They would share cigars with Churchill, interview Hitler and Mussolini, plunge into crises, and report the tumultuous events leading up to and during WWII. Deborah Cohen masterfully portrays the complicated lives of American reporters John Gunther, H. R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompson as they ventured to Europe to confront the rise of fascism. They warned of the spiral from democracy to dictatorship with a novel kind of journalism that imposed drama on their personal lives, capturing the interest of millions who read their columns and listened to their broadcasts. Following suit, this large, extraordinarily researched biography reads like a fast-paced novel that's unsparing when recounting the correspondents' promiscuity and marital woes, and unrelenting in reiterating the cynical realities of the war-ravaged world. Both absolutely riveting and devastating, Last Call at the Hotel Imperial offers a truly unfiltered look into the lives of four "reporters who took on a world at war."