NO. 2 OF 4


NO. 1 OF 4

A Trace of Smoke

by Rebecca Cantrell

Published 12 May 2009

Even though hardened crime reporter Hannah Vogel knows all too well how tough it is to survive in 1931 Berlin, she is devastated when she sees a photograph of her brother's body posted in the Hall of the Unnamed Dead. Ernst, a cross-dressing lounge singer at a seedy nightclub, had many secrets, a never-ending list of lovers, and plenty of opportunities to get into trouble.

Hannah delves into the city's dark underbelly to flush out his murderer, but the late night arrival of a five-year-old orphan on her doorstep complicates matters. The endearing Anton claims that Hannah is his mother... and that her dead brother Ernst is his father.

As her investigations into Ernst's murder and Anton's parentage uncover political intrigue and sex scandals in the top ranks of the rising Nazi party, Hannah fears not only for her own life, but for that of a small boy who has come to call her "mother."


NO. 3 OF 4

A Game of Lies

by Rebecca Cantrell

Published 5 July 2011
Set in 1936, Cantrell's well-paced third mystery featuring German crime reporter Hannah Vogel (after 2010's disappointing A Night of Long Knives) returns to the high level of her debut, 2009's A Trace of Smoke. Sought by the Gestapo for kidnapping the son of a high-ranking Nazi official, Vogel has assumed the alias of Adelheid Zinsli, a Swiss reporter, to cover the Olympic Games while spying for the British. Vogel arranges to meet with her old mentor, Peter Weill, at the Berlin Olympic Stadium, but right after Weill tells her that he needs to get some information out of the country, he keels over. While the death appears to be the result of a heart attack, Vogel believes that poison was responsible. Her search for the truth, aided by an SS officer of uncertain trustworthiness, leads her to a deadly secret. While not in Philip Kerr's league, Cantrell does a fine job evoking the period.

NO. 4 OF 4