Dark Invasion: 1915: Germany's Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America

Library Journal? 02/15/2014
In 1915 as World War I raged in Europe, America found itself facing a mysterious series of domestic bombings and chemical attacks. With a "feuding, disorganized, and ineffective" intelligence service, investigation had to be taken up at the local level in New York City. Uncovering the enemy and bringing the violence to an end would prove to be no easy task. Blum (contributing editor, Vanity Fair; American Lightning) writes a gripping epic of a sordid terror plot and murder most foul that follows the efforts of police inspector Tom Tunney and his bomb squad as they uncover the German terrorist cell known as "the Manhattan Front." These saboteurs, operating in an expansive German immigrant community and led by a former German ambassador to the United States, Johann von Bernstoff, wreaked havoc on America's shipping capabilities and formed a climate of fear along the East Coast.