Beat the Devils Audiobook

An inventive, page-turning crime thriller set in an alternate United States during the height of the Red Scare—with shocking parallels to America in the 2020s.

USA, 1958. President Joseph McCarthy sits in the White House, elected on a wave of populist xenophobia and barely‑concealed anti‑Semitism. The country is in the firm grip of McCarthy's Hueys, a secret police force evolved from the House of Unamerican Activities Committee. Hollywood's sparkling vision of the American dream has been suppressed; its remaining talents forced to turn out endless anti‑communist propaganda.

LAPD detective Morris Baker—a Holocaust survivor who drowns his fractured memories of the unspeakable in schnapps and work—is called to the scene of a horrific double‑homicide. The victims are John Huston, a once‑promising but now forgotten film director, and an up‑and‑coming young journalist named Walter Cronkite. Clutched in the hand of one of the dead men is a cryptic note containing the phrase “beat the devils” followed by a single name: Baker. Did the two men die in a murder‑suicide, as the Hueys are quick to conclude, or were they murdered in a coverup designed to protect—or even set in motion—a secret plot connected to Baker's past?

In a country where terror grows stronger by the day, and paranoia rises unchecked, Baker is determined to find justice for two men who raised their voices in a time when free speech comes at the ultimate cost. In the course of his investigation, Baker stumbles into a conspiracy that reaches deep into the halls of power and uncover a secret that could destroy the City of Angels—and the American ideal itself.

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“The production would be a challenge for any narrator, but Fred Berman handles it beautifully. He performs a range of accents without missing a beat…Not one minor character is given short shrift…Berman’s narration perfectly renders the tone of this riveting—and scary—story. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”

— AudioFile