City of Shadows

the long version

A cultured city scarred by war.An eastern emigre with scars and secrets ofher own. A young woman who claims tobe a Russian grand duchess. A brazen killer,as vicious as he is clever. A detectivedriven 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, "Prince"Nick, 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.