November 1939It’s been a year since Stella Bled Lawrence and her husband, Nicky, escaped Italy by the skin of their teeth and a lot has changed. Nicky joined the Royal Air Force and Stella spent the year training as a spy for His Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service. She has the languages and the tradecraft down pat, but she still has a way to go when the Earl of Bickford pulls her from her … from her training early.
The earl uses his influence to make her a courier, a job well below her skills, but it’s not as simple as it seems. The new head of the service isn’t convinced of her worth and Stella has to use the opportunity to show him that she and other women can deliver for Britain or she’s out on her ear.
That would be enough to make any newly-minted spy nervous, but the earl isn’t done. He has a favor to ask and the request sends Stella to a place that will haunt her forever.
more
This is the third book in a WWII spy series. Naturally, I enjoy them or I’d not be on number three! A little different as WWII stories go–plenty of danger, drama, and nastiness we expect from that time period, but the character is unique and the pace kept me turning pages. This time, Stella Bled goes undercover in Berlin, looking for a child. She ends up in a club catering to Nazi SS men and other German leaders and befriending people she knows to be the enemy, gathering intelligence–and looking for this child.
PG-13 for adult stuff like an attempted suicide and nasty Nazi kisses. But otherwise clean.
This has to be one of the best “Stella Bled” books out there, I have read them all, it makes you want to read it in one sitting just to find out what happens.
All the Stella bled books are wonderful
This is the second sequel to The Paris Package which I loved (loved all 3 books).
Held my attention. Looking forward to author’s next book to continue this story.
This one was not as entertaining as the first two in this series but a good read nonetheless. It was informative about Germany and this time in history. Love this character. Hope to see another Stella Bled Lawrence book!
The riveting and thrilling saga of the Bleds continues. Stella has gone from a sheltered girl to a truly strong woman on the path to become a hero. Faced with true evil, she is determined to fight it at every chance, overcoming the prejudices on her own side to prove her worth. This is a thinking person’s thriller. Stella faces the hard decisions incumbent on a spy with strength and honesty, not bravado. Her choices are not easy, but she is an honorable and determined woman.
The feeling of being in the cold German winter and the day-to-day life as Stella blends in with the people around her was very well done. The history was well handled and spot on.
I find myself thinking about these stories even after I’ve finished them. Please read these books. I highly recommend them, and the Mercy Watts books as well. I can’t wait to see how the stories end up braided together. I received an ARC for an honest review, and like always, I bought the published version, too.
Stella’s story just keeps getting better. What a marriage she and husband Nicky have had so far. A honeymoon that turned out to be anything but the long sightseeing and shopping trip for a pampered couple they expected, death and destruction up close and personal, a harrowing journey through Europe. So wouldn’t you think that once they were safely in England they would jump on the first ship they could find and head home to America? Well, no. Wiser, sadder and much more determined than when they set out, they’ve seen evil firsthand and have each vowed to do all they can to combat it in their own way. They made promises and now feel guilty about some of those promises they couldn’t keep. Nicky doesn’t think he was the man his bride needed him to be. So at their one-year anniversary mark Nicky is off with the Royal Air Force and Stella has just about finished British spy school. As she does with everything, Stella excelled in her training, but could any training really prepare her for what’s happening in Germany? And will any rules stop her from doing what she believes is right and necessary? Her assignment is as a courier. Simple, right? Deliver the package, observe her surroundings, come back and report. But in reality not so simple, as the Earl of Bickford has added a small task to her assignment: rescue a child who has gone missing in Berlin. One Child in Berlin is well plotted, well written, well thought out, and all Stella. Even if she is clever and brave and resourceful and determined, she is still all alone. Yes, she’s been trained but she is still a very young woman who was brought up to be an heiress, who married into more money and power and exclusivity and privilege. Who is untested in the field.
As always, author A. W. Hartoin does a masterful job of crafting a story that is complex and rich in detail but easy to follow at the same time, creating characters that seem real and weaving their actions so skillfully into actual world events that reading one of her stories is like reading a really fascinating history book. It is amazing how many clues are dropped throughout the story and how there is always a thread that ties them together in the very satisfying ending.
One Child in Berlin begins on a strong, emotional, intense note that continues on each and every page. Right from the start we are reminded who Abel was and what Stella’s promise to him means to her, and how strongly she mourns seeing him arrested and thrown on a train bound for a concentration camp. Stella’s supposedly simple assignment goes just a little off-kilter as soon as she sets foot in Berlin and she is forced to improvise. She trusted Abel, she trusts Nicky, and she trusts the Earl of Bickford, but none of them is there. She’s completely on her own, playing a role that she has to keep adapting to her circumstances. Her work at a nightclub for the rich and powerful of Berlin is fraught with danger, and she puts herself and her mission at risk with each step she takes to try and find the lost child. The story moves along at a rapid pace and I was in constant fear for Stella and those around her. Who can she trust? She feels close to the girls she works and lives with, but they are still the enemy. Author Hartoin once again perfectly captures the feel of Germany just before the war, the rapid, inexorable roller coast slide of the German people into nationalism, fear, adoration of their Fuhrer, suspicion of their once friends and neighbors and hatred of the Jews. In hindsight we can ask how this could happen to educated, hard-working, noble people, how they could believe what was happening was right, but when portrayed as A. W. Hartoin so elegantly portrays it you can see how one event after another after another so skillfully orchestrated by Hitler and those around him could sweep up the average German into believing that even if an individual action is wrong the goal is just.
This is the third book in the Stella series but there has been mention of Bleds since the first Mercy Watt mystery from this author. I am torn between wanting both of these series to go on forever and wanting to have a mile-high view to see the final weaving of all these people, places and (valuable) things. These books truly are gems and provide so many hours of reading, and re-reading, pleasure. I recommend One Child in Berlin and all of A. W. Hartoin’s books without hesitation. I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review, and all opinions are my own. Buy it, read it; it’s fantastic.
Oh wow I really enjoyed this book, it is so different from the normal type of book I read or listen to but I like the authors Mercy Watts series so thought I would give this series ago go to. So glad I did because it has captured my imagination and it is like stepping back into the past and visiting a whole new world I know very little about. This series is very different to the Mercy Watts series which is a funny light hearted series and this series is like the older more serious big sister (i like the fact that this book follows the story of the elderly aunts -from Mercy’s, relative Stella, so is sort of a cross over book). It continues from where the previous book left off and I think I enjoyed this book a lot more than the last. The cast of characters are very easy to imagine because they and the situations they find themselves in are very well described and I like them a lot, especially the main character Stella. She would give any modem day detective a run for there money. I can’t wait to find out what is in store for Stella and her friends next.
Stella has completed her training to become a spy and she gets her very first mission to travel to Berlin and hand over a suitcase of money and then get out, simple, a job even she a woman should be able to handle. Wrong, the Earl asks her to do him a favour and find out what happened to his god child, a little girl called Anna. It should be a simple In and out but Stella after a very productive meeting with the Prime ministers wife requests a week to carry it out. Now she just has to prove herself capable of a much harder assignments. Upon arrival she finds herself in a boarding house for young ladies who have very special jobs, catering to the German elite. Rather than work in a factory while there, Stella despite being to small tries out to become one of the waitresses and it is a good job she does because something goes wrong with the hand off and Stella finds she will need the whole week just to figure out what to do. Working all night and hunting for one missing child by day takes its toll on Stella and that is even before her housemates start to become suspicious of her. Can Stella pull it off by getting some good intell to take back and find one missing child in a city full of missing children? Right under the enemies nose?
I would recommend this book even if you aren’t a fan of history stories.