On Secret Service

John Jakes

Jul 2000 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Michael Kramer

About this audiobook

John Jakes, the author of over 60 books, including the eight-part Kent Family Chronicles, The North and South trilogy, and innumerable short stories of the American West, returns to the Civil War in the engrossing On Secret Service. The story of a war within a war on various levels—the North v. the South, the Union's Pinkerton Detective Agency v. the Confederacy's agent provocateurs, youthful idealism v. youthful lust—On Secret Service chronicles the lives and times of four young Americans, from the war's early tremors in January 1861, through its bloody conclusion, Lincoln's assassination, and John Wilkes Booth's murder in May 1865.

"Jakes combines encyclopedic command of historical fact with unmatched storytelling. Carefully researched and filled with colorful characters who move in an authentic Washington atmosphere."—Booklist

About the author

John Jakes is the bestselling author of Charleston, the Kent Family Chronicles, the North and South trilogy, On Secret Service, California Gold, Homeland, and American Dreams. Descended from a soldier of the Virginia Continental Line who fought in the American Revolution, Jakes is one of today’s most distinguished authors of historical fiction.

Michael Kramer is an actor, director, and narrator. He has recorded more than 100 audiobooks, as well as titles for the Library of Congress Talking Books program. Among the recognition he has garnered for his narration are AudioFile magazine’s Earphones Award and the Torgi Award. Mr. Kramer lives in Washington, DC, where he is active in the area’s theater scene, and has appeared in productions at the Shakespeare Theatre, the Kennedy Center, and Theater J.