Kirsten Reviews: The Scent of Secrets by Jane Thynne
The Scent of Shadows by Jane Thynne
Berlin #3
August, 1938. Paris is a city living on its nerves and the threat of war hangs heavy as a distant thunderstorm on a summer's day.
British actress, Clara Vine, is in Paris to film her latest movie, having left Berlin under a cloud. Joseph Goebbels has become increasingly suspicious that Clara has been mingling in Berlin society and passing snippets of information to her contacts in the British Embassy. It would have been absurd, if it hadn't also been true…
With war becoming increasingly likely, Clara is approached by an undercover British operative, Guy Hamilton, who asks her to perform a task for her country: to befriend Eva Braun, Hitler's girlfriend, and to pass on any information she can gather.
Clara knows that to undertake this task is to put herself back in danger. But she also knows that soon she may have to do everything in her power to protect her country…
The Scent of Secrets is the newest book in Jane Thynne’s Berlin series about actress and spy Clara Vine. The story begins in Paris in August of 1938. The city and Europe itself teeter on the edge of war. Jewish citizens are facing ever-increasing discrimination and there are rumors of the Nazi government preparing an even worse crackdown, which history revealed to be the concentration camps and other atrocities.
Clara Vine, British actress is in Paris filming a new movie. She has become successful, and her rising career has given her the ability to move among the upper class of German society, putting her in proximity to such people as Joseph Goebbels, who is suspicious that Clara is actually a spy. He is correct, and if he found out that, or the fact that Clara’s grandmother was Jewish, something which she conceals with fake papers, she would be arrested or suffer a worse fate.
While in Paris, Clara is contacted by Guy Hamilton, a British operative also passing himself off as an ordinary citizen who asks Clara to do something nobody else has been able to: befriend Eva Braun, Hitler’s sweetheart in order to learn all she can and pass it along to British intelligence. This mission will position Clara squarely in the path of people who would think nothing of killing her, but although initially reluctant, Clara knows that every piece of information she gathers may be critical in protecting her country.
While there have been many books and movies about World War ll, there are far less that are set in the years before the way, and the story’s combination of political complications and intrigue are an excellent blend of historical detail and suspense.
Clara Vine is a young woman on her own among dangerous people, and she uses her wits, experience, and even fashion sense in order to pursue the truth, making her an appealing protagonist that readers will root for with increasing concern as she finds herself ever more entwined in conspiracy.
(Received a copy from the publisher)
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Other Reviews:
A Garden Carried in the Pocket
Mystica
ARe Cafe
Previous Books:
1. Black Roses
2. The Winter Garden
