Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"Like Gorky Park, another story big on romance and location, there is a lot to enjoy in this well-researched, atmospheric novel." Philippa Stockley, The Washington Post Book World
Review
"The pace effectively mirrors the social and political upheaval that took place in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, turning up the tension in the plot as the Nazis rise to power. Franklin's characterization is strong and believable." Library Journal
Review
"Franklin, stirring a strange pot of romance, violence, sardonic humor and self-fulfilling prophecy, is most successful with scenes between her wise-cracking lovers....Entertaining enough when not stating the historically obvious." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"The dialogue, hard-boiled and tediously sprinkled with profanity, could have been richer, more imaginative....The novel captures the mood of Berlin, by day and by night...and offers abundant intrigues and surprises." Boston Globe
Review
"The dialogue, hard-boiled and tediously sprinkled with profanity, could have been richer, more imaginative....The novel captures the mood of Berlin, by day and by night...and offers abundant intrigues and surprises." Boston Globe
Synopsis
Gorky Park meets Fatherland in this wonderfully vivid, thoroughly engrossing novel of suspense set in Germany between the two wars.
About the Author
Ariana Franklin is a former Fleet Street reporter who lives in Hertfordshire, England.