Joel Ross studied history at Hampshire College and taught English abroad for a short time before writing Double Cross Blind, his first novel. His father served in WWII, along with all five of his uncles, and their stories provided some of the background for the book. Currently, Ross lives in Maine with his wife, Lee.

December 1, 1941

It is seven days before the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Days that are numbered for Sondegger, a Nazi spy captured in London while on a mission to take down the Twenty Committee, a German network of spies the British have turned.

For American Tom Wall, the days have run together as he awakens to find himself locked in a British military asylum. Wounded and shell-shocked, all he knows is that his brother, Earl, betrayed his unit in Crete, causing one of the bloodiest massacres of the war.

MI5 releases Tom by way of a bargain. Pretend to be Earl and convince Sondegger to reveal how and where he has arranged to transmit his intelligence to Germany. Fail, and spend the rest of the war in jail. Succeed, and Tom, though still considered a danger to himself, will be allowed to leave the hospital to find Earl—who may well be a Nazi informant.

But Sondegger proves himself to be a formidable opponent. Even as he surrendered himself to the British, he knew the Japanese fleet had sailed for Pearl Harbor. The question is: Who will gain more if the Allies prevent the attack? Sondegger, MI5, the OSS, Tom, and Earl’s wife, Harriet, all have different answers. Unable to trust anyone, Tom attempts to save the Twenty Committee and stop the attack on Pearl Harbor as the clock counts down.

In his electrifying debut, Joel Ross combines political insights with the high stakes and fast pace of classic espionage fiction, and he delivers what others have not in more than a decade—a Nazi spy novel that you cannot put down.