy at the heart of British intelligence. The fate of the Allied forces on D-Day is in his hands.
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5 out of 5 stars
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One of best WWII books I’ve read
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Rudi Graf is an engineer who always dreamed of sending rockets to the moon. But instead, he finds himself working alongside Wernher von Braun, launching V2 rockets at London for the Nazis from a bleak seaside town in occupied Holland. As the SS increases its scrutiny of the project, Graf, an engineer more than a soldier, has to muster all of his willpower to toe the party line. And when rumors of a defector circulate through the German ranks, Graf becomes a prime suspect.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Ho-Hum
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The Accomplice
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- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 166
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Story4 out of 5 stars 147
Seventeen years after the fall of the Third Reich, Max Weill has never forgotten the atrocities he saw as a prisoner at Auschwitz - nor the face of Dr. Otto Schramm, a camp doctor who worked with Mengele on appalling experiments and who sent Max’s family to the gas chambers. As the war came to a close, Schramm was one of the many high-ranking former-Nazi officers who managed to escape Germany for new lives in South America, where leaders like Argentina’s Juan Perón gave them safe harbor and new identities.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Nazi Hunters
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Sea of Spies
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 95
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
The Allies are desperate to stop neutral Turkey supplying vital materials to the Nazis - materials which could help them win the war. But then a British agent makes a fatal mistake and disappears in Istanbul. In England, detective-turned-spy Richard Prince - back from a clandestine mission in Nazi-occupied Europe - is hunting for his lost son. Before long he is drawn into a dangerous follow-up operation, posing as a journalist in Turkey. The mission soon goes wrong.
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5 out of 5 stars
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fantastic
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Vienna Spies
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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With the end of the Second World War in sight, the Allies begin to divide up the spoils and it proves to be a dangerous game. The British have become aware that, contrary to what's been agreed, the Soviet Union is intent on controlling Austria once the Second World War ends. And Major Edgar is given the job of establishing an espionage unit in Vienna. He sends in a married Swiss couple - Rolf Eder and Katharina Hoch - who, in fact, have only met each other a week before their journey. Their job is to track down Austria's most respected politician and bring him over to the British cause.
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2 out of 5 stars
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This was an awful book...
- By K R D on 03-22-18
By: Alex Gerlis
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Return to Berlin
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- By: Noel Hynd
- Narrated by: Time Winters
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 10
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10
It is early 1943 and the United States has been at war for more than a year. William Cochrane, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who was the central character in Flowers From Berlin, has enlisted in the United States Army. He has the commission of a major and is at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, training for combat.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Well researched and written! Strong storyline!
- By Anonymous User on 09-17-21
By: Noel Hynd
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Old Flames
- An Inspector Troy Novel, Book 2
- By: John Lawton
- Narrated by: Lewis Hancock
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 59
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
In April 1956, at the height of the Cold War, Khrushchev and Bulganin, leaders of the Soviet Union, are in Britain on an official visit. Chief Inspector Troy of Scotland Yard is assigned to be Khrushchev's bodyguard and to spy on him. Soon after, a Royal Navy diver is found dead and mutilated beyond recognition in Portsmouth Harbor. Troy embarks on an investigation that takes him to the rotten heart of MI6, to the distant days of his childhood, and into the dangerous arms of an old flame.
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5 out of 5 stars
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great, if a bit long
- By wylie smith on 10-29-21
By: John Lawton
Publisher's Summary
The third Jack McColl espionage thriller by David Downing (also the author of the WWII Station series) brings together two lovers in Bolshevik Russia.
Winter 1917: As a generation of Europe's young men perish on the Eastern and Western fronts, British spy Jack McColl is assigned a sabotage mission deep in Central Asia, where German influence is strong. As he quickly realizes, the mission only becomes more dangerous the closer he gets to its heart. Meanwhile, the woman he loves, Irish-American suffragette journalist Caitlin Hanley, is in Bolshevik Russia, thrilled to have the chance to cover the Revolution.
Caitlin knows Moscow is where she is meant to be during this historic event - even if she is putting her own life at risk to bear witness. But four years of bloody war have taken their toll on all of Europe, and Jack and Caitlin's relationship may become another casualty. Caitlin's political convictions have always been for progress, feminism, and socialism - often diametrically opposed to the conservative goals of the British Empire Jack serves. Up until now Jack and Caitlin have managed to set aside their allegiances and stay faithful to each other, but the stakes of their affair have risen too high. Can a revolutionary love a spy? And if she does, will it cost one of them their lives?
More from the same
What listeners say about Lenin's Roller Coaster
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- David Holroyd
- 05-20-17
Downing's clunker
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
The story line stretches credulity, and the characters are tired.
Would you ever listen to anything by David Downing again?
I enjoyed the 'Station' series, and have listened to the two previous books in this series. This is the weakest.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Rolando
- 02-26-19
The narrator ruined this book.
I always enjoy this author but just couldn't maintain interest with such a lacklustre presentation. Little emotion, characterisation and interest by the narrator in the story. It felt he was merely reading it and couldn't wait to finish,
I gave up.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Emilie
- 09-28-18
Poorest Downing Book. Period
Downing has a tendency to write a history lesson and wrap it in a plot, but he usually manages to pull it off. Not this time. The arcane detail smothers a weak, weak plot. After falling asleep ( literally!) in places, I couldn't be bothered to rewind. And while the narrator tries his best, his sonorous voice for large stretches combined with a near non-existent plot is really off-putting. If I hadn't listened to all the other Downings in both series, I would not have bothered to finish it. As it was, I slogged through it in patches with breaks inbetween for other books.