The Jake Lynne Books

The almost true story of the fight against enemy threats in North America 1914-1918.

THE OPERATIVE NO. 68 SERIES

It is a fact that, in 1914, a private detective we know only as Operative No. 68 was
assigned the task of hunting down German agents bent on attacking the U.S. and Canada
- from within the U.S. and Canada!
Didn't know about that? Not surprised: even today, very few know about it.
It was, however, very real and very deadly.
How deadly? The Germans spent $115,000,000 1915 dollars on their schemes,
at a time when a battleship only cost $7,000,000.
And, Operative No. 68 was in the thick of it.
We invite you to enter the Great War's underworld of spies, danger, bombs, murder and, yes, romance.

(Click on the graphics below and enter the password you've been given via email)

Operative No. 68
Fall 1914.
The assignment was simple:
find out who was plotting to
destroy the country he was born in.
Stop them if he can. Kill them if he has to.
 Don't let them succeed, no matter what.
Above all, prevent the country he lives in
from being dragged into a world war!
Long-listed for the 2025 Crime Writers of Canada
Best Unpublished Novel Prize.
The Saengerfest Invasion
Winter 1915.
Harry Devon has found a quiet place to
live out his life – but they won’t let him do it!
Thrown back into the intrigue,
he faces old adversaries to
save a nation from invasion
– and stop the spread of a world war
across the continent!


The Hamburg-Amerika Plot
Autumn 1915.
Harry Devon has lost his health, his peace,
even the woman he loves. He has vowed
never to enter the fray again but,
once more, he is pulled into the deadly, hidden fight
for mastery of the world.
Every corner reveals the threat of war
– in a country that thinks it’s at peace.


The Boy-Ed Deception
Winter 1916.
Harry Devon is pulled back into the world of intrigue, treachery,
and death when he is tasked with finding
who is sending secret messages directed toward ships at sea.
The chase leads him into the highest levels of
government in Washington
– and the lowest flesh-pots of the cities. 
Wherever he goes, he finds treachery
– and death.
The Kingsland Konspiracy
Summer 1916.
Harry Devon is once again sent in to
find the plotters and saboteurs whose
plans have spread destruction into
the very heart of New York City.
His orders: hunt them down before
they can hatch another murderous plot
and, if he must, kill them
– before they kill thousands.
The Yankee Whiskey Ruse
Winter, 1917.
Harry Devon finds himself alone, without
friends, on America’s West Coast.  He’s
fighting a new enemy, one that doesn’t seem
to be one that should be fought.  Just when
the private war he has been fighting alone
erupts for real, his world is pulled out from
under him and he has to put it back together. 
The Chilkoot Reckoning
Summer 1917.
Harry Devon is shipped back to the country
that gave him birth. He must again find new/old enemies – in what has become a strange land.  Looking for enemies, he no longer knows which remain enemies, which have become friends. -- and which have passed beyond either.
 A cross-continental chase for his own truth.
The Kaiser Solution
Spring 1918.
Harry Devon faces his old enemies – in a new way.
He is now in uniform, in France,
the very spear-point of the Allied armies.
His job: find the Kaiser.
If he finds him, he could put an end to the war. 
Or die. Most likely, die.

THE HARRY DEVON SERIES
The life of Harry Devon from 1897 to 1914

Even secret agents were young once.
Here is the story of how Harry Devon became . . . Harry Devon, Operative No. 68

From a childhood in the Yukon Gold Rush to the dangerous streets of New York's Lower East Side;
from the hell of Sing Sing prison to the violence of the Mexican Revolution.

The Bright Light Illusion
Fall 1897.
Harry Devon is 10 years old when his father takes
the family to the Far North to search for riches in
the madness that was the Klondike Gold Rush.
Young Harry grows quickly, as fast as the Yukon
summer fades, and finds himself facing danger,
pain, loss, snow, ice, beasts and MEN, in a battle
for love, sanity and, finally, life itself.
The Mano  Nera Specter
Spring, 1904
Harry Devon, forced to become a man before his time,
struggles to survive on the streets of New York. 
With no anchor to hold him, he is swept
into a world of crime, passion, gangsters – and murder.
He fights for his life in a heartless world, then faces a
new and ruthless enemy that cannot be fought
– the Black Hand.
The Bullpen Immurement
Fall, 1908.
Harry Devon, pulled from happiness with a
loving woman in Yonkers, is now faced with
his own death in the electric chair.  Can he
find a way to thwart the remorseless hand of
justice?  Can he find the strength and
courage to face the torture of life in The Big House?
Can he ever again hope for the happiness
he thought he had achieved?
The Madero Involvement
Summer, 1912.
Harry Devon, freed from prison and seeking
a new life, is pulled into the intrigues and
violence of the Mexican Revolution.  It
becomes a battle for sheer survival for Harry
and those he has come to love. He fights
rebels, a government, bandits, and his own
heart as he helps to build a country –
or maybe, to tear it apart.