#1 Hannah Vogel mystery set in 1931 Germany. Hannah, a thirty-something independent woman who has resigned herself to life alone after her fiance died in the Great War, is now working as a newspaper reporter (but writing under a man's name.) She is at the police station to get some information for a story from her friend Fritz, but is instead horrified to see a photograph of her younger brother Ernst on the "Hall of the Unnamed Dead," a series of images put up on the wall so that citizens can help the police identify unnamed corpses that are found.
Ernst led a reckless life as a cross-dressing homosexual, singing burlesque in one of Berlin's 'queer clubs' in the days before the Nazis took complete power and shut such things down. Hannah, who cared for the decade-younger Ernst after her parents had both died, is devastated and sets out to find out who killed him and why. Using her guise as a reporter, she numbly goes through several days asking questions of his known friends, co-workers at his club, even following some of them into rather seedy places and even uses her police friend, never letting on to anyone that Ernst is dead. While she had reconciled herself to Ernst's lifestyle and loved him fiercely, what she discovers shocks her to the core, as it involves some very senior level people in the up-and-coming Nazi party.
What an excellent way to start the new year! This is definitely not my favorite time in history, but the author does a great job of putting you in the time and place and describing life from the point of view of an average non-Nazi citizen as they watch the Party slowly take over the country. The story and the mystery were also intriguing, and I found myself really liking Hannah a lot. She seems to be, to me, the 'opposite woman' to Maisie Dobbs, whose story takes place in about the same time over in England. Interesting looking at things from the German viewpoint. Very difficult to put down and definitely looking forward to the next one!
Ernst led a reckless life as a cross-dressing homosexual, singing burlesque in one of Berlin's 'queer clubs' in the days before the Nazis took complete power and shut such things down. Hannah, who cared for the decade-younger Ernst after her parents had both died, is devastated and sets out to find out who killed him and why. Using her guise as a reporter, she numbly goes through several days asking questions of his known friends, co-workers at his club, even following some of them into rather seedy places and even uses her police friend, never letting on to anyone that Ernst is dead. While she had reconciled herself to Ernst's lifestyle and loved him fiercely, what she discovers shocks her to the core, as it involves some very senior level people in the up-and-coming Nazi party.
What an excellent way to start the new year! This is definitely not my favorite time in history, but the author does a great job of putting you in the time and place and describing life from the point of view of an average non-Nazi citizen as they watch the Party slowly take over the country. The story and the mystery were also intriguing, and I found myself really liking Hannah a lot. She seems to be, to me, the 'opposite woman' to Maisie Dobbs, whose story takes place in about the same time over in England. Interesting looking at things from the German viewpoint. Very difficult to put down and definitely looking forward to the next one!
