Hannah Vogel Series by Rebecca Cantrell

***Winner of the Macavity and Bruce Alexander Award!*** It’s 1931 in Berlin, and the world is on the precipice of change—the affluent still dance in their gilded cages but more and more people are living under threat and poverty. Hannah Vogel is a crime reporter forced to write under the male pseudonym Peter Weill. As a widow of the Great War, she’s used to doing what she must to survive... more***Winner of the Macavity and Bruce Alexander Award!*** It’s 1931 in Berlin, and the world is on the precipice of change—the affluent still dance in their gilded cages but more and more people are living under threat and poverty. Hannah Vogel is a crime reporter forced to write under the male pseudonym Peter Weill. As a widow of the Great War, she’s used to doing what she must to survive. Her careful facade is threatened when she stumbles across a photograph of her brother in the Hall of the Unnamed Dead. Reluctant to make a formal identification until she has all the details, Hannah decides to investigate, herself. She must be cautious as Ernst’s life as a cross-dressing cabaret star was ringed in scandal, and his list of lovers included at least one powerful leader in the Nazi party. She’s barely had a chance to begin before an endearing five-year-old orphan shows up on her doorstep holding a birth certificate listing her dead brother Ernst as his father, and calling Hannah ‘Mother.’ Further complicating matters are her evolving feelings for Boris Krause, a powerful banker whose world is the antithesis of Hannah’s. Boris has built a solid wall preventing anyone from disturbing his, or his daughter Trudi’s, perfectly managed lives—a wall Hannah and Anton are slowly breaking down. As Hannah digs, she discovers political intrigues and scandals touching the top ranks of the rising Nazi party. Fired from her job and on the run from Hitler’s troops, she must protect herself and the little boy who has come to love her, but can she afford to find love for herself? Praise for the novel: "Bold narrator and chilling historical setting...an unusually vivid context, [lets] Hannah report on the decadence of her world without losing her life –or her mind."-- New York Times "Nails both the 'life is a cabaret' atmosphere and the desperation floating inside the champagne bubbles." – Booklist "Evocative and hauntingly crafted...a treasure of suspense, romance, and murder. Her ability to spin history into a visceral reality is done with the artistry of a master storyteller."-- James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of The Seventh Plague "A compelling and human story that captures brilliantly the atmosphere of Berlin during the rise of the Nazis."--Anne Perry, New York Times bestselling author of We Shall Not Sleep less

Berlin. 1936. Just for the duration of the games, the Nazis are pretending that Berlin is not the oppressive city they have made it. They have taken down anti-Semitic posters, re-opened gay bars, and stopped beating up their citizens in public. But it’s a thin veneer of tolerance. Hannah travels to this Berlin to write a story on the games and smuggle out secret documents... moreBerlin. 1936. Just for the duration of the games, the Nazis are pretending that Berlin is not the oppressive city they have made it. They have taken down anti-Semitic posters, re-opened gay bars, and stopped beating up their citizens in public. But it’s a thin veneer of tolerance. Hannah travels to this Berlin to write a story on the games and smuggle out secret documents. At the stadium, soon after she is reunited with the famous reporter Peter Weill, her mentor and ersatz father, he dies in her arms. The next day his beloved sister is found dead too. When the Nazis cover up both murders, Hannah determines to reveal the story they died for. But Hannah’s previous allies are unstable. Her spy partner is a drunk whose behavior threatens both their lives, her German friends are beginning to buy into the Nazi propaganda they’ve been force fed for years, and her German-Jewish friends are turning inward in the ghetto. How can she find the answers she seeks without falling prey to the game of lies? Reviews: “Set during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, this chillingly realistic novel (the third in a series) stars the alluring and brave Hannah Vogel. Posing as a reporter named Adelheid Zinsli and as the lover of her co-conspirator, SS officer Lars Lang, Hannah is working as a spy for the British doing what she can to expose the Nazis’ heinous plans. When her mentor Peter Weill, another anti-Nazi, dies in her arms at the Olympic Stadium, Hannah must solve his murder and find the package he wanted her to smuggle into Switzerland. There’s so much to love about this novel: the setting, the characters, the sexual tension between Hannah and Lars, the political and personal betrayals and the Nazis’ dastardly attempts to cover up their true intentions regarding Europe’s Jews.” — USA Today “A Game of Lies is magnetic and seductive.” — examiner.com “The third entry in Cantrell’s award-winning historical series (A Trace of Smoke; A Night of Long Knives) is a fast-paced, action-packed tale set in Berlin during the 1936 Olympic Games…Cantrell’s meticulous research and her vivid characters and strong plot—based on real people and actual events—will have special appeal to fans of historical fiction related to World War II Germany.— Library Journal less

In 1938, after four years in hiding in Switzerland, journalist Hannah Vogel believes the coast is clear and takes the opportunity for a holiday with her 13-year-old son Anton. Traveling again under the name of Adelheid Zinsli, they arrive in Poland to cover the St. Martin festival, only to learn of the deportation of 12,000 Polish Jews from Germany. Hannah drops everything to get the story on the refugees, soon discovering that the wife of a friend of among them... moreIn 1938, after four years in hiding in Switzerland, journalist Hannah Vogel believes the coast is clear and takes the opportunity for a holiday with her 13-year-old son Anton. Traveling again under the name of Adelheid Zinsli, they arrive in Poland to cover the St. Martin festival, only to learn of the deportation of 12,000 Polish Jews from Germany. Hannah drops everything to get the story on the refugees, soon discovering that the wife of a friend of among them. Running headlong into danger, she agrees to help find the woman’s missing daughter—a promise which leads her straight into the arms of the SS, as well as those of Lars Lang, the lover she had presumed dead two years before. Injured, she and Anton are trapped in Berlin with Lars days before Kristallnacht—the Night of Broken Glass— where she is torn between ensuring their escape, and keeping her promise. But she can't turn her back on this one little girl, even if it plunges her and her family into danger. Praise for A City of Broken Glass: “In this fourth novel in a superbly written historical mystery series, Rebecca Cantrell once again tells a fast-paced story about the indomitable Hannah Vogel, a journalist, mother and fervent anti-Nazi Berliner…Set against the haunting backdrop of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, the novel holds many surprises for Vogel, who becomes trapped in Berlin with Anton and a former lover. Cantrell drops you into 1930s Berlin, and the fear and chaos swirl around you.” — USA Today “Cantrell’s fourth historical featuring journalist Hannah Vogel (after A Game of Lies) is compulsively readable. A palpable sense of dread builds, as we know that Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom of November 1938, is imminent. This award-winning series succeeds at weaving a very personal story into a well-researched historical survey. In an increasingly crowded genre period, Cantrell’s series stands tall.” — Library Journal (starred) “With compelling characters and a narrative which makes it hard to put down, A City of Broken Glass combines romantic thriller with historical tragedy.” — Historical Novel Society “The opening of Cantrell’s gripping fourth novel featuring journalist Hannah Vogel (after 2011’s A Game of Lies) finds Vogel and her 13-yearold son, Anton, in 1938 Poland…Cantrell poignantly conveys the plight of Nazi Germany’s Jews through the story of one child.” — Publishers Weekly less