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In this historical thriller, two New York City detectives investigate a string of bombings perpetrated by German saboteurs.

Before the United States was drawn into World War I, the country was plagued by bombings by German spies, who sought to disrupt munitions boats carrying vital supplies to the Allies. In 1915, the bomb squad, the “most elite unit in the New York City Police Force,” is tasked with thwarting these terrorist acts. DS Gil Martin and his partner, Detective Paul Keller, are given lead roles on the case, and they’re a complex pair: Martin’s parents were forced out of France during the Franco-Prussian War, and he was raised to loathe Germans; Keller is a German American who’s critical of Germany’s belligerence but proud of his heritage. The principal German agent in New York, Danie Caarsens, a “fearless soldier” and veteran of the Boer War, coordinates smuggling operations, plants explosives, and even agitates dock workers to strike. Author Hockenberry, whose historical research is impressively rigorous, details the cops’ frantic search for Caarsens, who proves to be a “slippery fish.” The story is as riveting as it is edifying, and the author astutely limns the role that the United States played in the world, and the dangers it weathered, before it officially declared war. Hockenberry also paints a vivid picture of the difficulties that German Americans faced; one subplot follows the struggle of German American banker John Wittig, who’s torn between his commitment to peace and his allegiance to Germany. The author’s prose has a tendency to be overwrought, as when Martin melodramatically declares, "I want to shadow [German criminal Eugene] Traub to the devil’s door." However, the engaging plot more than compensates for this.

An enjoyable blend of historical information and fictional excitement despite overheated prose.