Rating: 
Summary: Radio Drama Noir, with a little interference...
Review: I liked Dunning's Cliff Janeway novels, and I liked this one, although I would have preferred another Janeway, given a choice. Still, Dunning's mysteries always rise above the grocery-store paperback level, with more literary aspirations.The book is a WWII-era noir fiction historical mystery with a tie-in to old time radio drama when it wasn't quite yet old time. There are mysterious disappearances, hints of subterfuge and espionage, references to historical atrocities that have been covered-up or ignored, a few surprising scenes that are graphically macabre, and some sexual explicitness that adds nothing to the story. Dunning is a very good writer, with occasional flashes of brilliance, and the book is close enough to a great book that I feel compelled to express my frustration at its foibles. Eastern Wartime has a compelling mystery at its heart, at least it starts out that way. But it seems to get thinned out along the way, only to be resuscitated at the end. Too much sidetracking with the goings-on at a certain radio station, to the point some of the mystery atmosphere lapses for pages at a time. A flaw with all Dunning's characters is that they appear to be emotionally stilted, unable to access their feelings at times, unable to sustain emotion beyond a paragraph or two, at others. Which takes something away from their otherwise human complexity. And many of the characters are painted so vaguely that I couldn't remember who they were or what they were doing there. The "historical" atmosphere is weak, and unlike Caleb Carr's Alienist (with which it is compared on the jacket blurb), I would frequently forget that the story was taking place in another era. Another minor irritation is that Dunning can't resist taking pot-shots at the Bible and at religious faith. I'll line up with the rest who detest religious hypocrisy and duplicity in the name of God, but I resent being proselytized to the secular humanist cause. Again, these little forays add nothing to the book, and only serve to weaken the story line. Still, the mystery kept me guessing, and the sense of comeraderie and creativity was almost palpable in the radio drama scenes, which comprise a large part of the story. A character named Anne Riordan makes a cameo appearance, in a nod to Ray Chandler's Philip Marlowe books, which have clearly influenced Dunning. I'm not sure if 4 stars is too many, or two few. It is, when all is said and done, a very good book. I just hope Dunning can raise the bar a notch or two for his next effort, (hopefully a Cliff Janeway novel), as he's certainly shown he's capable of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Confusing...
Review: I listened to this book on audio and maybe that made it harder to follow than actually reading it, but I was kind of left behind several times. The story takes place mainly in a radio station in 1942, where our main character, Jack Dulaney, is trying to help his love interest, Holly O'Hara/Carnahan, discover what has happened to her father. I guess the main plot was clear, but when the story veered off into Nazis and Irish thugs and the like, I couldn't stay with it. To tell the truth, I didn't really care that much who had killed her father, as he was never a character that was developed enough to make me care. Along with his death are those of Jack's friend, Marty, and another radio employee's husband. Too many people were brought into the story without explanation which made for a pretty blah mystery. I stuck it out until the end, not so much because I cared about the ending, but just to see if I could do it. I suppose this would have more meaning to someone who lived in this time period and could remember the days when radio was the main form of entertainment, but it didn't appeal much to me.
Rating: 
Summary: Superb
Review: I picked up this novel with great anticipation, since it was by the author of the excellent mystery novel, the Bookman's Wake. It is difficult, however, to recognize the John Dunning of the Bookman's Wake in this flabby, overly long mystery interwoven with lengthy and irrelevant passages of melodrama from the early days of radio. Dunning is a keen fan of the early days of radio and the tragic waste of that medium, its utterly wasted promise, is a theme upon which he plays upon at too great length in this novel. Unfortunately, the novel's passages concerning a fictitious New Jersey radio station are a dramatic irrelevance to much of the plot of the mystery, and far worse, the scenes are largely unconvincing, littered with rather cardboardy characters and stilted dialogue. In fact, many of the radio station scenes read very much as though they came straight out of a Hollywood "B" movie of the '30's. Those movies are fun because they are campy, but it is hardly a joy to read a book which is so unintentionally campy. All of which is truly unfortunate, because buried away, very deeply indeed, in this very, very long novel, is a pretty good mystery. With good editing, relegating most of the radio days passages to the background would be an excellent start, the novel would be quite a good mystery. The length, by the way, is not the problem in itself. Many classic mysteries, such as Dorothy L. Sayers's the Nine Tailors, are quite long, but the length is integral to telling a story. Here, it is quite wasted.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Mystery Lost in a Flabby Radio Days Melodrama
Review: I picked up this novel with great anticipation, since it was by the author of the excellent mystery novel, the Bookman's Wake. It is difficult, however, to recognize the John Dunning of the Bookman's Wake in this flabby, overly long mystery interwoven with lengthy and irrelevant passages of melodrama from the early days of radio. Dunning is a keen fan of the early days of radio and the tragic waste of that medium, its utterly wasted promise, is a theme upon which he plays upon at too great length in this novel. Unfortunately, the novel's passages concerning a fictitious New Jersey radio station are a dramatic irrelevance to much of the plot of the mystery, and far worse, the scenes are largely unconvincing, littered with rather cardboardy characters and stilted dialogue. In fact, many of the radio station scenes read very much as though they came straight out of a Hollywood "B" movie of the '30's. Those movies are fun because they are campy, but it is hardly a joy to read a book which is so unintentionally campy. All of which is truly unfortunate, because buried away, very deeply indeed, in this very, very long novel, is a pretty good mystery. With good editing, relegating most of the radio days passages to the background would be an excellent start, the novel would be quite a good mystery. The length, by the way, is not the problem in itself. Many classic mysteries, such as Dorothy L. Sayers's the Nine Tailors, are quite long, but the length is integral to telling a story. Here, it is quite wasted.
Rating:
Summary: Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime
Review: I thought this a classic story. If I was an Eng. Lit. Prof (instead of a Biol. Prof), I would make this book required reading, and my students would delight as they moved through it. A wonderful story evoking the power of early radio, precisely two years before I was born. But I remember radio (in the UK) just before TV and then the DJ's took it over. This is a wonderful book. I hope John Dunning does another one. I can't believe I found it in paperback in a supermarket, and I bought it just because I had read everything else on the shelf (worth reading). That was two years ago and I have read it three times so far. I have no doubt I will chose to read it again in the future.
Rating:
Summary: a film noire book about radio
Review: I will be amazed if someone doesn't make a movie out of this book, especially given the renewed interest in World War II. It's almost impossible to read and not see the scenes come to life before you - usually in black and white with Bogey as Jack and Bacall as Holly. Both the mystery of why people at radio station WHAR keep disappearing and the story of the station itself are enough to keep one up turning pages way past midnight. The one major drawback is that this is a tale of 1940s America written with a little too much late 20th century sensitivity. These average Joes in summer 1942 seem to know way too much about what's going on in Nazi concentration camps and are extremely liberal in their views of race relations and gender equality. While noble, it distracts from the seemingly realistic portrayal of the Golden Age of Radio.
Rating:
Summary: Good...but
Review: I would describe this book as merely good. Better than much of the mystery fare out there today but not up to the standards of the Cliff Janeway novels. I am a fan of old time radio and the aspects of this book that dealt with radio as it was ( or perhaps as it should be) I found fascinating.Take away the radio aspects and you are left with 50 page mystery with none of the twists and turns of " Booked to Die" or " The Bookman's Wake". There were so many perifery characters that it was hard to keep track of them all at times. I found myself going back to read sections of the book to find out who some of the people were.Maybe if I had read it all in one sitting it would have made a difference, but I read it over a few days. The ending was not nearly as tight as the Janeway books. In previous Dunning books the villains were important characters.I found I didn't care that the villain turned out to be ______ .This next line is somewhat of a spoiler, but of all the interesting characters in the book it seems a shame that the villain turned out to be who it was.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant storytelling
Review: In 1942 Southern California, writer Jack Dulaney loves the untouchable Holly Carnahan. Jack struggles with producing a second novel, earning money by walking horses at the track. When Holly flees to Regina Beach, New Jersey in search of her missing dad, Jack follows out of concern for his beloved's safety. In the Jersey south shore community, Jack lands a job as a writer at radio station WHAR. He soon realizes that he is quite good at cranking out well-written radio dramas. Perhaps it is because of his writing skills that allow Jack to notice the strange behavior on the part of WHAR employees. He finds sudden disappearances as mysterious as the disappearance of Holly's dad and certain links to the Nazis. Jack worries that Holly is in danger while she is concerned that her actions brought danger to him. TWO O'CLOCK, EASTERN WARTIME is a fabulous historical fiction novel that vividly brings to life a small East Coast community during World War II. The historical perspective, especially that of the powerful role of radio as a forerunner of television, is brilliantly depicted. The mystery stays subtlety in the shadows, truly enhancing John Dunning's homage to the communication role radio played during wartime. Fans of World War II dramas will find Mr. Dunning's novel endearing for its resplendent account of a bygone era. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Haunting, readable, gripping... flawed...
Review: It drew me in and became my world for a few days. I really enjoyed it. Like many adventure novels (those of Hammond Innes and Nevil Shute come to mind), I loved it for its evocation of time and place. It is, frankly, hard for me to imagine a time when radio drama had any real weight or importance. Lately, I've been listening to old-time-radio recordings during my commute--just finished a thirty-CD collection of Dimension X and X-Minus-One science-fiction shows, preceded by a 10-CD collection of detective shows, and, you know, mostly they're junk. The best of them barely reach the level of , say, _Star Trek_ or _Columbo_. Even _The War of the Worlds_ is lightweight. But I can remember the days of _Playhouse 90_ on television and I suppose there must have been a time when radio at its best was in the same league. For me, then, the narrative drive of this book was not the silly, complicated, and unbelievable mystery novel, but the excitement of being at a radio station where important things are happening and the cast, crew, and management know it. I won't dwell too much on the flaws... except to say that I never found it believable when Hamlet rigs a play for the specific purpose of tricking a criminal into revealing his guilt... and I don't find it plausible when the tragic hero of this novel does the same thing.
Rating:
Summary: Audio verson suffers from abridgement
Review: Much of the time, the audio version of this book held me it its thrall. The reader is excellent at setting tone and creating character. But the story is abridged far to much for the mystery and its solution to make any sense, coming entirely out of left field and leaving the listener feeling cheated. This is one book that I would want to actually read cover to cover rather than listen to all chopped up. The audiobook promises more than it can deliver.
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