Philip Metcalfe Bücher

Set against the backdrop of Prohibition-era Seattle, the narrative follows Roy Olmstead, a prominent bootlegger, amid the first major federal court case involving wiretaps. The story intricately weaves together the lives of city officials, Prohibition agents, and rumrunners, exploring the moral complexities and unexpected consequences of a society shaped by illicit activities. Philip Metcalfe vividly brings to life this shadowy world, revealing the thrilling dynamics of evasion and betrayal during a tumultuous period in American history.

Germany in the first year of Nazi rule is the setting for this evocation of a period of gathering terror. Unlike most of the recent spate of single-year books, this is not an account of public events. Rather it focuses on five people: U.S. Ambassador William Dodd; his daughter Martha; Jewish society reporter Bella Fromm; Putzie Hanfstaengl, chief of the foreign press; and Rudolf Diels, head of the Gestapo. Drawing on their own accounts, on newspaper reports, and on archival sources, Metcalfe conveys a vivid sense of a society going awry and of jarring incongruity between the normality of everyday life and the new stark violence.