That Summer in Berlin
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4.6 • 12 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
In the summer of 1936, while the Nazis make secret plans for World War II, a courageous and daring young woman struggles to expose the lies behind the dazzling spectacle of the Berlin Olympics.
German power is rising again, threatening a war that will be even worse than the last one. The English aristocracy turns to an age-old institution to stave off war and strengthen political bonds—marriage. Debutantes flock to Germany, including Viviane Alden. On holiday with her sister during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Viviane’s true purpose is more clandestine. While many in England want to appease Hitler, others seek to prove Germany is rearming. But they need evidence, photographs to tell the tale, and Viviane is a genius with her trusty Leica. And who would suspect a pretty, young tourist taking holiday snaps of being a spy?
Viviane expects to find hatred and injustice, but during the Olympics, with the world watching, Germany is on its best behavior, graciously welcoming tourists to a festival of peace and goodwill. But first impressions can be deceiving, and it’s up to Viviane and the journalist she’s paired with—a daring man with a guarded heart—to reveal the truth.
But others have their own reasons for befriending Viviane, and her adventure takes a darker turn. Suddenly Viviane finds herself caught in a web of far more deadly games—and closer than she ever imagined to the brink of war.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cornwall (The Woman at the Front) delivers a serviceable tale of intrigue during the 1936 Olympics. Viviane Alden is a spirited English lady with a camera and guts, and her leading man is gruff Tom Graham, a Scottish earl's illegitimate son. Tom, a journalist, shares Viviane's determination to find proof during the festivities that Germany is preparing for another war. Though Viviane is purportedly in Berlin to chaperone her debutante stepsister, who's searching like many women of their generation for a German husband as part of Britain's diplomacy effort, she earns Tom's trust by sharing the story of her soldier father's death from German mustard gas. Still, as Tom gets in deeper undercover with the Germans, he worries she might betray him, his thoughts confronting him with a "bottomless pool of intrigue and suspicion." Just about everything here is predictable, but Cornwall does a good job making Viviane a classic heroine, capable of saving herself while still appreciating being saved, and of proving that women can work just as well as men. There's nothing remarkable here, but it's enjoyable nonetheless.
