Before the Brightest Dawn
The Half-Bloods Trilogy, Book 3
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Narrated by:
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Norman Gilligan
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By:
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Jana Petken
About this listen
Jana Petken’s extraordinary historical epic, The German Half-Bloods Trilogy, reaches its sweeping, heart-wrenching conclusion.
In The German Half-Bloods and The Vogels, Jana Petken followed the turbulent lives of an Anglo-German family as they forged their paths through the Second World War. Now, the conflict intensifies in the Soviet States, North Africa, France, and the growing resistance movement in Poland. Will Max, Paul, and Wilmot Vogel survive the most ruthless phase of the war to date?
Max takes a path to momentous events in North Africa where he balances undercover games of espionage in decadent Cairo with dangerous missions behind the German Afrika Korps’ lines. Paul’s loyalty to the Third Reich continues to wane as Germany’s extermination programs in Poland expand, and he is stalked by the new Kriminalinspektor, Manfred Krüger. Can he stay one step ahead of a man who has been ordered to destroy him?
Wilmot faces new challenges in the Afrika Korps, but is he mentally and physically prepared to lead his men into Libya’s fiery desert and against the British 8th Army?
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Best story from the Holocaust I’ve ever read!
- By Chuck812 on 01-10-21
By: Rudolf Vrba, and others
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The Ventriloquists
- A Novel
- By: E. R. Ramzipoor
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 20 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Brussels, 1943. Twelve-year-old street orphan Helene survives by living as a boy and selling copies of the country’s most popular newspaper, Le Soir, now turned into Nazi propaganda. Helene’s entire world changes when she befriends a rogue journalist, Marc Aubrion, who draws her into a secret network that publishes dissident underground newspapers. The Nazis track down Aubrion’s team and give them an impossible choice: Turn the resistance newspapers into a Nazi propaganda bomb that will sway public opinion against the Allies, or be killed.
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Too much love story for me
- By Melissa on 01-04-21
By: E. R. Ramzipoor
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Six Minutes to Freedom
- How a Band of Heroes Defied a Dictator and Helped Free a Nation
- By: Kurt Muse, John Gilstrap
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Six Minutes to Freedom is the remarkable tale of Kurt Muse's arrest and harrowing months of imprisonment; his eyewitness accounts of torture; and the plight of his family as they fled for their lives. It is also the heart-pounding account of the only American civilian ever rescued by the elite Delta Force. Timelier than ever, this is a thrilling and highly personal narrative about one man's courage and dedication to his beliefs.
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excellent book!
- By Andrew Tomlet on 07-05-21
By: Kurt Muse, and others
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In Pharaoh's Army
- Memories of the Lost War
- By: Tobias Wolff
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Whether he is evoking the blind carnage of the Tet offensive, the theatrics of his fellow Americans, or the unraveling of his own illusions, Wolff brings to this work the same uncanny eye for detail, pitiless candor, and mordant wit that made This Boy's Life a modern classic.
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Boring Waste of Time
- By Ethan on 08-21-22
By: Tobias Wolff
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March Violets
- By: Philip Kerr
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Hailed by Salman Rushdie as a "brilliantly innovative thriller-writer", Philip Kerr is the creator of taut, gripping, noir-tinged mysteries set in Nazi-era Berlin that are nothing short of spellbinding. The first book of the Berlin Noir trilogy, March Violets introduces listeners to Bernie Gunther, an ex-policeman who thought he'd seen everything on the streets of 1930s Berlin - until he turned freelance and each case he tackled sucked him further into the grisly excesses of Nazi subculture.
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Brilliant Nazi Era Mystery
- By Constance on 05-04-12
By: Philip Kerr
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Behind Enemy Lines
- The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany
- By: Marthe Cohn, Wendy Holden
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Marthe Cohn was a young Jewish woman living just across the German border in France when Hitler rose to power. Her family sheltered Jews fleeing the Nazis, including Jewish children sent away by their terrified parents. But soon her homeland was also under Nazi rule. As the Nazi occupation escalated, Marthe's sister was arrested and sent to Auschwitz and the rest of her family was forced to flee to the south of France. Always a fighter, Marthe joined the French Army and became a member of the intelligence service of the French First Army.
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Amazing story of a fighter and survivor
- By Magalie Busch on 05-06-19
By: Marthe Cohn, and others
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The Centurions
- By: Jean Larteguy, Robert D. Kaplan - foreward
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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When The Centurions was first published in 1960, readers were riveted by the thrilling account of soldiers fighting for survival in hostile environments. They were equally transfixed by the chilling moral question the novel posed: how to fight when the "age of heroics is over". As relevant today as it was half a century ago, The Centurions is a gripping military adventure, an extended symposium on waging war in a new global order, and an essential investigation of the ethics of counterinsurgency.
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Superbly read. Unbelievably timely
- By Benjamin on 05-05-21
By: Jean Larteguy, and others
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The Grand Dark
- By: Richard Kadrey
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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From the best-selling author of the Sandman Slim series, a lush, dark, stand-alone fantasy built off the insurgent tradition of China Mieville and M. John Harrison - a subversive tale that immerses us in a world where the extremes of bleakness and beauty exist together in dangerous harmony in a city on the edge of civility and chaos. The Great War is over. The city of Lower Proszawa celebrates the peace with a decadence and carefree spirit as intense as the war’s horrifying despair.
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Kadrey does it again!
- By Lilah Quinn on 06-14-19
By: Richard Kadrey
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Killing Zone
- By: Harry McCallion
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Born ‘a ragged-arsed kid from the backstreets of Glasgow’, McCallion joined the Paras to escape a miserable home life and find the family he longed for. After six tense tours in Ulster, McCallion gave up everything to move to South Africa in the hope of qualifying for the highly elite South African Special Forces. Having succeeded in joining the Recces, McCallion was involved in plots to assassinate Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo.
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What a Life
- By J.Brock on 10-01-21
By: Harry McCallion
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Hope and Honor
- By: Sid Shachnow, Jann Robbins
- Narrated by: Brian Emerson
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Major General Sid Shachnow was ten-years-old when he escaped the notorious Kovno concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Lithuania. Later, he traveled to post-war Germany, and he earned a living as a courier for his mother's black market business. His family eventually came to America where he struggled to get an education, held down three jobs, and courted the girl of his dreams, whom he would marry and raise four daughters with.
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riveting
- By Rob on 02-07-08
By: Sid Shachnow, and others
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Armageddon
- A Novel of Berlin
- By: Leon Uris
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat
- Length: 24 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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At the end of World War II, American army officer Captain Sean O’Sullivan is commissioned with rebuilding Berlin. Reeling from the death of his brothers at German hands and faced with the direct horrors of the Holocaust, O’Sullivan struggles against his animosity towards the nation he is helping restore. Meanwhile, Soviet forces blockade Germany in a bid for power, and the Western Allies must unite to prevent a communist takeover. When the airlift begins, the Allies find their deepest convictions tested as they fight against a threat even more dangerous than Hitler.
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Legendary author
- By Robert ONeill on 02-13-19
By: Leon Uris
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Picture in the Sand
- By: Peter Blauner
- Narrated by: Sean Rohani
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Ali Hassan, an Egyptian-American businessman in Brooklyn, reveals a secret past of activism and heartbreak in an attempt to keep his hot-headed teenaged grandson from making the greatest mistake of his life. In a journey that begins amid the high-wattage glamour of the sets of Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments and leads to the deserts of Cairo and beyond, Ali describes how he landed a dream job as DeMille’s personal assistant and then found himself enmeshed in events that changed the course of history.
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Well narrated and worth the read
- By Mustella on 01-21-23
By: Peter Blauner
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Presumed Innocent
- By: Scott Turow
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Rusty Sabich, family man and the number-two prosecutor of Kindle County, is handed an explosive case—the brutal murder of a woman who happens to be his former lover. A shocking turn of events suddenly transforms him from the accuser into the accused... and plunges him into a nightmare world where nothing seems real and no one can be PRESUMED INNOCENT.
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Excellent Book, Gripping Entertainment!
- By Glen on 04-16-10
By: Scott Turow
What listeners say about Before the Brightest Dawn
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Elaine Trewartha
- 08-20-22
How could the Germans do what they did?
This is a question that has obsessed me, and it is tackled in such a heart breaking way in this trilogy. It is a question that can never be fully answered, but the nature of the human heart, the best and the worst of it, is laid bare in the stories of the Vogels. I loved it!
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- barbara kercsmar
- 02-07-21
The trilogy book of the Folgells
I was so enthralled by the story I did not wanted to and it was very sad yet heartwarming and very enlightening as well .
I will probably address it within a year or two again.
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- Todd (Toad) Vogel
- 05-09-20
The BEST historical fiction!
The Half-Bloods Trilogy is by far the best historical fiction I've ever listened to. It takes place during WW2 and isn't just about the war itself, but the human experience of war. It revolves around the Vogel family. The father is German and the mother is English. The loyalty of each family member is questioned because of this and eventually they are on both sides of the war. Although this is fiction, there are many truths in this story, This series will have you experience a wide range of emotions, both good and bad. War is ugly, but there are still beautiful moments in between. I can't recommend this book and this series enough! I will most definitely be checking out more books by Jana Petken! Excellent narration by Norman Gilligan!
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- Gina Harris
- 10-23-21
Fabulous
I loved every minute of the story. what a wonderful portrayal of a family in war time.
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- Korey
- 03-11-21
great!
loved every part. from Starr of book one to the end of book 3. great
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- Stevon
- 09-23-21
Sorry to see it end
What a trilogy, it started a bit slow in book #1 but once it hooked me I thoroughly enjoyed it all. I wish I had a way to spread the word about this epic tale.
If you are a WWII aficionado, you’ll enjoy this trilogy.
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- Terri Driscoll
- 08-16-21
Fabulous ending and series!
This Trilogy is an amazing adventure of the Vogel family. The characters and descriptions are developed so well. if you enjoy WWII fictional history, you will love these books
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Couldn't get better!
It is difficult to say which book is the best. They seem to get just get better!
Fantastic plot, totally believable and relatable characters who struggle with conflicts of ideology, morality, conscience and loyalties.
Absolutely love this trilogy
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- CChummingbird
- 03-27-21
Pretty good story
This is an interesting series but it would have been better if the F__ word hadn't been so liberally used.
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- Bunny
- 02-06-23
Average ending to a good trilogy
Average wrap up of a good series. Petken has a knack for pacing and she’s done a great job with her story of the Vogel family. However the story lacked the kind of depth and emotional pull that could’ve made it a great book. The characters were good, not great, and though no strings were left hanging at the end, so many storylines and characters simply were cut out quickly which left an unfulfilled taste in the mouth. The first two books were much better but overall I’d rate it a good series. One that could’ve been great but was lacking in depth and emotion. I wish the writer rather than giving 50-70% of a story and fleshing out to so many characters would’ve focused on less characters but given us 100% of the fullness sand richness of who they were and their story. Nonetheless it was enjoyable overall.
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