The Prisoner of Amsterdam

In mid-1939, tired of the runaround the traditional news corps covering the rumblings of possible war in Europe gets, Mr. Powers, the editor of the New York Globe, assigns one of his crime reporters, Johnny Jones, to be his "foreign correspondent" in London in the hopes that Johnny may be able to get some real answers and despite the troubles Johnny has gotten himself into in the way he collects the news. To be taken more seriously among the diplomats and politicians Johnny is to cover in discovering their thoughts of if war is imminent, Powers also gives him the pen name Huntley Haverstock. Among those Johnny does meet are Stephen Fisher, the leader of England's Universal Peace Party, and Dutch diplomat Van Meer, both who are considered the leading figures in the peace movement. Van Meer is helping draft a treaty for peace, with clauses unknown except to the inner circle regarding the actions of traitors. Someone else Johnny meets in the process is Fisher's American-British daughter, Carol Fisher, who is also doing her part in the peace movement. While Johnny falls in love at first sight, Carol teeters on that fine line of hate and love for Johnny, ultimately falling on the side of love. In the course of doing his work, Johnny discovers that someone of importance within the scheme of war and peace has been kidnapped, with the situation made so that no one would realize that a kidnapping has actually happened. Being the only person outside of the those involved in the plot knowing this information, Johnny not only has to cover the story but in ways he becomes not only enmeshed in but becomes the center of the story. He must figure out who he can and cannot trust, and how much he is willing to report which takes into account keeping Carol safe, as his life and those around him are in jeopardy the closer he gets to the truth.