The Bottom Line: Voted the Year’s Best Historical Thriller in the 2025 BestThrillers.com Book Awards.
Midnight Burning fuses authentic history with exhilarating storytelling. Its seamless mix of fact and fiction feels both inventive and uncannily real, creating a narrative that surprises even as it rings true.
The result is a bold, original thriller about a slice of American history that has largely been forgotten.
Levine plunges readers into 1937, a moment when America stands at a crossroads as war looms in Europe and fascist movements gain traction at home.
The story follows the unlikely but inspired pairing of Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin, real-life friends who stumble onto a plot by American Nazi sympathizers to assassinate major Hollywood figures and ignite a violent uprising.
With the FBI distracted by its pursuit of suspected communists, the two icons take matters into their own hands.
They are joined by Georgia Ann Robinson, the LAPD’s first Black female officer, whose resolve and bravery anchor the mission.
Their investigation leads to a clandestine encampment in the San Gabriel Mountains, where a heavily armed militia prepares for a catastrophic strike.
What follows is a tense pursuit filled with sharp banter, razor edged wit and a final confrontation that tests every ounce of their intellect and courage.
