City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense

A cultured city scarred by war.

An eastern emigre with scars and secrets of

her own. A young woman who claims to

be a Russian grand duchess. A brazen killer,

as vicious as he is clever. A detective

driven by decency and the desire for justice.

A political movement growing in power. . . .

Deeply atmospheric, peopled with rich, complex characters, City of Shadows is an enthralling novel of historical suspense set in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s — a decadent, turbulent time in which a proud nation scarred by defeat, deprivation, and debauchery will become the fertile breeding ground for the rise of National Socialism.

Berlin, 1922 — one of this troubled city's growing number of refugees, Esther Solomonova survives by working as secretary to her fellow Russian emigre, PrinceNick, a scheming adventurer and cabaret owner. Always on the prowl for a deal, Nick smells money when he hears of a woman in an asylum claiming to be a grand duchess, daughter of the Czar of all the Russias, who escaped the assassination of the rest of her family by the Bolsheviks. Enlisting a highly suspicious Esther, Nick plans to prepare the woman — known as Anna Anderson — to claim the Romanov fortune.

But Anna is being hunted. Or so she claims. At first Esther believes Anna's fear to be just in her imagination — until innocent people around them begin to die. So in a Berlin stricken by hyperinflation, Esther enlists the help of a German police officer — a dogged inspector named Schmidt — to try and find out who wants Anna dead — and why. Yet the deeper she and Schmidt dig, the more they realize that their own lives are at risk.

In turbulent Berlin of the 1920s and 1930s, Nick, a scheming cabaret owner, attempts to pass off a woman in a local asylum as the Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of the murdered Russian czar, in order to claim the Romanov fortune.

A cultured city scarred by war. . . . An eastern émigré with scars and secrets of her own. . . . A young woman claiming to be a Russian grand duchess. . . . A brazen killer, as vicious as he is clever. . . . A detective driven by decency and the desire for justice.

. . . A nightmare political movement steadily gaining power. . . .

This is 1922 Berlin.

One of the troubled city's growing number of refugees, Esther Solomonova survives by working as secretary to the charming, unscrupulous cabaret owner "Prince" Nick, and she's being drawn against her will into his scheme to pass a young asylum patient off as Anastasia, the last surviving heir to the murdered czar of all Russia. But their found "princess," Anna Anderson, fears that she's being hunted—and this may turn out to be more than paranoia when innocent people all around her begin to die.