Return to Berlin

A Spy Story

By: Noel Hynd

Narrated by: Time Winters

Return to Berlin is the long-awaited sequel to Noel Hynd’s classic million-selling espionage novel, Flowers From Berlin.

It is early 1943 and the United States has been at war for more than a year. William Cochrane, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who was the central character in Flowers From Berlin, has enlisted in the United States Army. He has the commission of a major and is at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, training for combat.

Suddenly his military orders are countermanded by Washington. He is ordered to report immediately to General William Donovan the Office of Strategic Services in New York City. At OSS headquarters Cochrane, recently married, receives an assignment more perilous than combat. He is recruited into the fledgling wartime spy agency and assigned to travel to Europe. He is to make his way to Switzerland to meet with Alan Dulles, the Director of the OSS in Switzerland.

There, if Cochrane is lucky enough to arrive, he will receive the second part of his orders: an espionage assignment. Under an assumed identity, Cochrane will make a heart-pounding return visit to Berlin, where he lived for a while in the 1930s. There is an assignment vital to the battle against Nazi Germany that only he, with his prior knowledge of people and places in Germany, can complete if he eludes capture by the ever-vigilant Gestapo. Or, with the odds heavily against his success in this assignment, will the assignment cost him his life?

Rich in accurate historical detail, heavily evocative of the terrifying era, Return To Berlin is a fast-moving action-packed thriller.

©2019 Noel Hynd (P)2020 Noel Hynd

Well done historical research

I enjoyed reading about a riveting story of spies in a historical context that was most accurately represented.

well researched thriller

Great sequel to first book and narrator has improved. It is also historically accurate. I will look forward to reading the next in the series, judgemental in Berlin.

A unique and interesting premise

What is best about the novel is its opening premise of two women discussing a story over 6 decades in the past, establishing a relationship between these two women. The author inserts a bit too much of Wikipedia available history which seems at times like "filler". The narrator is at best average following an all to common technique of adopting European accents which are not well done and actually distracting and unnecessary. The reader will be drawn in by the opening, wishing to see how the tease in the opening chapters will be resoved. Most will be continually drawn into the story to achieve closure.

Interesting tale!

This was a worthy read! I wish the narrator’s German had been authentic! I cringed at the mispronunciations which detracted from the story.

Well researched and written! Strong storyline!

Excellent narrator! kept me reading nonstop! I will read more of this author's books!