A satisfying, engaging sequel helmed by an increasingly formidable female lead.
Gertcher’s super sleuths are recruited by a French intelligence agency to direct their considerable investigatory skills toward espionage.
It is November 1929, and high-spirited Caroline Case Jones and her unflappable husband, Hannibal, are luxuriating in their rented Parisian town house, shopping the designer showrooms, exploring fine-art collections, and working with Capitaine Inspecteur Soucet from the Sections de recherche de la Gendarmerie Nationale (an investigation unit) to solve a murder or two. But the political waters are churning in postwar Europe. Mussolini is in power in Italy; Hitler, although still a minor player, has begun amassing an increasingly dangerous following and has scored a total of 107 seats (up from 12) for his Nazi Party in the Weimar Parliament. The worried French want to place secret agents in Germany. Caroline and Hannibal begin an intensive course in espionage training; their cover story will be that they are rich American art collectors. On their first day of instruction, they investigate the death of a recent recruit whose body has just been discovered on the grounds of the training facility. But solving this mystery is tame compared to the dangers that lie ahead as Caroline and Hannibal navigate the subsequent four years, first in Germany and later in Italy. In this fourth volume of Caroline’s diaries, the world grows ever darker. In Berlin, the duo precariously socialize with higher-ups in the Nazi Party, gleaning ominous tidbits from conversations and rubbing elbows with Josef Goebbels and Herman Göring. Although Caroline maintains her usual frothy banter describing her daily fashion ensembles, food choices, and luxe accommodations, her diary naturally has a more somber tone than previous volumes. Gertcher, a meticulous writer who provides rich historical details, this time animates the rising political machinations and violence roiling the Continent in the first half of the 1930s. And his steady supply of dramatic action scenes and intriguing subplots propels the narrative to its final surprise.
A satisfying, engaging sequel helmed by an increasingly formidable female lead.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73514-597-6
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Wind Grass Hill
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make for a darkly enjoyable read.
A woman’s life takes a stunning turn and a wall comes tumbling down in this tense Cold War spy drama.
In Berlin in 1989, the wall is about to crumble, and Anne Simpson’s husband, Stefan Koehler, goes missing. She is a translator working with refugees from the communist bloc, and he is a piano tuner who travels around Europe with orchestras. Or so he claims. German intelligence service the BND and America’s CIA bring her in for questioning, wrongly thinking she’s protecting him. Soon she begins to learn more about Stefan, whom she had met in the Netherlands a few years ago. She realizes he’s a “gregarious musician with easy charm who collected friends like a beachcomber collects shells, keeping a few, discarding most.” Police find his wallet in a canal and his prized zither in nearby bushes but not his body. Has he been murdered? What’s going on? And why does the BND care? If Stefan is alive, he’s in deep trouble, because he’s believed to be working for the Stasi. She’s told “the dead have a way of showing up. It is only the living who hide.” And she’s quite believable when she wonders, “Can you grieve for someone who betrayed you?” Smart and observant, she notes that the reaction by one of her interrogators is “as false as his toupee. Obvious, uncalled for, and easily put on.” Lurking behind the scenes is the Matchmaker, who specializes in finding women—“American. Divorced. Unhappy,” and possibly having access to Western secrets—who will fall for one of his Romeos. Anne is the perfect fit. “The matchmaker turned love into tradecraft,” a CIA agent tells her. But espionage is an amoral business where duty trumps decency, and “deploring the morality of spies is like deploring violence in boxers.” It’s a sentiment John le Carré would have endorsed, but Anne may have the final word.
Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make for a darkly enjoyable read.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64313-865-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pegasus Crime
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
The pre–World War II ambiance provides an apt setting for some ingenious murders in a case worthy of the clever sleuth.
An aristocratic young mother proves a dab hand at solving murders in 1937.
Lady Georgiana O’Mara is a cousin to both the new King George VI and the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated to marry the rapacious Mrs. Simpson. She’s married to the Honorable Darcy O’Mara, heir to an Irish title, but they don’t have much money even though Darcy works for the government in a hush-hush position. Luckily, she’s the heir to her well-off godfather, who’s letting Georgie, Darcy, and their son, James, live in his home. Everything is going well until Georgie’s bossy sister-in-law, Fig, Duchess of Rannoch, sends a much-too-proper nanny to take care of James, and announces that she intends to visit herself to make sure things run as she insists they should. Thoroughly intimidated, Georgie unhappily puts up with her unwanted visitors. Darcy encourages Georgie to go to London to visit her friend Zou Zou, a Polish princess who might help her find a nanny more to her liking. When Georgie arrives at her friend’s house, Zou Zou is rushing off to a funeral for a young man who died in a tragic accident, but Georgie soon runs into another friend, Belinda, who’s just returned from Paris. Another young man has just died in an apparent accident, but there’s something that doesn’t sit well with Georgie about the deaths. The death of a third young man sets the alarm bells ringing, and a fourth death sends sirens blaring, urging Georgie to look for connections among the deceased. They were all Darcy’s age and all set to inherit estates. Why were they targeted for death?
The pre–World War II ambiance provides an apt setting for some ingenious murders in a case worthy of the clever sleuth.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641392
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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BOOK REVIEW
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