Book Log 2014 #20: Dark Invasion by Howard Blum

It's 1915, and Germany is looking to keep the officially neutral United States from trading with the UK and France, but can't do so openly for fear of pushing American into the war. Thus begins what might be the first modern use of state-sponsored terrorism, as the Germans use their own agents, and Germans located in the US (either as immigrants or sailors stuck in US ports) to strike at US shipping, horses, and other potential materiel of war.

To fight this, the US only has a unit of the New York PD, built off its bomb squad, to track down and stop the saboteurs, combining police tactics with a brand of counterespionage that they learn on the fly. It was surprising how much success Germany had given the ragtag (and often unstable) cast of characters they had carrying out attacks, though it does demonstrate that proper planning and attention to tradecraft can overcome other obstacles. And given the security state we live in now, it was interesting to see the way a group of determined but decided amateurs developed tactics to combat the growing threat.

This isn't a corner of World War I we've often seen, and this is a suspenseful and well-paced accounting. I only wish that the book didn't come to a sudden stop once the US entered the war. The book could really use an epilogue, if just to give some closure to the spy ring and the eventual fates of the individuals involved.