I really enjoyed the first three novels in the Isaac Bell series, especially The Wrecker, however, the last two have fallen somewhat short. In this outing, Bell is on the trail of a German ex-army officer nicknamed The Akrobat. Bell first encounters him on board The Mauretania while returning from Europe. The Akrobat is in the process of trying to kidnap two scientists and their new invention. But what is the invention and why is it so important to the Germans? This novel takes place sometime between 1910 and 1912 based on mentioning The Titanic which has not yet sailed. The action moves from the ship at sea to Hollywood where it turns out the new invention is a machine to produce Talkie Pictures. The Germans are interested in this for the propaganda purposes it could be used for in trying to get other countries on their side prior to WWI. For me, this just wasn't a very good pretext for the plot of the story. Although there was a lot of action, somehow, this one just didn't measure up to the earlier books in the series. Hopefully, the next in the series will be better.