The Devouring

By: James R. Benn

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Europe, 1944: Captain Billy Boyle and his friend Lieutenant Piotr “Kaz” Kazimierz are sent to neutral Switzerland to work with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), investigating Swiss banks that are laundering looted Nazi gold. The US and Swiss governments are about to embark on diplomatic discussions regarding the Safehaven Protocols, aimed at limiting the amount of war materials exported by Switzerland to the Nazis, stemming the tide of looted gold, and preventing postwar use of Nazi wealth by war criminals. With the talks about to begin and the Gestapo ever present, the OSS wants Billy and Kaz to protect the participants, which turns out to be a very deadly task.

The plans go wrong from the beginning when Billy and Kaz crash-land in France. As they make their way through occupied territory to the border, they meet Anton Lasho, a member of the Sinti ethnic group, whose family was slaughtered by the Nazis, and who is, in turn, a one-man Nazi-killing machine. They’ll need his help, because as they find once they make it across the border, Swiss banks are openly laundering gold “harvested” from concentration camps, and those who are profiting will do everything they can to protect their wealth and hide their dark secrets.

©2017 James R. Benn (P)2017 Recorded Books

Neutrality

I have listened to The Devouring three times- I'm current on the series. This book was the hardest to read and to listen to. The Nazis exterminated millions of Jews- there is no defense for what they did. The Devouring showed that other people were also targeted and no one cared, in fact there were individuals and industries that aided in the destruction. There is no such thing as neutrality.

Wonderful read

wonderful story telling as usual from this author. great historical accuracy. fantastic performance. thank you

Great job by James Benn once again !

The Devouring explores and exposes the complicity of the Swiss government in aiding and abetting the Nazi's during WW2. It is generally an unknown aspect of the conflict and one that has not been talked about enough. Benn does a great job of weaving in the complex government relationships in dealing with corporate interests and the lack of morals that play into profiteering. Peter Berkrot does a great job as usual with narration and drives the pace of the book nicely.In all a highly recommended listen.

a thriller mystery with lots of historical context

looking at the corporations that did business with the Nazis including AT&t , Ford the head of the international Red Cross giant aluminum companies and chemical companies... the story has lots of twists and turns but the historical context brings it to a new level.

Top 3 in the whole series

This story was one of my favorite from the entire series. I waited until I listened to all of them. Berkrot has dialed in his voices at this point, but the story was one of the best by far.