Herald Square: A novel of the Cold War (The First Trumpet Book 1)

by Jefferson Flanders

New York, September 1949. When Dennis Collins arrives at Madison Square Garden for the Friday night fights, he is on top of the world. His career as the man-about-town columnist of the New York Sentinel is on the upswing; his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers are contending for the pennant; and a lover who had jilted him years ago has unexpectedly agreed to drinks and dinner at the Stork Club. Collins is sure that his luck has turned for the better.But at the Garden his closest childhood friend, Morris Rose, approaches him for help. Rose asks Collins to safeguard microfilmed documents that he says will prove his innocence in a State Department loyalty investigation. Out of friendship, Collins reluctantly agrees to hold the microfilm for a week.

When Rose disappears from the scene, and FBI agents begin asking hard questions, Collins must solve a puzzle that somehow involves his friend, a shadowy former OSS officer, and a beautiful refugee, Karina, with a troubled past.

When Collins discovers that both American and Soviet operatives desperately want the documents he is holding, he is drawn into a twilight struggle between intelligence agencies that will challenge his loyalties and test his courage.

Rich with historical detail, Herald Square tells a story of intrigue and deception, of ordinary people propelled into a dangerous, clandestine world where duplicity reigns and any misstep can have dire consequences.

“An inventive and entertaining fictional account of the political stakes, bureaucratic rivalries, and moral ambiguities of the post WWII hunt for communist spies.” — Harvey Klehr, co-author of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America