Berlin, 1941. A mysterious American delivers to the Abwehr (German Secret Service) a collection of Allied war plans for each following week. The Abwehr is astonished to discover they all turn out correct! Robert Ballard is quickly brought into the fold as he supplies one intelligence coup after another. His only demand—he will not say how the information is obtained.
Ballard shows that German Army codes are being broken one after another by the secret Bletchley Park decoding factory. His urgent warning about the potential trap of Stalingrad just barely prevents the German 6th Army from being annihilated by the Soviets. Ballard is personally decorated by the Führer.
The Gestapo is furious; useful or not, how can anyone be running a masterful spy ring under their very noses? And they are suspicious of his motives. What is this brash American getting out of this very strange arrangement? Berlin Station Chief Oskar Faulheim means to find out. With the Abwehr shielding Ballard, Faulheim zeroes in on his new girlfriend, the Italian widow, Sabina Pergolesi. But she, too is hiding a secret. Only after Ballard realizes that his idealistic agenda is leading him completely astray can he hope to rescue the woman with whom he has fallen desperately in love.
Holzel’s penchant for intensely researching his subjects (See his The Mystery of Mallory & Irvine) is reflected in the fine historical detail evident on every page of Ballard’s War—until his clever plot forges a startling new direction for WW-II with a shocking new but inevitable ending.