Status Updates From Dragon Harvest (Lanny Budd #6)

He would say: “I can tell you what Schneider said, and what de Wendel said, and Renault, and Duchemin; but don’t ask me for an opinion, because I am just an art expert, and honestly, I am bewildered by the complexity of the world situation.”

Also, Lanny drove out to the village which had become famous all over America—Royal Oak, named for a reason which nobody seemed to know. He wanted to have a worthwhile report to make to Forrest Quadratt, so he listened for an hour while “Silver Charlie” poured his rage upon those servants of Satan who were planning to repeal the wise and righteous Neutrality Act

Rudolf Hess was to be the amateur medium’s shining mark, so Lanny set out to tell all he had learned about this devotee of the Führer. There would be light enough in the séance room for the medium to recognize him, and Lanny described him as a man of athletic build, wearing a simple brownshirt uniform. (séances and mediums are a repeated theme throughout the book.)

Ideas came into Lanny Budd’s mind in different ways. Sometimes they came like a flash of lightning, making him start and cry out; sometimes they came in a stately way, a procession with banners and music; sometimes they came stealing quietly, like a little mouse into a room.

So Lanny didn’t see the Detroit Institute of Arts. His companion called a confidential telephone number and made an appointment for eleven o’clock, and Lanny drove him on the city’s most pretentious highway, Woodward Boulevard, twelve miles to a town called Royal Oak. On their right loomed up a large stucco church with a tall tower, the Shrine of the Little Flower.

Lanny travels to Detroit and meets Henry Ford who is 76 year old but is still working at his auto factory with the famous assembly line.

This sixth book in the series begins in 1939 at the conclusion of the war in Spain and the continuation of the Nazi expansion in Europe. Lanny is back in France.