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Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller #3
The Empire of Night
"A cracking good spy thriller, with a cast of memorable characters and a terrifically suspenseful plot . . . Butler's elegant writing elevates the book." --
Tampa Bay Times
In the first two books of his acclaimed Christopher Marlowe Cobb series, The Hot Country and The Star of Istanbul, Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler captured the hearts of historical crime fiction fans with the artfulness of his World War I settings and his charismatic leading man, a Chicago journalist recruited by American intelligence.
In The Empire of Night, it is 1915, and President Woodrow Wilson is still assessing the war's threat to the United States. After proving himself during the Lusitania mission, Kit is now a full-blown spy, working undercover in a castle on the Kentish coast owned by a suspected British government mole named Sir Albert Stockman. And Kit is again thrown together with a female spy--his own mother, the beautiful and mercurial Isabel Cobb, who also happens to be a world-famous stage actress. Starring in a touring production of Hamlet, Isabel's offstage role is to keep tabs on the supposed mole, an ardent fan of hers, while Kit tries to figure out Stockman's secret agenda. Following his mother and her escort from the relative safety of Britain into the lion's den of Berlin, Kit must remain in character, even under the very nose of the Kaiser.
"[A] thrilling historical series . . . There's something almost magical about the way the author re-creates this 1915 milieu." --The Wall Street Journal
In the first two books of his acclaimed Christopher Marlowe Cobb series, The Hot Country and The Star of Istanbul, Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler captured the hearts of historical crime fiction fans with the artfulness of his World War I settings and his charismatic leading man, a Chicago journalist recruited by American intelligence.
In The Empire of Night, it is 1915, and President Woodrow Wilson is still assessing the war's threat to the United States. After proving himself during the Lusitania mission, Kit is now a full-blown spy, working undercover in a castle on the Kentish coast owned by a suspected British government mole named Sir Albert Stockman. And Kit is again thrown together with a female spy--his own mother, the beautiful and mercurial Isabel Cobb, who also happens to be a world-famous stage actress. Starring in a touring production of Hamlet, Isabel's offstage role is to keep tabs on the supposed mole, an ardent fan of hers, while Kit tries to figure out Stockman's secret agenda. Following his mother and her escort from the relative safety of Britain into the lion's den of Berlin, Kit must remain in character, even under the very nose of the Kaiser.
"[A] thrilling historical series . . . There's something almost magical about the way the author re-creates this 1915 milieu." --The Wall Street Journal
437 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 7, 2014
66 people are currently reading
460 people want to read
About the author
Robert Olen Butler
86 books454 followers“I’ll never stop believing it: Robert Olen Butler is the best living American writer, period.”
– Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Robert Olen Butler has published sixteen novels—The Alleys of Eden, Sun Dogs, Countrymen of Bones, On Distant Ground, Wabash, The Deuce, They Whisper, The Deep Green Sea, Mr. Spaceman, Fair Warning, Hell, A Small Hotel, The Hot Country, The Star of Istanbul, The Empire of Night, Perfume River—and six volumes of short fiction—Tabloid Dreams, Had a Good Time, Severance, Intercourse, Weegee Stories, and A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Butler has published a volume of his lectures on the creative process, From Where You Dream, edited with an introduction by Janet Burroway.
In 2013 he became the seventeenth recipient of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and has received two Pushcart Prizes. He has also received both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His stories have appeared widely in such publications as The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Zoetrope, The Paris Review, Granta, The Hudson Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, and The Sewanee Review. They have been chosen for inclusion in four annual editions of The Best American Short Stories, eight annual editions of New Stories from the South, several other major annual anthologies, and numerous college literature textbooks from such publishers as Simon & Schuster, Norton, Viking, Little Brown & Co., Houghton Mifflin, Oxford University Press, Prentice Hall, and Bedford/St.Martin and most recently in The New Granta Book of the American Short Story, edited by Richard Ford.
His works have been translated into twenty-one languages, including Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Polish, Japanese, Serbian, Farsi, Czech, Estonian, Greek, and most recently Chinese. He was also a charter recipient of the Tu Do Chinh Kien Award given by the Vietnam Veterans of America for “outstanding contributions to American culture by a Vietnam veteran.” Over the past two decades he has lectured in universities, appeared at conferences, and met with writers groups in 17 countries as a literary envoy for the U. S. State Department.
He is a Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor holding the Michael Shaara Chair in Creative Writing at Florida State University. Under the auspices of the FSU website, in the fall of 2001, he did something no other writer has ever done, before or since: he revealed his writing process in full, in real time, in a webcast that observed him in seventeen two-hour sessions write a literary short story from its first inspiration to its final polished form. He also gave a running commentary on his artistic choices and spent a half-hour in each episode answering the emailed questions of his live viewers. The whole series, under the title “Inside Creative Writing” is a very popular on YouTube, with its first two-hour episode passing 125,000 in the spring of 2016.
For more than a decade he was hired to write feature-length screenplays for New Regency, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Disney, Universal Pictures, Baldwin Entertainment Group (for Robert Redford), and two teleplays for HBO. Typical of Hollywood, none of these movies ever made it to the screen.
Reflecting his early training as an actor, he has also recorded the audio books for four of his works—A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Hell, A Small Hotel and Perfume River. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from the State University of New York system. He lives in Florida, with his wife, the poet Kelly Lee Butler.
– Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Robert Olen Butler has published sixteen novels—The Alleys of Eden, Sun Dogs, Countrymen of Bones, On Distant Ground, Wabash, The Deuce, They Whisper, The Deep Green Sea, Mr. Spaceman, Fair Warning, Hell, A Small Hotel, The Hot Country, The Star of Istanbul, The Empire of Night, Perfume River—and six volumes of short fiction—Tabloid Dreams, Had a Good Time, Severance, Intercourse, Weegee Stories, and A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Butler has published a volume of his lectures on the creative process, From Where You Dream, edited with an introduction by Janet Burroway.
In 2013 he became the seventeenth recipient of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and has received two Pushcart Prizes. He has also received both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His stories have appeared widely in such publications as The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Zoetrope, The Paris Review, Granta, The Hudson Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, and The Sewanee Review. They have been chosen for inclusion in four annual editions of The Best American Short Stories, eight annual editions of New Stories from the South, several other major annual anthologies, and numerous college literature textbooks from such publishers as Simon & Schuster, Norton, Viking, Little Brown & Co., Houghton Mifflin, Oxford University Press, Prentice Hall, and Bedford/St.Martin and most recently in The New Granta Book of the American Short Story, edited by Richard Ford.
His works have been translated into twenty-one languages, including Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Polish, Japanese, Serbian, Farsi, Czech, Estonian, Greek, and most recently Chinese. He was also a charter recipient of the Tu Do Chinh Kien Award given by the Vietnam Veterans of America for “outstanding contributions to American culture by a Vietnam veteran.” Over the past two decades he has lectured in universities, appeared at conferences, and met with writers groups in 17 countries as a literary envoy for the U. S. State Department.
He is a Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor holding the Michael Shaara Chair in Creative Writing at Florida State University. Under the auspices of the FSU website, in the fall of 2001, he did something no other writer has ever done, before or since: he revealed his writing process in full, in real time, in a webcast that observed him in seventeen two-hour sessions write a literary short story from its first inspiration to its final polished form. He also gave a running commentary on his artistic choices and spent a half-hour in each episode answering the emailed questions of his live viewers. The whole series, under the title “Inside Creative Writing” is a very popular on YouTube, with its first two-hour episode passing 125,000 in the spring of 2016.
For more than a decade he was hired to write feature-length screenplays for New Regency, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Disney, Universal Pictures, Baldwin Entertainment Group (for Robert Redford), and two teleplays for HBO. Typical of Hollywood, none of these movies ever made it to the screen.
Reflecting his early training as an actor, he has also recorded the audio books for four of his works—A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Hell, A Small Hotel and Perfume River. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from the State University of New York system. He lives in Florida, with his wife, the poet Kelly Lee Butler.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
July 5, 2023
The background for this series is that Kit Cobb, war correspondent, has been recruited by the US Government for espionage work in the first world war. In this installment, Kit Cobb's job is to verify that a member of the British Parliament is working for Germany. The man in question, Baron Albert Stockman, is the current love of Kit's mother, the famous Shakespearean actress, Isabel Cobb. (Kit - Christopher Marlowe Cobb - was named for Shakespeare's contemporary and fellow playwright.) We haven't seen much of Isabel in the prior installments, but she has a prominent part in this. Despite the love interest, she will also be working undercover - no pun intended, though perhaps both definitions apply.
This is definitely more thriller than mystery. Kit finds himself in very dangerous situations. But he is the star of the show and there is another installment of the series, so we can be sure he saves himself. Besides, he was raised by a consummate actress - he knows how to act himself into finding out what he needs to know and to become someone others will believe is telling the truth.
Does he always know who are the bad guys? Do we? This, of course, makes for very good reading. The characterizations are better than you might expect for the genre and I am a fan of Butler's writing style. My only regret is that there is only one more in the series. I shouldn't find a fifth star for this genre, but I can't help myself.
This is definitely more thriller than mystery. Kit finds himself in very dangerous situations. But he is the star of the show and there is another installment of the series, so we can be sure he saves himself. Besides, he was raised by a consummate actress - he knows how to act himself into finding out what he needs to know and to become someone others will believe is telling the truth.
Does he always know who are the bad guys? Do we? This, of course, makes for very good reading. The characterizations are better than you might expect for the genre and I am a fan of Butler's writing style. My only regret is that there is only one more in the series. I shouldn't find a fifth star for this genre, but I can't help myself.
September 23, 2015
Empire of the Night – Another Brilliant Outing For Kit Cobb
Empire of the Night is the third book in the Christopher ‘Kit’ Marlowe Cobb spy thriller series from the excellent writer Robert Olen Butler. Butler once again has researched and written an exciting story that draws you, some may accuse him of being formulaic, but one thing this book is; is predictable. There are once again nods to some historic figures some of whom you will have heard of such as Einstein and others such as Dr Fritz Haber you may not have heard of.
Kit Cobb is back in London at the Tavistock Hotel, where the United States have placed their journalist come spy when required. While little over 150 miles away the First Battle of Ypres has taken place and London night life seems to be continuing apace. Cobb has received a ticket from his mother to see her play Hamlet while they are both in London.
He is later informed that he and his mother are working together to spy on Sir Albert Stockman a Member of Parliament for a Kent constituency and suspected traitor. Cobb has been given a back story of being a journalist who is writing for a pro-German American newspaper that is focusing on the work of Isobel Cobb.
He is invited along with his mother for a weekend to spend the weekend at the home of Sir Albert Stockman. He takes the opportunity to search for evidence either for or against Stockman as to whether he is a traitor or not. When one of his employees is murdered he disappears along with Isobel Cobb in the night.
Then begins his real work as an American spy as he is sent to Berlin to spy on Albert Stockman and find out what he is doing. So begins the many twists in the story as he has to somehow stay ahead of Stockman, find out what he wants to do or is going to do. As well as find out why Stockman has such an interest in the Zeppelins that have been bombing London during the course of the war.
What we get is an introduction to the thoughts of the Germans towards their enemy the English and how the blockade was affecting the people of Germany. He also finds not everyone is supportive of the Kaiser but who he can trust is another matter. He also needs to stay as close as he can to Stockman without being caught or suspected to be an American spy. At the same time we see Cobb’s relationship with his mother develop further and how they need each other to stay alive.
Robert Olen Butler has written an excellent spy thriller that has the right amounts of twists while remaining a pacey story, and avoiding the usual spy clichés. His research is second to none, especially when he mentions a beer that has not been brewed in nearly 75 years which shows how far he is willing to go to make sure the lives are reflective of the period. An excellent spy thriller that is not predictable but enjoyable from beginning to end.
Empire of the Night is the third book in the Christopher ‘Kit’ Marlowe Cobb spy thriller series from the excellent writer Robert Olen Butler. Butler once again has researched and written an exciting story that draws you, some may accuse him of being formulaic, but one thing this book is; is predictable. There are once again nods to some historic figures some of whom you will have heard of such as Einstein and others such as Dr Fritz Haber you may not have heard of.
Kit Cobb is back in London at the Tavistock Hotel, where the United States have placed their journalist come spy when required. While little over 150 miles away the First Battle of Ypres has taken place and London night life seems to be continuing apace. Cobb has received a ticket from his mother to see her play Hamlet while they are both in London.
He is later informed that he and his mother are working together to spy on Sir Albert Stockman a Member of Parliament for a Kent constituency and suspected traitor. Cobb has been given a back story of being a journalist who is writing for a pro-German American newspaper that is focusing on the work of Isobel Cobb.
He is invited along with his mother for a weekend to spend the weekend at the home of Sir Albert Stockman. He takes the opportunity to search for evidence either for or against Stockman as to whether he is a traitor or not. When one of his employees is murdered he disappears along with Isobel Cobb in the night.
Then begins his real work as an American spy as he is sent to Berlin to spy on Albert Stockman and find out what he is doing. So begins the many twists in the story as he has to somehow stay ahead of Stockman, find out what he wants to do or is going to do. As well as find out why Stockman has such an interest in the Zeppelins that have been bombing London during the course of the war.
What we get is an introduction to the thoughts of the Germans towards their enemy the English and how the blockade was affecting the people of Germany. He also finds not everyone is supportive of the Kaiser but who he can trust is another matter. He also needs to stay as close as he can to Stockman without being caught or suspected to be an American spy. At the same time we see Cobb’s relationship with his mother develop further and how they need each other to stay alive.
Robert Olen Butler has written an excellent spy thriller that has the right amounts of twists while remaining a pacey story, and avoiding the usual spy clichés. His research is second to none, especially when he mentions a beer that has not been brewed in nearly 75 years which shows how far he is willing to go to make sure the lives are reflective of the period. An excellent spy thriller that is not predictable but enjoyable from beginning to end.
May 1, 2023
Butler is a skillful writer and an ace espionage storyteller. His Christopher Marlowe Cobb series, of which I've now read two of the four books, is fun, smart, even exciting. Set during WWI (a nice change from the plethora of thrillers available that take place before, during and/or after WWII), the books have a modern feel without straying from their historical background.
In this volume, Cobb, an American journalist who also clandestinely operates as an intelligence agent for the US, goes to Berlin with two other undercover operatives to try and discover the agenda of a British aristocrat who is also suspected of being a mole. The action was fun and for most of the book propulsive.
However, as the plot edges toward its denouement Butler's effort to make the events even more exciting--by describing the action in somewhat cinematic detail--had the opposite effect for me. It felt overwrought and somehow boring. So much so that I rapidly skimmed (read skipped much of) it in order to just get to the ending.
Still, even with that one unfortunate flaw I'd recommend the book overall. A fun, fast read that's mostly well done.
In this volume, Cobb, an American journalist who also clandestinely operates as an intelligence agent for the US, goes to Berlin with two other undercover operatives to try and discover the agenda of a British aristocrat who is also suspected of being a mole. The action was fun and for most of the book propulsive.
However, as the plot edges toward its denouement Butler's effort to make the events even more exciting--by describing the action in somewhat cinematic detail--had the opposite effect for me. It felt overwrought and somehow boring. So much so that I rapidly skimmed (read skipped much of) it in order to just get to the ending.
Still, even with that one unfortunate flaw I'd recommend the book overall. A fun, fast read that's mostly well done.
May 4, 2024
The Pulitzer Prize winner turns his hand toward espionage in this series, and so far this is the best one in it, at least for me. Chris Cobb, the news journalist who's invited to spy for the U.S., is a compelling character, often challenging himself and his own sense of right and wrong while doing some very dirty work. Butler's a real pro--the pacing is just about perfect, the subplots (this one entails Cobb's mother, a famous actress), the the historical research is evidently extensive. Gives insight into Brits and Americans who supported Germany in WWI. Nice evocation of Berlin during those times.
August 23, 2024
This is the fourth novel by this author that I have read since the start of the year. All of these have a grizzled war correspondent (Christopher Marlowe Cobb) and his mother the famous actress Isabel Cobb. Each is set in the time period after the beginning of WWI. He has stories about the Germans in Mexico, sinking the Lusitania, a British peer who has German sympathies and intrigue around Istanbul.
This reminds me of Sam Spade or Phillip Marlow - with the noir genre and the hardbitten chatter. These are fun and not too taxing and Butler has an appreciation for the cross currents in the US before Wilson committed us to the war.
This reminds me of Sam Spade or Phillip Marlow - with the noir genre and the hardbitten chatter. These are fun and not too taxing and Butler has an appreciation for the cross currents in the US before Wilson committed us to the war.
February 18, 2019
How do you do 3 1/2 stars? I am flying through this series. The writing is just so sublime. Having said that - this one was not quite as successful to me as the first two. There’s a sort of Zelig-like quality to the books, where the author takes well known historical incidents or figures and puts the main character directly in touch with them. In this one there were several instances where it didn’t quite work for me, particularly at the end. However - I highly recommend all 3 and am putting the 4th on hold at my local library!
November 16, 2018
The best of the series so far, the third novel finds war correspondent-turned-spy Christopher Marlowe Cobb helping British authorities thwart German sympathizers during World War I. The intrigue thickens as his mother is also enlisted to apply her stage acting skills to get close to a prime suspect. The mother-son subplot seethes beneath the action while Butler weaves a chilling mix of fact and fiction about Zeppelin raids on London in 1915. The Shakespearean asides make it even more fun.
November 13, 2018
I continue to enjoy this series. Is it profound? No. Is it literary? At times. Is it entertaining? Always.
This volume was the most conventional of the three so far as a "spy caper." Krauts are going to use zeppelins to drop poison gas on London. Our hero has to save the day.
Only odd thing is the cover. The broad illustrated is non-existent. Too bad for our hero.
This volume was the most conventional of the three so far as a "spy caper." Krauts are going to use zeppelins to drop poison gas on London. Our hero has to save the day.
Only odd thing is the cover. The broad illustrated is non-existent. Too bad for our hero.
June 11, 2019
Better and Better
Olen’s series following Christopher Marlowe get better and more connection with his characters with each new volume. His settings and the historical period and incidents have always been interesting. The improvement is with the empathy he elicits from the reader. I recommend the three books but urge you to read them in sequence.
Olen’s series following Christopher Marlowe get better and more connection with his characters with each new volume. His settings and the historical period and incidents have always been interesting. The improvement is with the empathy he elicits from the reader. I recommend the three books but urge you to read them in sequence.
February 10, 2019
A great spy story set during WWI in Berlin. Kit Cobb is on another mission, this time with his actress mother. The mother/son relationship is as much a part of this story as the spy mission. I've really enjoyed this series.
May 2, 2023
Great spy thriller. American spy in Germany as WWI looms closer. Chris Cobb and his mother, famous actress, Isabel Cobb work together to bring down a German terrorist who is also a member of parliament in Britain. Many twists
November 21, 2023
Again, a much better way than a history book to learn about events, and more of a page turner than the last one. Do we really need to have any prominent historical figure who lived at the time inserted into the story?
May 28, 2017
Great book! A page turning, behind enemy lines spy thriller.
October 9, 2018
Part of the series. A fun thriller. Set during WWI before America entered the conflict. In this adventure, Cobb must stop a British traitor from dropping poison gas from a Zepplin.
March 7, 2020
I forget between readings how much I like these books... so, although this was perhaps too much filled w/ Isabela.. the plot was GREAT... I did Not see it coming...
March 23, 2020
3.5 stars. Some scenes that could do with trimming, but other scenes are quite good.
March 25, 2020
Another enjoyable historical thriller by Butler, this one set in WWI-period England and Germany.
March 31, 2020
Mother and Son
Good premise, carried through plot
Kept me intrigued
And, worried about the good guys, but, who were they...liked convolutions, you will too !
Good premise, carried through plot
Kept me intrigued
And, worried about the good guys, but, who were they...liked convolutions, you will too !
August 19, 2020
I can only say this is great fun and I can't wait to read the last book – and hope there are many more to come!
April 25, 2021
Another great thriller. Butler tells a good story and has a talent for getting into the minds of his characters.
September 14, 2021
Está cool, te hace pasar un rato entretenido 👍🏼
Calificación: 8.5
Calificación: 8.5
November 17, 2021
These books about a spy during WWI are really, really good. Well written, fast moving.
October 15, 2023
Dangerous Actors
Lots of twists and turns in the further adventures Christopher Cobb, reporter and spy for America during World War I.
Lots of twists and turns in the further adventures Christopher Cobb, reporter and spy for America during World War I.
June 11, 2024
see private notes
March 12, 2017
another fun read in the series..hope he writes more
October 10, 2014
BOOK REVIEW: 'The Empire of Night': Continuing the Saga of Christopher Marlowe Cobb, Newspaperman, Secret Agent in WWI England, Germany
REVIEWED BY DAVID M. KINCHEN
It's appropriate, given that this year is the centennial of the start of the Great War -- later World War I -- that newspaperman Christopher Marlowe Cobb continues to be a larger than life figure in the third entry in the Kit Cobb historical novel series by Robert Olen Butler: "The Empire of Night" (Mysterious Press, 384 pages, $26.00).
In the first entry, "The Hot Country" Kit Cobb is battling German agents and Mexican bandits early in 1914 to get the story for his Chicago newspaper. (For my Oct. 1, 2012 review of "The Hot Country": http://www.huntingtonnews.net/45469).
In the second installment, "The Star of Istanbul" (For my oct. 11, 2013 review http://www.huntingtonnews.net/74338) Cobb survives the 1915 sinking of the British ocean liner, Lusitania, to continue his spying and news reporting. He packs a mean Corona 3 typewriter -- not to mention his Mauser pocket pistol.
In "The Empire of Night" it's well into 1915 and Kit is now more spy than newspaper correspondent (his cover) as he's delegated by President Woodrow Wilson's spymaster Trask to see what the British and the Germans are up to.
He's working undercover in a castle on the coast of Kent, not far from the White Cliffs of Dover, trying to determine what the castle's owner, Sir Albert Stockman is up to. Stockman, originally of German descent, may be a secret agent of the Kaiser. To his surprise, Kit discovers that his beautiful, 50-something mother, world renowned actress Isabel Cobb, has made another amorous conquest: Stockman.
Starring in a touring production of Hamlet -- dressed as a man, playing Hamlet -- Isabel's offstage role is to keep tabs on the supposed mole, who's not only an ardent fan of Shakespeare but a man in love. We have the intriguing spectacle of a mother-son spy team.
One evening, Isabel Cobb and Stockman leave the seaside castle, heading for Germany. The Germans are using zeppelins -- like the LZ 129 Hindenburg (Luftschiff Zeppelin #129) that exploded in New Jersey on May 6, 1937 -- to bomb London.
I won't give away any more of the plot of this elegant thriller, other than to say that Kit Cobb, using the alias of Joseph Hunter, is using his foreign correspondent cover to spy on Stockman and the Germans. This means that Kit Cobb will have to follow Isabel and Albert to the German capital, Berlin.
Like the previous two Kit Cobb entries, "The Empire of Night" is a meticulously researched page-turner that will appeal to spy novel buffs and lovers of historical novels, as well as any general reader intrigued with the power struggles of World War I. If you've never read a novel by Butler -- one of the great stylists writing today -- you're in for a treat with "The Empire of Night."
About the Author
Robert Olen Butler is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of over a dozen novels, including Hell, A Small Hotel, and two previous installments of the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series, The Hot Country and The Star of Istanbul. He is also the author of six short collections and a book on the creative process, From Where You Dream. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and received the 2013 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University.
His website: www.robertolenbutler.com
REVIEWED BY DAVID M. KINCHEN
It's appropriate, given that this year is the centennial of the start of the Great War -- later World War I -- that newspaperman Christopher Marlowe Cobb continues to be a larger than life figure in the third entry in the Kit Cobb historical novel series by Robert Olen Butler: "The Empire of Night" (Mysterious Press, 384 pages, $26.00).
In the first entry, "The Hot Country" Kit Cobb is battling German agents and Mexican bandits early in 1914 to get the story for his Chicago newspaper. (For my Oct. 1, 2012 review of "The Hot Country": http://www.huntingtonnews.net/45469).
In the second installment, "The Star of Istanbul" (For my oct. 11, 2013 review http://www.huntingtonnews.net/74338) Cobb survives the 1915 sinking of the British ocean liner, Lusitania, to continue his spying and news reporting. He packs a mean Corona 3 typewriter -- not to mention his Mauser pocket pistol.
In "The Empire of Night" it's well into 1915 and Kit is now more spy than newspaper correspondent (his cover) as he's delegated by President Woodrow Wilson's spymaster Trask to see what the British and the Germans are up to.
He's working undercover in a castle on the coast of Kent, not far from the White Cliffs of Dover, trying to determine what the castle's owner, Sir Albert Stockman is up to. Stockman, originally of German descent, may be a secret agent of the Kaiser. To his surprise, Kit discovers that his beautiful, 50-something mother, world renowned actress Isabel Cobb, has made another amorous conquest: Stockman.
Starring in a touring production of Hamlet -- dressed as a man, playing Hamlet -- Isabel's offstage role is to keep tabs on the supposed mole, who's not only an ardent fan of Shakespeare but a man in love. We have the intriguing spectacle of a mother-son spy team.
One evening, Isabel Cobb and Stockman leave the seaside castle, heading for Germany. The Germans are using zeppelins -- like the LZ 129 Hindenburg (Luftschiff Zeppelin #129) that exploded in New Jersey on May 6, 1937 -- to bomb London.
I won't give away any more of the plot of this elegant thriller, other than to say that Kit Cobb, using the alias of Joseph Hunter, is using his foreign correspondent cover to spy on Stockman and the Germans. This means that Kit Cobb will have to follow Isabel and Albert to the German capital, Berlin.
Like the previous two Kit Cobb entries, "The Empire of Night" is a meticulously researched page-turner that will appeal to spy novel buffs and lovers of historical novels, as well as any general reader intrigued with the power struggles of World War I. If you've never read a novel by Butler -- one of the great stylists writing today -- you're in for a treat with "The Empire of Night."
About the Author
Robert Olen Butler is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of over a dozen novels, including Hell, A Small Hotel, and two previous installments of the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series, The Hot Country and The Star of Istanbul. He is also the author of six short collections and a book on the creative process, From Where You Dream. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and received the 2013 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University.
His website: www.robertolenbutler.com
July 15, 2015
Mysterious Book Report No. 196
by John Dwaine McKenna
One hundred years ago, all of Europe was in the midst of what was then called the Great War, or World War I as we now know it. It was the first fully mechanized war and the battlefield casualties were so great that they’re almost incomprehensible by today’s standards, due to the invention of new war machines like the belt-fed water-cooled machine gun; armor plated mobile gun platforms called tanks; gigantic artillery pieces mounted on railroad cars and moved by locomotives, that could hurl twenty-four inch shells for fifteen to twenty miles; submarines that prowled the oceans in groups known as wolf packs, which devastated and terrorized shipping; motorized heavier-than-air machines called aero planes, which battled for supremacy in the sky; and most disturbing of all perhaps, the invention and use of poison gasses based on chlorine and phosgene, capable of killing by the thousands. As all of those developments were happening on the battlefields, another newly-developed weapon was terrorizing the civilian citizens of London. They were giant airships called Zeppelins which came calling in the night without warning, bringing indiscriminate death to men, women and children as they dropped high explosive and incendiary bombs on the helpless and innocent victims in the streets below.
The Empire of Night, (Mysterious Press, $26.00, 401 pages, ISBN 978-0-8021-2323-7) by Robert Olen Butler is the third installment of his delightful Christopher Marlowe Cobb series of novels which began with The Hot Country, which was about German involvement in the Mexican Civil War, circa 1915; then continues with The Star of Istanbul, about the sinking of the passenger liner Lusitanian and German activity in the Middle East during World War I; and now, his newest, The Empire of Night, about the bombing of London during the early to middle parts of the war. All feature the intrepid and fearless newspaper reporter and citizen-spy, whom we know simply as Kit.
The Empire of Night is character-driven historical fiction at its best, with all the action, intrigue, treachery, danger and drama of any contemporary spy novel, while also featuring a tender, but ultimately tragic love affair at it’s core. With the ground campaign stalemated in France and Belgium, the German high command is desperate to find a way to gain the upper hand. Their plan is to turn the Zeppelins into unstoppable killing machines that rain death from the skies . . . unless they can be stopped by Kit Cobb . . . who may lose his life in the process. History comes alive in the hands of Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler, and he’s created one of his most memorable and endearing protagonists in contemporary fiction—making him one of my absolute favorites! Do yourself a favor and read this great series and you, like me, will be eagerly looking forward to the next book.
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by John Dwaine McKenna
One hundred years ago, all of Europe was in the midst of what was then called the Great War, or World War I as we now know it. It was the first fully mechanized war and the battlefield casualties were so great that they’re almost incomprehensible by today’s standards, due to the invention of new war machines like the belt-fed water-cooled machine gun; armor plated mobile gun platforms called tanks; gigantic artillery pieces mounted on railroad cars and moved by locomotives, that could hurl twenty-four inch shells for fifteen to twenty miles; submarines that prowled the oceans in groups known as wolf packs, which devastated and terrorized shipping; motorized heavier-than-air machines called aero planes, which battled for supremacy in the sky; and most disturbing of all perhaps, the invention and use of poison gasses based on chlorine and phosgene, capable of killing by the thousands. As all of those developments were happening on the battlefields, another newly-developed weapon was terrorizing the civilian citizens of London. They were giant airships called Zeppelins which came calling in the night without warning, bringing indiscriminate death to men, women and children as they dropped high explosive and incendiary bombs on the helpless and innocent victims in the streets below.
The Empire of Night, (Mysterious Press, $26.00, 401 pages, ISBN 978-0-8021-2323-7) by Robert Olen Butler is the third installment of his delightful Christopher Marlowe Cobb series of novels which began with The Hot Country, which was about German involvement in the Mexican Civil War, circa 1915; then continues with The Star of Istanbul, about the sinking of the passenger liner Lusitanian and German activity in the Middle East during World War I; and now, his newest, The Empire of Night, about the bombing of London during the early to middle parts of the war. All feature the intrepid and fearless newspaper reporter and citizen-spy, whom we know simply as Kit.
The Empire of Night is character-driven historical fiction at its best, with all the action, intrigue, treachery, danger and drama of any contemporary spy novel, while also featuring a tender, but ultimately tragic love affair at it’s core. With the ground campaign stalemated in France and Belgium, the German high command is desperate to find a way to gain the upper hand. Their plan is to turn the Zeppelins into unstoppable killing machines that rain death from the skies . . . unless they can be stopped by Kit Cobb . . . who may lose his life in the process. History comes alive in the hands of Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler, and he’s created one of his most memorable and endearing protagonists in contemporary fiction—making him one of my absolute favorites! Do yourself a favor and read this great series and you, like me, will be eagerly looking forward to the next book.
Like the review? The greatest compliment you can give is to share it with others on Facebook and follow us on Goodreads.
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May 8, 2016
Robert Olen Butler's new novel, "The Empire of the Night", is the third in his WW1-era Christopher Marlowe Cobb series. I haven't read the first two, but if I have the time, I might read the backlist.
Books about WW1 - "The Great War" - have been popular for a while now. We're at the 100th anniversary of the beginning, and many authors are finding the war a popular topic. Butler's character, Chris Cobb, is the son of a Shakespearean actress, Isabel Cobb. Isabel might be the family actor, but her son seems to have inherited an acting talent he displays in the story. He plays a newspaper reporter/American spy/German army officer, along with a few other roles. His mother plays Hamlet on the stage and in the bedroom she plays the lover of a British/German aristocrat who may, or may not, be up to no good.
The book's plot is somewhat complicated and very few people are who they say they are. This obviously includes Christopher Cobb and his mother. The most interesting part of the book is the interplay between mother-and-son, actress-and-interviewer, and Allied agents (both Chris and Isabel). Their relationship, no matter what guise it is carried on, is a bit unsettling. There's no sexual tension, but rather the tension that comes from having an unreliable character as the other half of a relationship. The reader can tell that Chris doesn't particularly trust his mother and that may be the result of years of desultory parenting (or non-parenting).
The other interesting part is the background of the German government and military in WW1. Both Albert Einstein and Fritz Haber make an appearance in the story - the poison gas the Germans toss across the lines at Ypers - and the home war effort is highlighted. Oh, and there are zeppelins in the story, too. Zeppelins always make me laugh because their inclusion in plots usually indicates a very silly and far-fetched scenario. In "Empire", the zeppelin is a major plot point and people are NOT escaping on one.
"The Empire of Night" is a good read, particularly for the WW1 buff. I don't think you have to have read the two previous books in the series to read this one.
Books about WW1 - "The Great War" - have been popular for a while now. We're at the 100th anniversary of the beginning, and many authors are finding the war a popular topic. Butler's character, Chris Cobb, is the son of a Shakespearean actress, Isabel Cobb. Isabel might be the family actor, but her son seems to have inherited an acting talent he displays in the story. He plays a newspaper reporter/American spy/German army officer, along with a few other roles. His mother plays Hamlet on the stage and in the bedroom she plays the lover of a British/German aristocrat who may, or may not, be up to no good.
The book's plot is somewhat complicated and very few people are who they say they are. This obviously includes Christopher Cobb and his mother. The most interesting part of the book is the interplay between mother-and-son, actress-and-interviewer, and Allied agents (both Chris and Isabel). Their relationship, no matter what guise it is carried on, is a bit unsettling. There's no sexual tension, but rather the tension that comes from having an unreliable character as the other half of a relationship. The reader can tell that Chris doesn't particularly trust his mother and that may be the result of years of desultory parenting (or non-parenting).
The other interesting part is the background of the German government and military in WW1. Both Albert Einstein and Fritz Haber make an appearance in the story - the poison gas the Germans toss across the lines at Ypers - and the home war effort is highlighted. Oh, and there are zeppelins in the story, too. Zeppelins always make me laugh because their inclusion in plots usually indicates a very silly and far-fetched scenario. In "Empire", the zeppelin is a major plot point and people are NOT escaping on one.
"The Empire of Night" is a good read, particularly for the WW1 buff. I don't think you have to have read the two previous books in the series to read this one.
September 3, 2015
Real Readers sent me a copy of Robert Olen Butler's latest Christopher Marlowe Cobb novel, The Empire of Night.
This is the third outing for Butler’s “Kit” Cobb, after The Hot Country and The Star of Istanbul and he’s now fully into his stride.
It’s in the London theatre land of 1915, amidst the early Zeppelin bombing raids, that Kit discovers that he must now team up with his mother, a doyen of the theatre, in order to infiltrate a gang of Nazi sympathisers. This allows Butler to really explore the relationship between mother and son, which until now has been a bit of an enigma. Working together, for the U.S. intelligence service, they must put aside past differences and discover what plans the Kaiser has in store.
There is plenty of action too, almost from the beginning of the book and Butler has established an effective way of describing this without disturbing the natural flow of the story.
Whilst on the surface and for his cover, Cobb is a journalist, he now displays a natural talent for the espionage that has become a major part of his life. The action moves from London to the South coast retreat of Sir Albert Stockman, where Kit discovers his mother’s feelings for Sir Albert may complicate their task somewhat! We get an inkling of Sir Albert’s treachery, before the action moves to Berlin. In the previous two books, the travelling was dealt with in greater detail and Butler had the knack of taking you on the journey with his characters. Here, however, the dash across Europe is covered in a couple of pages, but this is no bad thing as it lets the plot move on at a pace.
The tension mounts as Kit gets closer to discovering exactly what Sir Albert is capable of, all the while having to try and ensure that his mother doesn’t let her feelings interfere with their duty to the U.S. intelligence service.
Butler steers us all toward the climax with a steady hand.
I think that I have enjoyed this book in the series the most, as Butler now seems very comfortable creating this “Cobb Universe”.
This is the third outing for Butler’s “Kit” Cobb, after The Hot Country and The Star of Istanbul and he’s now fully into his stride.
It’s in the London theatre land of 1915, amidst the early Zeppelin bombing raids, that Kit discovers that he must now team up with his mother, a doyen of the theatre, in order to infiltrate a gang of Nazi sympathisers. This allows Butler to really explore the relationship between mother and son, which until now has been a bit of an enigma. Working together, for the U.S. intelligence service, they must put aside past differences and discover what plans the Kaiser has in store.
There is plenty of action too, almost from the beginning of the book and Butler has established an effective way of describing this without disturbing the natural flow of the story.
Whilst on the surface and for his cover, Cobb is a journalist, he now displays a natural talent for the espionage that has become a major part of his life. The action moves from London to the South coast retreat of Sir Albert Stockman, where Kit discovers his mother’s feelings for Sir Albert may complicate their task somewhat! We get an inkling of Sir Albert’s treachery, before the action moves to Berlin. In the previous two books, the travelling was dealt with in greater detail and Butler had the knack of taking you on the journey with his characters. Here, however, the dash across Europe is covered in a couple of pages, but this is no bad thing as it lets the plot move on at a pace.
The tension mounts as Kit gets closer to discovering exactly what Sir Albert is capable of, all the while having to try and ensure that his mother doesn’t let her feelings interfere with their duty to the U.S. intelligence service.
Butler steers us all toward the climax with a steady hand.
I think that I have enjoyed this book in the series the most, as Butler now seems very comfortable creating this “Cobb Universe”.
May 4, 2015
There's much to like about this book. The sense of time and place is well done, and the complicated relationship between Kit and his mother adds interest.
Unfortunately, odd stylistic choices by the author pulled me out of the story and ultimately diminished my reading pleasure. Many of the sentences are short to the point of terseness; this in itself is not a problem, since this style is frequently used to add tension and a sense of immediacy to a suspense novel. But then, in the middle of the action, the author would insert a v-e-r-y lengthy compound sentence. I give you this example, which comes from the book's climactic scene:
"I readied myself once more to go up in flames with all these boys and their airship, and I fired once and again and again and the explosion waited inside there and I fired again and twice more and it was enough, a tight cluster of six shots into the gas cell, and I holstered the Luger and I turned and I ran, ran as fast as I could and still keep my footing on the planking beneath me and the deep hole of light was before me and growing larger and I ran and I reached the turn in the walkway and I took it and I went around to the long side of the hatch and I stepped over the railing and I looked down--though I dared not wait no matter how high I was--and an empty field was passing there, a good six hundred feet below, and I grabbed the loop at the top of the rucksack and I leaned and I hooked it and I leapt."
In case you weren't counting, there are 24--yes, 24--uses of the word "and" in that sentence. Note to author: If a reader stops reading at the height of the book's climax in order to count the "ands," it's not a good thing.
So, while I don't regret reading this book after winning it in a Goodreads giveaway, I doubt that I'll go out of my way to look for this author again.
Unfortunately, odd stylistic choices by the author pulled me out of the story and ultimately diminished my reading pleasure. Many of the sentences are short to the point of terseness; this in itself is not a problem, since this style is frequently used to add tension and a sense of immediacy to a suspense novel. But then, in the middle of the action, the author would insert a v-e-r-y lengthy compound sentence. I give you this example, which comes from the book's climactic scene:
"I readied myself once more to go up in flames with all these boys and their airship, and I fired once and again and again and the explosion waited inside there and I fired again and twice more and it was enough, a tight cluster of six shots into the gas cell, and I holstered the Luger and I turned and I ran, ran as fast as I could and still keep my footing on the planking beneath me and the deep hole of light was before me and growing larger and I ran and I reached the turn in the walkway and I took it and I went around to the long side of the hatch and I stepped over the railing and I looked down--though I dared not wait no matter how high I was--and an empty field was passing there, a good six hundred feet below, and I grabbed the loop at the top of the rucksack and I leaned and I hooked it and I leapt."
In case you weren't counting, there are 24--yes, 24--uses of the word "and" in that sentence. Note to author: If a reader stops reading at the height of the book's climax in order to count the "ands," it's not a good thing.
So, while I don't regret reading this book after winning it in a Goodreads giveaway, I doubt that I'll go out of my way to look for this author again.
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