Paul Levine
is a former trial lawyer and the author of two best-selling legal thriller
series that have won the John D. MacDonald Fiction Award and have been shortlisted
for the Edgar, Macavity, International Thriller, Shamus, and James Thurber
prizes. He took an entirely different direction with his writing in 2025 with a
book set in the late 1930s about real-life friends Charlie Chaplin and Albert
Einstein who united their considerable forces to oppose the creeping fascism
threatening to overtake the world. Combining fact with well-considered fiction,
it was named Best Thriller of the Year from Best Thrillers.com.
The dynamic
if unlikely duo of Chaplin and Einstein is back in Midnight Patriots (Nittany
Valley Productions, June 2026). This time Charlie is in deep trouble. William
Randolph Hearst has put out a contract on Charlie because of his ongoing
dalliance with Hearst’s mistress Marion Davies. (The much older Hearst was
notoriously jealous of Chaplin and possessive of Davies. A Peter Bogdanovich
film called The Cat’s Meow (2001) uses it to explain the death of cinema
producer Thomas H. Ince. Wonderful movie.) In addition, a German sharpshooter
has been sent to assassinate Chaplin for his satirical portrayal of Hitler in
his new movie The Great Dictator. Chaplin made Hitler look a fool and
Hitler wasn’t standing for it.
Einstein
isn’t much better off. An aging German spy named Fritz Duquesne is determined
to show his bosses that he has not lost his touch. He plans to kidnap Einstein
and return him to the Nazi Germany Einstein fled years earlier. At the same
time, and fortunately for both Chaplin and Einstein, a pair of FBI agents is
watching Einstein at J. Edgar Hoover’s orders to obtain evidence of subversive
behavior. Major Leslie Groves is trying to enlist Einstein to monitor the
research into an atomic device underway at multiple universities.
While under
multiple threats, Chaplin tries to convert prospective presidential candidate Charles
Lindbergh from his isolationist views. Mobster Mickey Cohen acts as bodyguard
to Chaplin and Einstein. And Lena Horne gets her big career break when she
meets Cohen who offers her a performing contract at a popular nightclub of
which he is part owner.
Most of the
major players were real people. A summary at the end of the book explains which
is which and what happened to the nonfictional ones. Somehow the idea that
Einstein and Chaplin could be friends is startling but they were both well-known
world citizens and they held similar views. Likewise, Lindbergh’s status as an
aviation hero clouds public knowledge of his conservative politics and strong
belief in eugenics. It is easy to draw parallels between people and events in
the book, set in the late 1930s, and the present time.
Much of the
action takes place on the cross-country train known as the Super Chief, as
Einstein and Chaplin return to Los Angeles after a trip to New York and a stop
in Chicago on their way west. Insight into the workings of the long-gone
passenger railway is always fascinating. Readers who like mysteries set on
trains will want to read this book, as will those interested in the mindset of
the United States as it waffled on entering the war against Germany.
The parts
here about how the pro-war factions in the U.S. worked around the insular Congress
reminds me of one of my favorite books of 2024. The Wealth of Shadows by
Graham Moore (Random House, 2024), which was a fictionalized account of
real-life happenings during the early days of World War II, described how
President Roosevelt tasked the Treasury Department with finding a way to
undermine the German economy, intending to force a financial stop to the
fighting while staying officially within the isolationist policies in place.
A
fascinating piece of fictionalized history. Recommended!
·
ISBN-13: 979-8994263013
·
Publisher: Nittany Valley Productions,
Inc.
·
Publication date: June 16, 2026
·
Language: English
·
Print length: 390 pages
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4xr9ici
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal
It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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