Hannah Vogel has been living in Switzerland with her adopted son Anton and her lover Boris, occasionally working as a reporter for a Swiss newspaper under the name of Adelheid Zinsli. She has also been acting as a courier, transporting documents out of Germany for quisling SS Officer Lars Lang.
This time, though, Adelheid has been asked to remain in Berlin for the entire two weeks of the Olympics, which could prove to be difficult as many of the local press would certainly recognize Hannah.
At the opening ceremonies, Hannah slips away to meet her mentor, Peter Weill, but moments after they greet each other, he dies. She suspects he's been poisoned, but how to prove it?
Rebecca Cantrell won the Bruce Alexander Memorial and the Sue Feder Memorial(Macavity) historical mystery awards in 2010 for the first book in the series, A Trace of Smoke. Fluent in German, she went to high school and university in Germany, and it is obvious that she has done deep and careful research about life in Nazi Germany.
Cantrell writes from Hannah's point of view in the first person, describing Hannah's experiences so vividly that the reader can almost identify with her completely. The "almost" is a result of the many instances when the reader wants to caution her against something she's decided upon, but of course this is what makes the narrative into a story.
The book concludes with a glossary and historical notes.
*FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the author, who sent me a copy of the book for review purposes.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you so much for dropping by and reading my blog. I do read all comments, and try to respond.