Author: Jane Thynne
Publication Date: May 3, 2016
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Series: Berlin #4
Perfect for fans
of Jacqueline Winspear, Charles Todd, Robert Harris, and Susan Elia MacNeal,
here is the next thrilling historical novel featuring Clara Vine, the British
actress and special agent who glides through the upper echelons of Nazi
society, covertly gathering key intelligence—and placing herself in mortal
peril.
In the spring of 1939, the drums of war beat throughout Europe, but nowhere more ferociously than in Berlin. The film studio where Clara Vine works is churning out movies, but each day that she stays in Germany is more dangerous than the last. Spying on the private life of the Third Reich, passing secrets to contacts in British intelligence, falling into a passionate affair—any of these risky moves could get Clara shot. So she is wholly shaken when someone close to her is murdered instead. The victim is Lottie Franke, an aspiring costume designer and student at the prestigious Faith and Beauty finishing school that trains young women to become the wives of the Nazi elite. While the press considers Lottie’s death in the Grunewald forest the act of a lone madman, Clara uncovers deeper threads, tangled lines that seem to reach into the darkest depths of the Reich—and to a precious discovery that Hitler and his ruthless cohorts would kill for.
In the spring of 1939, the drums of war beat throughout Europe, but nowhere more ferociously than in Berlin. The film studio where Clara Vine works is churning out movies, but each day that she stays in Germany is more dangerous than the last. Spying on the private life of the Third Reich, passing secrets to contacts in British intelligence, falling into a passionate affair—any of these risky moves could get Clara shot. So she is wholly shaken when someone close to her is murdered instead. The victim is Lottie Franke, an aspiring costume designer and student at the prestigious Faith and Beauty finishing school that trains young women to become the wives of the Nazi elite. While the press considers Lottie’s death in the Grunewald forest the act of a lone madman, Clara uncovers deeper threads, tangled lines that seem to reach into the darkest depths of the Reich—and to a precious discovery that Hitler and his ruthless cohorts would kill for.
And she guessed, whatever this meeting was
about, it would certainly be no party.
The Fuhrer’s fiftieth birthday had been a moment
of excitement, a firework flash against an ever darkening horizon.
She might as well have proposed flying to the
moon.
“I hear Elizabeth Arden’s Velvet Red is his
absolute favorite.”
The
Pursuit of Pearls is everything you want in a good book. It
is blindingly obvious that Jane Thynne would make a great conversationalist. I
found myself having to stop reading and just sit and ponder over the many
beautiful words that she strung together as she was telling this story. Another
of my favorite pieces about Thynne’s writing is the fact that she intertwines
real people from history into her pages. We see appearances by Hitler,
Goebbels, Himmler, and a young John F. Kennedy in this book. She makes this
world that is far in the past seem so real as if it is happening all over again
all around you. I did not realize that this book was part of a series when I
sat down to read it, and I must say that it was pleasant to read thinking it
was a standalone novel. It is actually the fourth book in a series, so I have
some reading to catch up on!
***A free copy of this book was provided to me
by the publishers at Ballantine Books in exchange for my honest review***
No comments:
Post a Comment