Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime

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John Dunning's previous novels featuring a sleuth who's an expert in rare and collectible books won this former bookstore owner a devoted following; first editions of Booked to Die and The Bookman's Wake routinely fetch high sums in stores like the one Dunning himself owned for many years. With the verisimilitude that's a hallmark of his writing, Dunning delves into a new topic, the golden days of radio, igniting the reader's excitement about the enormous potential of the medium. Sadly, he can't assuage the inevitable disappointment over how that potential was wasted: "Radio is the greatest invention of the past four centuries. It ranks right up there with Gutenberg's movable type as an earthshaking force.... One of the first things Gutenberg did with his movable type was print a magnificent Bible. The first thing radio did was argue how much selling would be permitted and how ridiculous it would be allowed to get. If it keeps on the way it's going there won't be anything worth listening to.... I have this almost morbid fear of the future--not that radio's greatest days will fade away but that its greatest day will never come. Fifty years from now it could just be a medium of hucksters and fools, a whorehouse in the sky." The speaker is Jack Dulaney, a novelist who follows a dead man's trail to the Jersey shore in the early days of World War II, where a radio station owned by a recluse has fallen on hard times. The mysterious Harford, who built the station as a showcase for his late wife's ambition, has all but abandoned WHAR, but the actors, writers, producers, and technicians who once shared the dead woman's dream are galvanized by the appearance of Dulaney, who finds his true métier in the creation of original, politically provocative broadcast dramas. He also discovers true love in a talented young singer, Holly Carnahan, whose affections he once sacrificed out of loyalty to his best friend.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
John Dunning is a first-rate suspense novelist whose best work has directly reflected the various facets of his career. His experience as an antiquarian book dealer served as the basis for his award-winning Cliff Janeway novels, Booked to Die and The Bookman's Wake. His work as a historian of the early days of radio (On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio) now provides the backdrop for his latest book, a big, enthralling period mystery called Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime.

Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime takes place during the summer of 1942, just months after America's entry into World War II. Its appealing hero is Jack Dulaney, a former novelist whose damaged eardrum has kept him from being drafted. In the wake of a pair of personal tragedies (the death of his oldest friend at Pearl Harbor, the end of his love affair with Holly Carnahan), Jack has lost his way. As the novel opens, he is living in California and serving a three-month sentence for assault. When word reaches him that Holly is in some sort of trouble, Jack escapes and makes his way to Holly's home in rural Pennsylvania. From there, he follows an enigmatic series of clues that lead to a small New Jersey resort town called Regina Beach.

In Regina Beach, Jack makes a number of concurrent discoveries. First, he locates Holly, who has begun to make a name for herself as lead singer in a local band. Second, he uncovers evidence of a complex conspiracy that may have resulted in the death or disappearance of Holly's father, a handyman employed by WHAR, the Regina Beach radio station. Third, he discovers his own affinity for the powerful, largely untapped medium of radio. After spending a brief apprenticeship writing "continuity" to fill the gaps between scheduled programs, Jack finds his voice and produces a series of original, controversial radio dramas that test the limits of the form.

From this point forward, Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime follows two interconnected paths: Jack's development of his own latent gifts and his simultaneous pursuit of the truth behind the disappearance of Holly's father, a disappearance that gradually sheds light on the tragic political history of an increasingly violent century. Dunning's knowledge of -- and affection for -- the world of old-time radio suffuses the narrative and lends its central dramas an aura of unimpeachable authenticity. The result of all this is a compulsively readable novel that works on a number of levels: as a mystery, as a meditation on history, as a novel of character, and as an artfully detailed portrait of a vibrant, vanished era.

--Bill Sheehan

Bill Sheehan reviews horror, suspense, and science fiction for Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and other publications. His book-length critical study of the fiction of Peter Straub, At the Foot of the Story Tree, has been published by Subterranean Press (www.subterraneanpress.com).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Widely acclaimed for his groundbreaking crime novels Booked to Die and The Bookman's Wake, award-winning author John Dunning triumphantly returns with a riveting new thriller that takes us back to the summer of 1942, when radio was in its prime, when daylight saving time gave way to "wartime," when stations like WHAR on the New Jersey coast struggled to create programming that entertained and inspired a nation in its dark hour.

Into this intense community of radio artists and technicians in Regina Beach, New Jersey, come Jack Dulaney and Holly Carnahan. They are determined to find Holly's missing father, whose last desperate word came from this noisy seaside town. Holly sings like an angel and has what it takes to become a star. Jack -- a racetrack hot-walker and novelist who's hit every kind of trouble in his travels from sea to sea -- tries out as a writer at WHAR and soon discovers a passion for radio and a natural talent for script writing.

While absorbing the ways of radio, from writing to directing, he meets some extraordinarily brave and gifted people who touch his life in ways he could not have imagined -- actresses Rue, Pauline, and Hazel; actor-director Waldo, creator of the magnificent black show Freedom Road; and enigmatic station owner Loren Harford, among others.

Jack's zeal for radio is exceeded only by his devotion to Holly, who needs his help but who is terrified for his safety. Strange things are happening in Regina Beach, starting with an English actor who walked out of the station six years ago and was never seen again. And Holly's father is gone too, in equally puzzling circumstances. As Jack and Holly penetrate deeper into the shadows of the past, they learn that someone will do anything, including murder, to hide some devastating truths.

In a stunning novel that transcends genre, John Dunning calls upon his vast knowledge of radio and his incisive reading of history to create a poignant, page-turning work of fiction that sheds new insights on some of the most harrowing events of the twentieth century. Like E. L. Doctorow's Billy Bathgate or Caleb Carr's The Alienist, Dunning's brilliant tale of mystery, murder, and revenge brings to life another time, another place, another world.

SYNOPSIS

It is the summer of 1942. It is wartime. Radio stations like WHAR, in the seaside town of Regina Beach, New Jersey, struggle to inspire the nation. Writer Jack Dulaney's zeal for radio is exceeded only by his devotion to Holly Carnahan. Her father is missing. Somebody will do anything -- including murder -- to hide some devastating truths.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Dunning's obvious love for radio as a medium of artistic expression and his knowledge of its history go a long way toward redeeming an occasionally heavy-handed narrative that takes a turn for melodrama several times too often. It's May 1942, and Jack Delaney--32, a published but impoverished Southern novelist and short story writer--is working in the stables of a racetrack in Oakland, Calif. A fight with some soldiers who mistake Jack's draft deferment (he is deaf in one ear) for cowardice puts him in a work camp until his traveling companion, an out-of-work radio actor named Kendall, helps him escape. But Kendall is soon killed, sending Jack on a complicated chase cross-country, seeking the girl he left behind and her father, who seems to have stirred things up by mailing Jack some top-secret material. Gaines manages to bring to life a large cast of eccentric radio types, Nazi spies and IRA sympathizers: all that's missing is real sound effects to make this an elongated version of "The Shadow" or "Secret Agent X-9." Simultaneous release with the Scribner hardcover. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

In 1942, writer/drifter Jack Dulaney breaks out of jail when he gets a mysterious message that his long-lost love, Holly, may be in trouble. He traces her to a small New Jersey shore town, changes his name, and finds work as a writer at the local radio station. Holly's father has vanished and is somehow linked to the disappearance of a famous radio actor six years ago. Dulaney quickly adapts to radio and discovers his true talent--writing scripts. But his life is ever in danger as he hunts for pieces to the puzzle. Dunning, who gained popularity with the well-received Bookman mysteries (Booked To Die), is also an expert on old-time radio (On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio). Here, he has created an intriguing premise that makes radio production a central force tying the characters and plot together. Unfortunately, although the appealing Dulaney will hold the interest of many readers, the descriptive style leans toward tedium and the resolution leaves many loose ends. Recommended for larger public libraries or where the author is in demand. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/00.]--Karen T. Bilton, Cedar Mill Community Lib., Portland, OR Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile

Set in the glory days of radio, John Dunning's new mystery will have a special resonance for many listeners. The excitment of live radio—comedy, drama, commentary—is vividly conveyed in the story of a writer who becomes involved in suspicious alliances in America during the early months of WWII. False identities, cells of German nationalists, the disappearance of a radio commentator combine for a rich mix of shadowy suspense. Boyd Gaines does an adequate job, but the "radio voices" of these '40s characters sound put on and border on parody. The characters themselves pull through despite Gaines's treatment, and he does give ample variety in the voices. The pace and clarity are first-rate, and Dunning's clever suspense keeps listeners' attention. One could have asked for a more adept narrator, but the story, with its intriguing look at the broadcast life, carries the day. R.F.W. � AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

Grandly romantic, nostalgic WWII epic of radio days, summer nights, and Nazis lurking about New Jersey, from the highly regarded book collector and mystery-writer (The Bookman's Wake, 1995, etc.). Stepping outside the conventions of his own genre, Dunning aspires to literary greatness and beat-the-bad-guys suspense with this doorstopper-length chronicle of a drifter searching for redemption in a fictional Jersey shore town during the summer of 1942. Jack Dulaney, a novelist whose life is on the skids (despite his big-name agent), escapes from a California chain-gang with the help of Pat Kendall, an acquaintance who makes spare change doing voices as a radio actor. The two agree to meet in the Pennsylvania coal town of Dulaney's lost only love, Holly Carnahan. Dulaney bums his way cross-country to find the Carnahan home an empty wreck with Kendall's corpse tossed inside. Some clues lead him to Jersey's whistle-stop Regina Beach, where Dulaney, now under an alias, finds Holly under an alias singing in a jazz band that occasionally broadcasts from station WHAR. Dulaney joins the studio crew as a writer, discovering a new joy in the loose, anything-goes magic of radio while staying one step ahead of German thugs. Holly, uncertain whether to let their romance reignite, is searching for her father, who had an affair with one of the station's habitués before disappearing inexplicably. Dulaney soon learns of a homicidal Nazi sympathizer hiding behind the good-natured wartime solidarity of his radio troupe. Attempting to expose him, Delaney writes a series of radio plays about prison camp victims—a series that will draw him ever closer to the truth. As moodyandmeandering as aHemingway epic (Dulaney gets part of his alias from bell-toller Robert Jordan), Dunning's magnum opus celebrates the forgotten genius of radio, and the winsome heroics of ordinary people caught up in the passion of the great war. Author tour; radio satellite tour