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Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime: A Novel
Widely acclaimed for his groundbreaking crime novels Booked to Die and The Bookman's Wake, award-winning author John Dunning triumphantly returns with a riveting new thriller that takes us back to the summer of 1942, when radio was in its prime, when daylight saving time gave way to "wartime," when stations like WHAR on the New Jersey coast struggled to create programming that entertained and inspired a nation in its dark hour. Into this intense community of radio artists and technicians in Regina Beach, New Jersey, come Jack Dulaney and Holly Carnahan. They are determined to find Holly's missing father, whose last desperate word came from this noisy seaside town. Holly sings like an angel and has what it takes to become a star. Jack -- a racetrack hot-walker and novelist who's hit every kind of trouble in his travels from sea to sea -- tries out as a writer at WHAR and soon discovers a passion for radio and a natural talent for script writing. While absorbing the ways of radio, from writing to directing, he meets some extraordinarily brave and gifted people who touch his life in ways he could not have imagined -- actresses Rue, Pauline, and Hazel; actor-director Waldo, creator of the magnificent black show Freedom Road; and enigmatic station owner Loren Harford, among others. Jack's zeal for radio is exceeded only by his devotion to Holly, who needs his help but who is terrified for his safety. Strange things are happening in Regina Beach, starting with an English actor who walked out of the station six years ago and was never seen again. And Holly's father is gone too, in equally puzzling circumstances. As Jack and Holly penetrate deeper into the shadows of the past, they learn that someone will do anything, including murder, to hide some devastating truths. In a stunning novel that transcends genre, John Dunning calls upon his vast knowledge of radio and his incisive reading of history to create a poignant, page-turning work of fiction that sheds new insights on some of the most harrowing events of the twentieth century. Like E. L. Doctorow's Billy Bathgate or Caleb Carr's The Alienist, Dunning's brilliant tale of mystery, murder, and revenge brings to life another time, another place, another world.
528 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2001
23 people are currently reading
328 people want to read
About the author
John Dunning
64 books319 followersJohn Dunning was an American writer of non-fiction and detective fiction. He was known for his reference books on old-time radio and his series of mysteries featuring Denver bookseller and ex-policeman Cliff Janeway.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
June 8, 2015
I enjoyed reading this book and give it 4 out 5 stars. I borrowed it from a friend. Jack Dulaney is a man with an extraordinary talent for writing radio drama shows in 1942, the golden age of radio drama. He also is looking for the missing father of his girlfriend, Holly Carnahan.
The two threads converge in a story a of a Nazi spy murdering people who might expose him.
The spy is based on a real life Nazi spy, whose biography is Counterfeit Hero: Fritz Duquesne, Adventurer and Spy by Art Ronnie which I read 15 years ago and gave it 4 stars.
The author is an expert on old time radio drama and has a personal archive of 40,000 radio drama recordings.
Two quotes that I liked from the book:
"Fifty years from now it(radio) could be just a medium for hucksters and fools, a whorehouse in the sky."
"How something so big and vital could have been reduced to a theater of babbling deejays and bloated, self important talk show hosts."
Yikes!! Could he be talking about Rush Limbaugh?
The two threads converge in a story a of a Nazi spy murdering people who might expose him.
The spy is based on a real life Nazi spy, whose biography is Counterfeit Hero: Fritz Duquesne, Adventurer and Spy by Art Ronnie which I read 15 years ago and gave it 4 stars.
The author is an expert on old time radio drama and has a personal archive of 40,000 radio drama recordings.
Two quotes that I liked from the book:
"Fifty years from now it(radio) could be just a medium for hucksters and fools, a whorehouse in the sky."
"How something so big and vital could have been reduced to a theater of babbling deejays and bloated, self important talk show hosts."
Yikes!! Could he be talking about Rush Limbaugh?
August 6, 2022
Great book, the overlap between romance, crime and history was just right. I was fascinated by the story of life on the radio, as a person who works on television I related to it so much.
Bonus points for the main character's love interest! Truly, she was a strong and independent woman.
However, at times I was very confused about how Jack/Jordan knew some information. When he wrote the series about the war and the camps, I realized that he used them as a tool to solve the mystery of why Carnahan and Kendall died. But it was not clear to me where such certainty came from that his guesses were correct. Like, he would wake up, try to remember the dream, and he would came to the correct conclusion in the dream?
Also, I can't get rid of the feeling that the book was rushed towards the end and that some things were left vague and poorly written.
Bonus points for the main character's love interest! Truly, she was a strong and independent woman.
However, at times I was very confused about how Jack/Jordan knew some information. When he wrote the series about the war and the camps, I realized that he used them as a tool to solve the mystery of why Carnahan and Kendall died. But it was not clear to me where such certainty came from that his guesses were correct. Like, he would wake up, try to remember the dream, and he would came to the correct conclusion in the dream?
Also, I can't get rid of the feeling that the book was rushed towards the end and that some things were left vague and poorly written.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 22, 2011
The best part of the book was the history of radio. There was the hope that radio in the forties was on the brink of something great but it was being dumbed down for the masses. The radio station in this story WHAR was going to be ground breaking. Radio never achieved the dream. But the dream was nice while it lasted. Television has the same struggles.
July 20, 2025
I wanted to really like this book. The descriptions of what it took (takes) to put on a great radio show were fascinating. The underlying murder and disappearance plot not so much. I would still recommend it as a good summer read since it does happen primarily on the Jersey shore.
April 2, 2017
Not what I was expecting. What I thought this would be, from the book description, and what I wanted was something along the lines of (though probably more serious than) … oh dear, this will take a little searching. AMC series, radio station – Ah: Remember WENN (1996 – 1998). I did, in the end, remember. "… Set at the fictional Pittsburgh radio station WENN in the early 1940s, it depicted events (both dramatic and comic) in the personal and professional lives of the station's staff in the era before and during World War II." Yes. I'd like some of that, please. (Seriously, I'd love a book set in a 40's radio station. I'll have to do some hunting.) The book description talks about "an English actor who walked out of the radio station six years ago and was never seen again" – I love those stories. There's something about a story about a man who enters a lane and never comes out the other end … it's as good as a locked room murder.
The story Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime begins to tell is more of a conspiracy tale, involving men in dark glasses and clandestine surveillance and secret identities, none of which seems to have anything to do with the war going on. About a third of the way in it – and Jack Dulaney, the main character – finally settled into WHAR radio in New Jersey, and it started being part of what I wanted, in spades: behind the scenes in 40's radio. It was wonderful, and made me very glad I stuck it out.
Jack – or Jordan Ten Eyck, as he calls himself in this new life – is something of a wunderkind; he always wrote, and now adapts to radio drama like a pony to a field of clover, and he's amazing at it. A little too amazing, to tell the truth; the definitions of "Mary Sue" (in this case Gary Stu) kept going through my mind every time he knocked out another stunning script in an hour and a half, and every time he flouted the rules and was barely chastised when anyone else would have been fired and blackballed. He even marvels about how he's running the place in just a couple of months; it's a bit much. Particularly in conjunction with how his story ends …
For me it took a very long time to click into gear. There were a few storylines being juggled here, and I was somewhat disappointed that the one I was most interested in was given rather short shrift, and was, in fact, cut off. The ending wasn't what I would have wanted. I enjoyed the book – but I would have had a lot more fun with it if the radio setting had been the star.
The story Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime begins to tell is more of a conspiracy tale, involving men in dark glasses and clandestine surveillance and secret identities, none of which seems to have anything to do with the war going on. About a third of the way in it – and Jack Dulaney, the main character – finally settled into WHAR radio in New Jersey, and it started being part of what I wanted, in spades: behind the scenes in 40's radio. It was wonderful, and made me very glad I stuck it out.
Jack – or Jordan Ten Eyck, as he calls himself in this new life – is something of a wunderkind; he always wrote, and now adapts to radio drama like a pony to a field of clover, and he's amazing at it. A little too amazing, to tell the truth; the definitions of "Mary Sue" (in this case Gary Stu) kept going through my mind every time he knocked out another stunning script in an hour and a half, and every time he flouted the rules and was barely chastised when anyone else would have been fired and blackballed. He even marvels about how he's running the place in just a couple of months; it's a bit much. Particularly in conjunction with how his story ends …
For me it took a very long time to click into gear. There were a few storylines being juggled here, and I was somewhat disappointed that the one I was most interested in was given rather short shrift, and was, in fact, cut off. The ending wasn't what I would have wanted. I enjoyed the book – but I would have had a lot more fun with it if the radio setting had been the star.
May 25, 2015
I'd really like to give this book a higher rating, because I've enjoyed the Bookman series. Like many books by authors who have a love for a particular historical period, this one is long on period color and short on the other things necessary to make an absorbing read. I found the plot to be thin and confusing, the characters to be more numerous and less rich than I'd like, the pace to be very slow, and the length to be, well...too long. Nevertheless, I persevered to the end mostly out of respect for the author, and I thought the book ended well. It just took a lot of effort to get there. If you're a nut for old-time broadcast radio and the war years, you might think it's great. Otherwise, you might enjoy one of Dunning's other books more.
April 20, 2009
I listened to this on audio was not ready to leave the story and the characters. The radio shows, producers and characters are a wonderful counterpoint to the mystery disappearance of Jack Delany's (hoped for) girlfriend's Father and others in a town on the Jersey shore near NYC in 1942. Jack is determined to help Holly find out what happened to her father and as it turns out others who also disappeared or were murdered. This is a fascinating glimpse of what the live radio broadcasts were like as well as insights into wars and the atrocities that may occur when agressive armies occupy a country, pointing out the parallels between past wars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2012
I could not wait for this book to end...all the while thinking, gosh, this has been reviewed as one
of Dunning's best. Groan. Too many twisting plots, interconnecting (one hopes) at the end but I'm going, now wait a minute, didn't this guy die in New York some pages ago? One unique and very entertaining aspect of the book, was the historical detail of early radio and how exciting it must
have been to be working in the "new" medium. That was really cool and putting the setting of the radio station near the Outer Banks allowed for war scares of the Germans coming ashore in their
submarines, raiding the coast. All in all an interesting book....lots about horse racing, as well.
of Dunning's best. Groan. Too many twisting plots, interconnecting (one hopes) at the end but I'm going, now wait a minute, didn't this guy die in New York some pages ago? One unique and very entertaining aspect of the book, was the historical detail of early radio and how exciting it must
have been to be working in the "new" medium. That was really cool and putting the setting of the radio station near the Outer Banks allowed for war scares of the Germans coming ashore in their
submarines, raiding the coast. All in all an interesting book....lots about horse racing, as well.
April 23, 2009
A book about the creative process, love, loss, World War ii radio, cloaked in mystery. Very strong characters make this a stand out book for me.The weakest part of the book is the mystery. Well worth the time to read.
November 17, 2019
I'd come upon and read (and enjoyed) the first book in the Janeway (Bookman) series and I thought I'd try something else he'd written.
Have you ever made vegetable soup? When I was first learning to cook it and figure out just how I liked it best, in various iterations I tried a variety of ingredients and seasonings. More than a few times, when tasting the result, I realized that I should have stopped halfway with what I added - too many disparate veggies, too many and too much of certain seasonings, etc., I learned to pick combos that worked best. And that often less is more.
That's the problem with the book - the characters, plot developments, twists and turns, are muddy and muddled. Too much, too many, too disjointed, all added together to be a bit of a mess. I didn't have trouble following it but at the end, my assessment is that too many of his vegetables and seasonings were unnecessary, and their presence subtracted rather than added to the plot, and subtracted rather than added to my enjoyment of the book.
Not recommended.
Have you ever made vegetable soup? When I was first learning to cook it and figure out just how I liked it best, in various iterations I tried a variety of ingredients and seasonings. More than a few times, when tasting the result, I realized that I should have stopped halfway with what I added - too many disparate veggies, too many and too much of certain seasonings, etc., I learned to pick combos that worked best. And that often less is more.
That's the problem with the book - the characters, plot developments, twists and turns, are muddy and muddled. Too much, too many, too disjointed, all added together to be a bit of a mess. I didn't have trouble following it but at the end, my assessment is that too many of his vegetables and seasonings were unnecessary, and their presence subtracted rather than added to the plot, and subtracted rather than added to my enjoyment of the book.
Not recommended.
February 17, 2018
Probably actually 3.5... This thriller is contains a slowly developing story that kept me reading in the hopes that I'd figure out what was going on before the big disclose. Most of the loose ends were tied up by the end, but I found myself turning back to the beginning to re-read the beginnings of the various relationships.
1940s radio is definitely a character itself in this work. I enjoyed learning more about all the various aspects of putting on shows; my mind would envision scenes from Remember WENN (TV show) and this helped put it all in perspective. I also enjoy learning more about homefront WWII, so this book also satisfied that interest.
A rather rambling route towards resolution of the "mystery" here covers a lot of ground and gives us plenty of possible "villains." I enjoyed the trip.
1940s radio is definitely a character itself in this work. I enjoyed learning more about all the various aspects of putting on shows; my mind would envision scenes from Remember WENN (TV show) and this helped put it all in perspective. I also enjoy learning more about homefront WWII, so this book also satisfied that interest.
A rather rambling route towards resolution of the "mystery" here covers a lot of ground and gives us plenty of possible "villains." I enjoyed the trip.
June 18, 2023
I bought this book entirely on the basis of its title, which I really like.
Unfortunately, I was somewhat less happy with the book itself. It seemed to me to be two stories in one, related, but for a long time the two stories did not appear to be related. The middle of the book dragged on too long.
The resolution was quite good, though, so not all was lost. The coda was somewhat superfluous but it was only a couple of pages.
There is some irony here. The main character is a writer of radio dramas who has to keep his scripts to times measured to the second, so no fluff allowed. The author, on the other hand, was allowed to be somewhat fluffy. The book could have been tightened up and it should have been.
Unfortunately, I was somewhat less happy with the book itself. It seemed to me to be two stories in one, related, but for a long time the two stories did not appear to be related. The middle of the book dragged on too long.
The resolution was quite good, though, so not all was lost. The coda was somewhat superfluous but it was only a couple of pages.
There is some irony here. The main character is a writer of radio dramas who has to keep his scripts to times measured to the second, so no fluff allowed. The author, on the other hand, was allowed to be somewhat fluffy. The book could have been tightened up and it should have been.
March 3, 2022
In full disclosure I sped read this novel, only half enjoying the stellar writing of John Dunning. “Two O’clock Eastern Wartime” was a good story that carried many elements of good reading. History (WWII), intrigue, crime mystery, romance…the subtext of radio in the 40’s just did not grab me.
A Dunning fan from his Cliff Janeway series, I carried on, reminded of the author’s near “noir” style and his well crafted characters. It earns three stars for that alone.
A Dunning fan from his Cliff Janeway series, I carried on, reminded of the author’s near “noir” style and his well crafted characters. It earns three stars for that alone.
January 10, 2019
Beautifully written book. Dunning is an artist with words. Definitely hard to put down. But...I'm still not sure what I read. Was it about early radio broadcasting? Was it a mystery? Who killed whom? Was it a war story? Where did the Boer War come from? Needed about 500 more pages to tie it all together, I think. (And I would have read them!)
March 13, 2019
Interesting history muddled plot
Old time radio, world war 2, nazi espionage, all the ingredients for an wonderful page turner. Spoiled by a muddled plot, characters with bizarrely unrealistic or missing or muddled motivations. No real sense of place in the fake beach town of Regina beach.
Old time radio, world war 2, nazi espionage, all the ingredients for an wonderful page turner. Spoiled by a muddled plot, characters with bizarrely unrealistic or missing or muddled motivations. No real sense of place in the fake beach town of Regina beach.
May 31, 2025
If one is really interested in running a radio station, putting on shows, etc. in 1942 this is the book for you. Dunning was an expert on old time radio. And I recommend his other books. In this one he forgot to include a coherent plot. Therefore the low rating.
Read
September 30, 2025I have really liked this author's other books, and the plot summary really sounds good. But after reading 100 pages I still wasn't that interested in it, so I became a quitter. It went too slowly for me and just didn't draw me in.
September 19, 2018
Story of World War 2, a radio station, German spies, murders, radio shows, radio actors.
Great story. Enjoyable read.
Great story. Enjoyable read.
January 24, 2020
I don't understand the low ratings because I enjoyed this book! I didn't give it a 5 only because it starts a little slow. But if you stick with it, I think it's worth it.
May 3, 2020
Great setting, excellent characters, a period murder mystery with plenty of old time radio, what's not to like?
Excellent payoff.
Excellent payoff.
October 7, 2024
***1/2: the radio elements were the best part of the story; the mystery itself was convoluted and not nearly as interesting.
January 23, 2020
BOTTOM-LINE:
Fantastic view of a wartime radio drama
.
PLOT OR PREMISE:
The year is 1942, and Jack Delaney is working as a writer for the local radio station where weird things happen, like actors going missing and potential German spies hiding in plain sight.
.
WHAT I LIKED:
The story starts off confused, and a hint of someone in trouble. Delaney has to escape a chain gang to help a woman he loves, even if she is already spoken for in his mind. And the trail leads to a radio station on a coastal town where he gets work. At that point, the story is three-fold -- a mystery involving German spies, a love story of sorts, and him learning about the radio busiiness as a writer. The radio business part is awesome.
.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
The German mystery is confused and the love story doubly so. Most of it makes very little sense and is more "hinted at" than "made real".
.
DISCLOSURE:
I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow him on social media.
Fantastic view of a wartime radio drama
.
PLOT OR PREMISE:
The year is 1942, and Jack Delaney is working as a writer for the local radio station where weird things happen, like actors going missing and potential German spies hiding in plain sight.
.
WHAT I LIKED:
The story starts off confused, and a hint of someone in trouble. Delaney has to escape a chain gang to help a woman he loves, even if she is already spoken for in his mind. And the trail leads to a radio station on a coastal town where he gets work. At that point, the story is three-fold -- a mystery involving German spies, a love story of sorts, and him learning about the radio busiiness as a writer. The radio business part is awesome.
.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
The German mystery is confused and the love story doubly so. Most of it makes very little sense and is more "hinted at" than "made real".
.
DISCLOSURE:
I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow him on social media.
July 18, 2021
Една книга, която силно ме впечатли с екзотичната си за мен фабула. Не съм си представял (когато четох книгата), че военновременните американци биха могли дори да си помислят, че е възможно хитлеристки подводници да ги наблюдават едва от няколкостотин метра разстояние навътре в океана, че е възможно истински хладнокръвни нацистки шпиони да бъдат инфилтрирани в тяхното общество и институции. Интересна книга за шпионаж и контрашпионаж, в която обикновеният гражданин получава шанса да се превърне в тих герой. Не съм голям любител на цитатите, но следното изречение ми направи толкова силно впечатление, че нямаше как да не си го запиша: “Отминалите времена винаги изглеждат обикновени и невинни за онези, които не са ги преживели лично.” Това сякаш казва всичко за позицията ни, когато четем история и когато неминуемо всеки път сме принудени да признаем, че “онези” са били точно като нас - също толкова “живи”, също толкова интелигентни, мислещи, преживяващи. Колелото на историята се върти и само онзи, който живее погълнат от собствената си реалност, не успява да оцени единосъщността на човешкото същество през всичките епохи на неговото развитие. Ние, новите, не сме с нищо повече от онези, които са живели преди нас. Идващите след нас закономерно ще ни имат за скучни, закостенели, ще отричат, че въобще сме живели истински на този свят. Но и за тях ще дойде ред, и те ще осъзнаят тази велика истина. Ще се сдобият с мъдрост и ще се смирят, но пак с радост ще наблюдават израстването на новото поколение и ще му прощават грешките на младостта.
April 4, 2016
I would classify this book as enigmatic historical fiction. I was totally confused (but in a good way) through the whole book and everything didn't jell until, literally, the last couple of pages. The best part of the book was the background of the story which was behind-the-scenes of old time live radio. The author happens to be an expert on American radio history with 40,000 shows in his personal archive. Also Eastern Wartime (from the title) is what the Daylight Savings Act was called when initiated. The story was set in 1942 during World War II.
The book opens with Jack Dulaney escaping from a prison work-camp. His job is a race track hot-walker and he travels the country working the season. His supposed friend, Marty Kendall, helps him escape; and Jack is off tracking down a girl from his past that he can't get off his mind named Holly Carnahan. His search leads him to Regina Beach, New Jersey to radio station WHAR where Holly is singing with a band but now known as Holly O'Hara. Jack's other ambition is writing so he is hired at the station as a "continuity" writer under a new name, Jordan Ten Eyck. Holly is there looking for her missing father who used to work at the station. She pretends not to know Jack.
It turns out that others have gone missing from the radio station - March Flack, an English actor who disappeared while walking home from the radio station one night six years earlier; and Marty Kendall, an actor (how's that for coincidence?). Other people he meets are Rue, Hazel and Pauline (Flack's wife) who are actresses; Livia who produces sound effects; Waldo and his crew, a black actor-director who has a Sunday morning show called "Freedom Road"; Jethro Kidd, the new station manager; Gus Stoner, an engineer who does the insomniac hour ; Eli, the colored janitor who becomes reluctant actor; and the owner, the mysterious Loren Harford who slinks around watching everyone. There are also lots of intriguing characters (Irish and Germans among them) who inhabit the story.
It turns out that Jack is enjoying how a radio station works. It was fascinating reading about making a radio show - the writing, casting, musical background, sound effects, rehearsal, and the final on-air show.
Jordan loves working for the radio station and working with the people who inhabit his life now. It turns out he has a knack for writing scripts. He even writes them in his dreams. He also gets a chance to write and direct for the colored show which brings it from low-profile to mainstream radio. Think about the era and this becomes a phenomenal occurrence. In the radio archives, a long lost script is discovered which is a mysterious clue and which Jordan uses as a component in a series to ferret out the killer.
Well, Jack and Holly finally acknowledge each other and begin the hunt for her missing father. She is terrified for Jordan's safety as he is for hers because there is obviously a killer out for revenge and Holly and Jack may be next on his list. We have intrigue, romance, conspiracy, suspense, and wonderful old-time radio lore. The conclusion after the conclusion of the murders where we find out what happened in the future to our main characters is also steeped in mystery - in other words we don't find out much. John Dunning has the gift of a storyteller with an insight into human behavior. An enjoyable, but confusing, read. My first John Dunning book.
The book opens with Jack Dulaney escaping from a prison work-camp. His job is a race track hot-walker and he travels the country working the season. His supposed friend, Marty Kendall, helps him escape; and Jack is off tracking down a girl from his past that he can't get off his mind named Holly Carnahan. His search leads him to Regina Beach, New Jersey to radio station WHAR where Holly is singing with a band but now known as Holly O'Hara. Jack's other ambition is writing so he is hired at the station as a "continuity" writer under a new name, Jordan Ten Eyck. Holly is there looking for her missing father who used to work at the station. She pretends not to know Jack.
It turns out that others have gone missing from the radio station - March Flack, an English actor who disappeared while walking home from the radio station one night six years earlier; and Marty Kendall, an actor (how's that for coincidence?). Other people he meets are Rue, Hazel and Pauline (Flack's wife) who are actresses; Livia who produces sound effects; Waldo and his crew, a black actor-director who has a Sunday morning show called "Freedom Road"; Jethro Kidd, the new station manager; Gus Stoner, an engineer who does the insomniac hour ; Eli, the colored janitor who becomes reluctant actor; and the owner, the mysterious Loren Harford who slinks around watching everyone. There are also lots of intriguing characters (Irish and Germans among them) who inhabit the story.
It turns out that Jack is enjoying how a radio station works. It was fascinating reading about making a radio show - the writing, casting, musical background, sound effects, rehearsal, and the final on-air show.
Jordan loves working for the radio station and working with the people who inhabit his life now. It turns out he has a knack for writing scripts. He even writes them in his dreams. He also gets a chance to write and direct for the colored show which brings it from low-profile to mainstream radio. Think about the era and this becomes a phenomenal occurrence. In the radio archives, a long lost script is discovered which is a mysterious clue and which Jordan uses as a component in a series to ferret out the killer.
Well, Jack and Holly finally acknowledge each other and begin the hunt for her missing father. She is terrified for Jordan's safety as he is for hers because there is obviously a killer out for revenge and Holly and Jack may be next on his list. We have intrigue, romance, conspiracy, suspense, and wonderful old-time radio lore. The conclusion after the conclusion of the murders where we find out what happened in the future to our main characters is also steeped in mystery - in other words we don't find out much. John Dunning has the gift of a storyteller with an insight into human behavior. An enjoyable, but confusing, read. My first John Dunning book.
January 7, 2017
Having read & loved John Dunning's Booked to Die and The Bookman's Wake years ago, even though I'm not much of a reader of war-centric books, out of curiosity I pounced on this one at our library's book sale. It's difficult to define its genre, and it was difficult to put down even though I was reading it through the holidays and drowsy from a cold part of the time.
In summer 1942, writer Jack Dulaney was jailed for a barroom fight that he didn't start, but certainly didn't back away from. He had been lying low, working from racetrack to racetrack hot-walking horses, a young man with a minor issue that kept him from being drafted but perhaps made him look to others like someone unwilling to fight for his country. He had given up his love, Holly, to his best friend, Tom, who subsequently died at Pearl Harbor. While in jail, Marty Kendall, a friend he had made working with the horses, brought him news that there was a letter from Holly indicating that she was in some kind of difficulty. So, Dulaney arranged for Kendall to leave a car and money for him and made a quick escape when he was taken out his first day on the chain gang.
He traced Holly to her last address in Pennsylvania only to find her long gone and no idea where to look next. However, someone had killed Kendall in her house. During their racetrack work, Kendall had said that Jack's writing would be great for radio and that he easily could find work at WHAR in Regina Beach, NJ. Kendall had thrived at WHAR, so Jack headed there, and under an assumed name found work at the station. He got to know and like many of the WHAR people, while covertly trying to uncover Kendall's killers. As Jack probed, he learned that two other men who worked for the WHAR unexpectedly disappeared and did not return. One of them was Carnahan, Holly's father and Jack's very good friend. The one person he could learn nothing from was Holly, who refused to acknowledge that they knew each other. She had established herself in the community of radio artists, also under an assumed name, to investigate her father's disappearance. As Dulaney began digging and investigating, suspecting and eliminating, his great talent as a radio writer and his sense of fairness began to illluminate much of the seamy, hidden side of war, prejudice, and inequality. His scripts and his inquiries put him into the same position that, perhaps, the others who disappeared from WHAR had found themselves; and even as more and more answers are revealed, the suspense becomes deeper and deeper.
Besides experiencing the haunting world of radio in its prime and during wartime, the most interesting thing about this novel is the way John Dunning's writing puts the reader into a familiar and recognizable place, even when the subject has not necessarily been previously encountered.
In summer 1942, writer Jack Dulaney was jailed for a barroom fight that he didn't start, but certainly didn't back away from. He had been lying low, working from racetrack to racetrack hot-walking horses, a young man with a minor issue that kept him from being drafted but perhaps made him look to others like someone unwilling to fight for his country. He had given up his love, Holly, to his best friend, Tom, who subsequently died at Pearl Harbor. While in jail, Marty Kendall, a friend he had made working with the horses, brought him news that there was a letter from Holly indicating that she was in some kind of difficulty. So, Dulaney arranged for Kendall to leave a car and money for him and made a quick escape when he was taken out his first day on the chain gang.
He traced Holly to her last address in Pennsylvania only to find her long gone and no idea where to look next. However, someone had killed Kendall in her house. During their racetrack work, Kendall had said that Jack's writing would be great for radio and that he easily could find work at WHAR in Regina Beach, NJ. Kendall had thrived at WHAR, so Jack headed there, and under an assumed name found work at the station. He got to know and like many of the WHAR people, while covertly trying to uncover Kendall's killers. As Jack probed, he learned that two other men who worked for the WHAR unexpectedly disappeared and did not return. One of them was Carnahan, Holly's father and Jack's very good friend. The one person he could learn nothing from was Holly, who refused to acknowledge that they knew each other. She had established herself in the community of radio artists, also under an assumed name, to investigate her father's disappearance. As Dulaney began digging and investigating, suspecting and eliminating, his great talent as a radio writer and his sense of fairness began to illluminate much of the seamy, hidden side of war, prejudice, and inequality. His scripts and his inquiries put him into the same position that, perhaps, the others who disappeared from WHAR had found themselves; and even as more and more answers are revealed, the suspense becomes deeper and deeper.
Besides experiencing the haunting world of radio in its prime and during wartime, the most interesting thing about this novel is the way John Dunning's writing puts the reader into a familiar and recognizable place, even when the subject has not necessarily been previously encountered.
June 5, 2015
Review title: Radio Nowhere
Dunning's sprawling mystery (478 pages in the hardback is Michneresque for the mystery genre) encompasses World War II, Nazi spy landings on the East coast, Irish freedom fighters, horse-racing culture, and the era of live radio drama, and ultimately falls prey to its grand ambitions.
Despite its extra weight, the story is light on its feet, moving quickly as hero Jack Dulaney walks away from a prison labor gang in California to pursue the woman he finally realizes he shouldn't have let get away--and who may be in danger. His search takes him cross-country to New Jersey, where Holly is now a local torch-singer sensation with a regular radio spot under an assumed name. There Jack takes on his own fake name in his attempt to solve the mystery of the danger she is in while finding out he has a gift as a script writer at the local radio station which has ambitions of becoming as big as the young radio networks beginning to dominate programming.
The problem is that with all these subtexts in the plot, there is no time to let the mystery develop with the proper pacing of success, failure, problem-solving, failure, danger, then success again, a pattern we have come to expect from a mystery. We know the hero will solve the mystery, but we want to see him work for it, making the mistakes that we'd make. Instead, Jack Dulaney seems never to make a false step, a wrong guess. There are no false leads, dead ends, red herrings. He is too perfect to be real; he even solved some of the knottiest mysteries (and wrote his best radio screenplays) in his dreams! Even Sherlock Holmes' seemingly superhuman mystery resolutions arose from his intense power of observation and his flawless application of logic, not from his dreams I found myself shaking my head in disbelief at his literally unbelievable good-fortune.
Perhaps Dunning realized he was writing beyond the back cover of the mystery genre, but was unwilling or unable to sacrifice the background of the story to build back in the false trails and problem-solving that would have made the mystery more real--but added to the length of the book. Indeed, as the book is really more about the age of live radio drama in 1942 in the midst of World War II than it is about the mystery that Dulaney was trying to uncover, Dunning might have been better to abandon the mystery altogether and tell the story as period fiction, since that part of the book is the more successful and the more interesting.
And given that freedom from the word-count restraints of the mystery genre, Dunning might have been able to make his hero less perfect, less heroic--and more believable.
Dunning's sprawling mystery (478 pages in the hardback is Michneresque for the mystery genre) encompasses World War II, Nazi spy landings on the East coast, Irish freedom fighters, horse-racing culture, and the era of live radio drama, and ultimately falls prey to its grand ambitions.
Despite its extra weight, the story is light on its feet, moving quickly as hero Jack Dulaney walks away from a prison labor gang in California to pursue the woman he finally realizes he shouldn't have let get away--and who may be in danger. His search takes him cross-country to New Jersey, where Holly is now a local torch-singer sensation with a regular radio spot under an assumed name. There Jack takes on his own fake name in his attempt to solve the mystery of the danger she is in while finding out he has a gift as a script writer at the local radio station which has ambitions of becoming as big as the young radio networks beginning to dominate programming.
The problem is that with all these subtexts in the plot, there is no time to let the mystery develop with the proper pacing of success, failure, problem-solving, failure, danger, then success again, a pattern we have come to expect from a mystery. We know the hero will solve the mystery, but we want to see him work for it, making the mistakes that we'd make. Instead, Jack Dulaney seems never to make a false step, a wrong guess. There are no false leads, dead ends, red herrings. He is too perfect to be real; he even solved some of the knottiest mysteries (and wrote his best radio screenplays) in his dreams! Even Sherlock Holmes' seemingly superhuman mystery resolutions arose from his intense power of observation and his flawless application of logic, not from his dreams I found myself shaking my head in disbelief at his literally unbelievable good-fortune.
Perhaps Dunning realized he was writing beyond the back cover of the mystery genre, but was unwilling or unable to sacrifice the background of the story to build back in the false trails and problem-solving that would have made the mystery more real--but added to the length of the book. Indeed, as the book is really more about the age of live radio drama in 1942 in the midst of World War II than it is about the mystery that Dulaney was trying to uncover, Dunning might have been better to abandon the mystery altogether and tell the story as period fiction, since that part of the book is the more successful and the more interesting.
And given that freedom from the word-count restraints of the mystery genre, Dunning might have been able to make his hero less perfect, less heroic--and more believable.
July 11, 2012
I love John Dunning's Cliff Janeway series (former cop turned bookseller, who always manages to find some book-related mystery to investigate), and was tickled to find this stand-alone novel at a secondhand shop, as the Janeway books were the only ones of his I'd read.
Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime draws from Dunning's love of old radio shows (he has also authored On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio.) Set during World War II, the story follows Jack Dulaney, who is barred from serving in the military due to a slight hearing loss. Jack is a sometime writer, having had one novel and several stories published, but his success has been marginal. He makes a scant living hot-walking horses at various racetracks, traveling from place to place as the racing season dictates. Along the way he picks up a traveling companion - Kendall, who at first appears to be just another guy living on the fringes of society. Visiting Jack in jail (where he has landed after a bar fight), Kendall unexpectedly reveals that he was sent to California to find Jack and bring him back East, implying that he was sent by Holly Carnahan, the woman Jack once loved, and that Holly is in danger.
Escaping from a work crew, Jack makes his way to New Jersey, and under a false name finds work writing "continuity" for a local radio station while he looks for Holly. Once he locates her, however, Holly appears not to know him. Convinced that she is only maintaining a front to avoid revealing their prior relationship to whomever is threatening her, Jack settles into his new position, discovering an affinity for writing radio drama, and keeps an eye on Holly, waiting for an opportunity to speak with her privately and learn what trouble keeps her from him. What he finds are more mysteries than he ever bargained for - disappearances, possible Nazi spies, and the wealthy, enigmatic station owner, who may or may not be the one threatening Holly.
The book's real strength is in its exploration of the golden age of radio and America in the '40s - a world long gone, which despite the wartime setting seems oddly innocent in some ways, like when Jack is able to get a driver's license under his assumed name without a second thought. Its depiction of the controlled chaos of putting together a radio program from scratch, often in less than a week's time - including writing, casting, composition of original music (with a full orchestra, no less), rehearsal, and production - is utterly fascinating, and made me a little sad for the loss of such fertile creative environments as they must have been.
Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime draws from Dunning's love of old radio shows (he has also authored On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio.) Set during World War II, the story follows Jack Dulaney, who is barred from serving in the military due to a slight hearing loss. Jack is a sometime writer, having had one novel and several stories published, but his success has been marginal. He makes a scant living hot-walking horses at various racetracks, traveling from place to place as the racing season dictates. Along the way he picks up a traveling companion - Kendall, who at first appears to be just another guy living on the fringes of society. Visiting Jack in jail (where he has landed after a bar fight), Kendall unexpectedly reveals that he was sent to California to find Jack and bring him back East, implying that he was sent by Holly Carnahan, the woman Jack once loved, and that Holly is in danger.
Escaping from a work crew, Jack makes his way to New Jersey, and under a false name finds work writing "continuity" for a local radio station while he looks for Holly. Once he locates her, however, Holly appears not to know him. Convinced that she is only maintaining a front to avoid revealing their prior relationship to whomever is threatening her, Jack settles into his new position, discovering an affinity for writing radio drama, and keeps an eye on Holly, waiting for an opportunity to speak with her privately and learn what trouble keeps her from him. What he finds are more mysteries than he ever bargained for - disappearances, possible Nazi spies, and the wealthy, enigmatic station owner, who may or may not be the one threatening Holly.
The book's real strength is in its exploration of the golden age of radio and America in the '40s - a world long gone, which despite the wartime setting seems oddly innocent in some ways, like when Jack is able to get a driver's license under his assumed name without a second thought. Its depiction of the controlled chaos of putting together a radio program from scratch, often in less than a week's time - including writing, casting, composition of original music (with a full orchestra, no less), rehearsal, and production - is utterly fascinating, and made me a little sad for the loss of such fertile creative environments as they must have been.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 20, 2017
It is late spring in 1942 America.
Working on racetracks by taking care of the horses, Jack Dulaney leads a peaceful life which is stopped by a drunken bar fight that ends him in jail. When there, a friend from the racetracks, Marty Kendall, brings him a letter from his old friend and crush, Holly, who indicates she's run in trouble. Dulaney decides to escape the prison to help her.
But, he suspects a spy working for German to have had their fingers in lots of problems Jack has come into, as has Holly too, from people's disappearances to extortion, and much more.
As the story progresses, we get more and more sucked into America's war time radio scene, which is a beautiful place to be. Tension from radio dramas is extraordinary. Spy hunt puts you on the edge of your chair and gets you to stay there until the very end.
January 27, 2021
This was one of my favorite reads ever. In the interests of full disclosure, I will state that I am partial to mysteries set during WWII by authors such as Joseph Kanon, Allan Furst, James R Benn, and others. Most I have read are set in Europe, and the war is more to the forefront of the story. Here, the setting is 1942 in a small coastal town in New Jersey where the war, while on everyone's mind, is a bit more background to the story.
The writing is wonderful-- more like good literature than the typical mystery novel, Most of the scenes take place in or around the radio studio/station and beach nearby. While I have read a few reviews suggesting the plot moves a bit slowly and includes a bit too much detail about radio shows and their production, I disagree. The mood is generally dark-- one of slowly building suspense, in part because author Dunning ropes in the reader's interest (1) with important characters whom we do not meet for prolonged periods but whom we learn about in advance through the comments and impressions of other characters and (2) characters we do meet who have mysterious or troubled backgrounds that are only slowly revealed. The best I can describe the mood of the book is that it is a story which seems like most of it occurs at night in a misty fog. I found myself imagining that I was back in 1942 in the seaside town observing and trying to piece together what was happening.
With the right cast, director, and screenwriter, this would make an incredible film noir.
The writing is wonderful-- more like good literature than the typical mystery novel, Most of the scenes take place in or around the radio studio/station and beach nearby. While I have read a few reviews suggesting the plot moves a bit slowly and includes a bit too much detail about radio shows and their production, I disagree. The mood is generally dark-- one of slowly building suspense, in part because author Dunning ropes in the reader's interest (1) with important characters whom we do not meet for prolonged periods but whom we learn about in advance through the comments and impressions of other characters and (2) characters we do meet who have mysterious or troubled backgrounds that are only slowly revealed. The best I can describe the mood of the book is that it is a story which seems like most of it occurs at night in a misty fog. I found myself imagining that I was back in 1942 in the seaside town observing and trying to piece together what was happening.
With the right cast, director, and screenwriter, this would make an incredible film noir.
February 12, 2016
A surprisingly compelling read. I didn't know what to expect having never read any of Dunning's stuff before but I was interested in the subject matter, WW II and 40s radio, so I plunged right in.
The protagonist, Jack Dulaney, wanders into Regina Beach, New Jersey searching for his lost love, Holly Carnahan. He's a wanted man so takes on the nom de plume of Jordan Ten Eyck and hooks on to station WHAR as a continuity writer. He finds Holly, also using an alias, Holly O'Hara, singing with a local band but she pretends to not know him.
As the story progresses with many flashbacks to Jack and Holly's past, it becomes clear that Holly's missing father has been murdered. The plot then revolves around their search for his killer with diversions into life at the station, German spies, and suspicious characters who come and go.
My biggest problem with the book is the enigmatic ending in which the reader is left with his or her interpretation of what happened to Holly, Jack and some of the other characters. I would have liked a clearer finish.
That said, I plan to read more of Dunning's writing. He's also a bibliophile and has written two novels involving rare books.
The protagonist, Jack Dulaney, wanders into Regina Beach, New Jersey searching for his lost love, Holly Carnahan. He's a wanted man so takes on the nom de plume of Jordan Ten Eyck and hooks on to station WHAR as a continuity writer. He finds Holly, also using an alias, Holly O'Hara, singing with a local band but she pretends to not know him.
As the story progresses with many flashbacks to Jack and Holly's past, it becomes clear that Holly's missing father has been murdered. The plot then revolves around their search for his killer with diversions into life at the station, German spies, and suspicious characters who come and go.
My biggest problem with the book is the enigmatic ending in which the reader is left with his or her interpretation of what happened to Holly, Jack and some of the other characters. I would have liked a clearer finish.
That said, I plan to read more of Dunning's writing. He's also a bibliophile and has written two novels involving rare books.
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