F. Scott Fitzgerald American Spy
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F. Scott Fitzgerald American Spy
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Narrated by:
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Terence McGovern
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By:
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Murray Sinclair
About this listen
Did you know that, in the Spring of 1940, the once famous author F. Scott Fitzgerald was recruited by an agent of the French Resistance to assassinate the premier of Vichy, France? Fitzgerald had hijacked the "Jazz Age" and made it his own in the Roaring 20s, but now as as a struggling, impecunious alcoholic, his only real comforts are multiple Coca-Colas and the elusive embrace of his paramour, gossip columnist Sheilah Graham.
Hemingway has become the real ticket, making the big money, but when our narrator Henri Duval, a double agent for the Vichy government and the French Resistance, surfaces at the legendary Garden of Allah hotel on Sunset Boulevard across the street from the famous Schwab's Pharmacy, he hatches a harebrained scheme that might just change the entire course of history and restore Fitzgerald to his rightful position on the top of the literary heap. As we peruse Duval's secret correspondence to his colleague in Washington D.C., we eavesdrop on wild nights with the Marx Brothers, intrigues engineered by dangerous Kewpie dolls, passionate amours with Marion Davies, and run-ins with William Randolph Hearst.
The action culminates in a mission to Paris and the seat of the Nazi-occupied French government in Vichy, by way of Manhattan and a visit with editor Maxwell Perkins, enroute to a clandestine meeting with Charles de Gaulle at Heathrow Airport in London and an appointment with destiny and the premier of Vichy France, Marshal Phillipe Pétain.
©2023 Murray Sinclair (P)2023 Murray SinclairCritic reviews
"Garage Sale Discovery with Mystery! Mr. Sinclair sets up the story as a look at history from a collection of correspondence exchanged during the 1940s discovered at a garage sale in a trunk. Mr. Ratchman discovers the letters he suspected might be of historical value. Upon inspection, the letters were in a foreign language and in code. He broke the code and translated a remarkable twist on a previously unknown detour of F. Scott Fitzgerald's life during the 1940s when France fell victim to the Germans. Reluctantly recruited by Duval, a double agent of Vichy France, Fitzgerald is trained and coached to help French loyalists restore their country. The paths of these two men cross by design in Hollywood, where Fitzgerald is writing to survive while Hemingway’s popularity is soaring.
The correspondence by Duval relates the glitz of the Hollywood in-crowd and the outrageous lifestyle of Fitzgerald, who parties with the Marx brothers, sleeps with Sheilah Graham, and insults William Randolf Hearst, to name a few of the characters encountered from the sunny beaches of California to the high rises of New York, and finally France. Murray Sinclair frames colorful, well-known locations to take his reader to American pre-WWII with vivid dialogue, an unfolding hair-raising spy adventure, and unapologetic debauchery of the characters. The journey of Duval and Fitzgerald contains all the elements from hate to love, to fear, to manipulation, before the unexpected ending of this side note in history.
Terrence McGovern delivers the story with various character voices, delightful accents, and well-timed intonations throughout the narration. The delightful audio rendition brings the listener into the well-written historical thriller. Fans of historical fiction and lifestyles of the once rich and famous in Hollywood will enjoy this tale. (Rox Burkey, AudioBookReviweres.com)