This tale takes place in the days before the horror of Kristallnacht, the nights of November 9^th and 10^th 1938 in Berlin (and elsewhere) when after the death of a German diplomat in Paris shot by a young Jewish man, the Nazis went on a furious purge and destroyed Jewish businesses, synagogues and homes and killed almost a hundred people.

The story here deals with Hannah going to Poland initially to write a story for her Zurich newspaper about St. Martin’s festival, but hearing about a flood of German Jewish refugees being herded into Poland she decides to interview the refugees instead. She talks her way into a filthy stable and speaks to a woman in the throes of labor, Miriam Keller, whom she knew in Berlin because she was married to her long-time friend Paul.

Miriam begs her to rescue her daughter Ruth whom she hid in a cupboard in her apartment in Berlin . And that was two days ago.

Hannah promises.

Even though it’s very dangerous, Hannah immediately plans to go back into Berlin where she is known, but she has aliases and the passports to back them up. With her, is her son Anton who is thirteen years old. A very bright young man who is brave and resourceful.

Before she can make her own way back to Germany , she is caught by the SS and injured badly (concussion and broken wrist) and thrown into the trunk of a car. Someone knew her whereabouts and more importantly, the alias she was currently using. But who?

Before they reach Berlin , she is rescued by another more recent ex-lover Lars who had been following her. The two are able to kill the SS agents on a lonely road and make it back in Lars’ truck to Berlin without pursuit. Hannah had at one point (in a previous novel) “married” Lars to get out of bad situation and she still has feelings for him. But he disappeared in Russia and she hadn’t spoken to him in two years. But unbeknownst to her, since his return from Russia , he had been keeping tabs on her. (He has plenty of detective skills as earlier; he had been a kommissar in the German police force).

But Lars and Hannah know there will only be a short delay before the Gestapo figure out what’s happened and who is responsible. I really enjoyed that Lars constantly calls Hannah “Spatz, ” which means sparrow in German. A nice change from “sweetheart.”

The rest of the novel takes place in Berlin with Lars and Hannah and her very intrepid son Anton tracking down leads to discover what happened to little Ruth, who is not in the cupboard when they go to Paul and Miriam’s apartment. Lars and Hannah and Anton not only have to find Ruth but figure out who has been dogging Hannah’s trail, leaving behind nasty notes they discover have been written or typed on government-issued stationary threatening Hannah’s life and those around her. She has been in bad situations before where her assailants had been killed, but she can’t figure out who personally wants her dead.

Cantrell envelopes us in the horribly fragile world of Nazi Berlin where the Jews are being harried in spurts. Though they still can walk the streets, their actions and their lives are severely constricted.

I have to say this is what I appreciated most in this novel: the feeling that the very air is toxic with hate and horror; that the Jews Hannah and Lars come in contact with are hanging by broken fingernails to a life that is being crushed from all sides---even though the subways still run, there are still cafes and food in the markets. But the knowledge hovers there that at any moment a volcano of horror can (and as we know will) erupt; flood Europe and sweep away more than six million souls. I constantly felt as I read this novel that a terrible blow could come at any moment from any angle and smash this delicate tale in god-awful horror (besides the actual event of Kristallnacht).

This was a tightly written, fascinating novel of heroes of all stripes, German and Jews alike dealing with imminent holocaust.

A terrific book.

(And just so you know: Ms. Cantrell has recently partnered with the wonderfully intense thriller author James Rollins in writing two volumes “Blood Gospel” and the just released “Innocent Blood.”) ~~ Sue Martin