Jack 1939

It's the spring of 1939, and the prospect of war in Europe looms large. The United States has no intelligence service. In Washington, D.C., President Franklin Roosevelt may run for an unprecedented third term and needs someone he can trust on the ground in Nazi terrain. His choice; John F Kennedy, the attractive but unpromising twenty-two-year-old second son of Roosevelt's ambassador to Britain. When Jack decides to travel through Europe to gather research for his thesis, Roosevelt takes the opportunity to use him as his personal spy. Hoping to stop the flow of German money that has been flooding the United States to buy the 1940 election—an election that Adolf Hitler intends Roosevelt to lose.

In a deft mosaic of fact and fiction, Francine Mathews has written a gripping espionage tale that explores what might have happened when a young Jack Kennedy is let loose in Europe as the world careens toward war.

'The pace is so propulsive that you'll read every word . . . Mathews's ability to weave fact into her tale is nothing short of remarkable . . .There are precious few entertainments this captivating.' The Washington Post

'A brisk thriller that defies the odds . . . It's no small feat to take a historic figure who looms as large in real life as John. F. Kennedy, place him in an improbable fantasy, and not strain credulity. But in this case, Mathews has accomplished her mission.' USA Today

'Deliciously inventive.' MORE magazine