Ian Graham should have been happy, but instead he felt empty. He and his partner, Tony Rodomovsky had just  caught another German war criminal who was now on his way back to Germany to face justice. Ian had been a journalist covering the Nuremberg trials but once they were over he began using his skills to uncover other war criminals who had somehow escaped justice. He and Tony’s small London office had gained quite a reputation for their efforts to track down and unmask these men and women who had taken on new identities and were trying to escape justice. But there was one elusive war criminal that Ian just couldn’t find and this obsession was the reason he took no joy from his most recent success.  The Huntress, as she was called had been the mistress of a German officer in Poland and she was a ruthless killer who killed Jews, children and POWs in cold blood. Ian is determined to find her and bring her to justice.

Nina Borisovna Markova, had been barely alive when she was found by the Polish Red Cross, after months of trying to evade the German army. Emaciated, filthy, sick and coughing it was a miracle she had survived. With her she brought news of a young English soldier, Sebastian Vincent Graham, Ian’s younger brother who died in the war, a victim, according to Nina, of The Huntress.  Now fully healed she has shown up at Ian’s office wanting to help Ian and Tony find The Huntress, who lives in Nina’s nightmares.

Jordan McBride was certain her father is in love. He had been dating a young German widow, Anneliesse Weber who has a child named Ruth. Jordan was so happy that her father had found someone new as he had been lonely since her mother died, going through the motions of by taking care of his antique shop in downtown New York, and taking care of Jordan. Now that she is about to graduate from high school, she hopes that with this new interest in his life, he might reconsider and let her go on to college so she can study photography. It was an exhilarating thought!

But as much as Jordan wants to love her new stepmother, things don’t seem quite right. There is Ruth, who seems so traumatized by her experiences in the war, but her stories don’t seem to match up with the story Anneliesse has told Jordan and her father about what happened to them. There is the strange medal that Jordan saw accidentally, and the strange unguarded look on Anneliesse’s face that Jordan captured in a photo. Is she imagining these things? Is she jealous? Uncertain and disturbed, Jordan begins to confide in a new employee at the antique shop named Tony Rodomovsky.

Kate Quinn is an excellent story teller, who knows how to weave these varied and interesting story lines and characters together in a creative and unique way. The back stories of each character allows us to see them as individuals and then as the story lines come together the interactions between the characters is that much richer. Meticulously researched, with fully realized, interesting characters and careful plotting which raises the suspense at every turn makes this is a book that is hard to put down!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian and Keith

Book Study Worthy? Yes!

Read in ebook format.