The Potsdam Bluff

By: Jack D. Hunter

Narrated by: Brian Emerson

It's 1945, and Stalin's army stands poised to conquer all of Europe. The only way to stop him is for Truman to bluff him down. To make the bluff work, C.G. Brandt, America's ultra-professional but very human spymaster, is forced to risk everything on Alex Lukas, an under-trained but bilingual secret agent. Lukas must escort a Soviet defector who will parachute into Bavaria with crucial information.

But the defector's plane crashes; there is a gorgeous Communist spy in the drop area; and Lukas can't believe the amount of well-armed interest in his movements. Against all odds, he manages to get out with his skin intact. Then he's given new orders: to proceed to New Mexico, to a place called Los Alamos, pick up a crate, and deliver it to the Moscow embassy. In the crate is the key to the great bluff - the biggest card in Harry Truman's hand as he faces off with Joseph Stalin.

©1991 Jack D. Hunter (P)1995 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Accomplished storyteller Hunter keeps things moving apace in this thriller set during the closing months of WW II....Hunter's intriguing tale also offers a fascinating speculation as to the real purpose of dropping the atomic bomb on Japan." (Publishers Weekly)

potsdam bluff

Good story if you like World War II history. However the dialogue was so tortured with unlikely out of ‘era’ phrases and the most improbable female interaction I have read out side of a dime store western that I almost turned it off it was so trite, which is saying a lot since I am too cheap to give up on any story I have paid for. That being said if you like this genre it is okay.

Don't bother...

I can take liberties with history in the purpose of good fiction, and I can take a liberal amount of "just suspend your disbelief" when the book is good, but when one of the key characters acts in a manner that MAKES NO SENSE when you look back at it from the persepctive of the end of the book, I just feel cheated. You don't have to - skip this one.