This is the Basic edition featuring the first three novels of the Hannah Vogel Series (A Trace of Smoke, A Night of Long Knives and A Game of Lies). If you would like a never-before seen short story The Cigarette Boy, unavailable anywhere else, please purchase the Collector's edition.
In A Trace of Smoke it's 1931 and crime reporter Hannah Vogel is writing under the male pseudonym Peter Weill. As a widow of the Great War, she's used to doing what she must to survive. When she decides to investigate her brother's death she finds herself caught up in scandal leading directly to a powerful leader in the Nazi party, and responsible for a five-year-old orphan whose birth certificate names her dead brother. Further complicating matters are her evolving feelings for Boris Krause, a powerful banker whose world is the antithesis of Hannah's. Fired from her job and on the run from Hitler's troops, she must protect herself and the little boy who has come to love her, but can she afford to find love for herself?
A Night of Long Knives finds Hannah hiding in Bolivia with her young ward, Anton. She seizes an offer from a newspaper to cover the journey of a Zeppelin from South America to Switzerland, particularly as it will allow her a rare opportunity to meet with her lover, Boris. When the Zeppelin is diverted to Germany, she knows she's walked straight into a trap, just as The Night of Long Knives—the purge headed by Himmler after Hitler supplanted the SA with the SS—has begun. Hannah and Anton are kidnapped by Ernst Röhm, who wants to force her into marriage as a result of rumors of his homosexuality. Hannah must enlist all of her allies, including Boris—and a few of her enemies—to track Anton down before the Gestapo can. Traveling to Berlin, she is caught up in the Nazi's continuing purge and must learn to trust—and protect—those she has loved, and hated, in order to survive.
A Game of Lies brings Hannah back to Berlin to cover the 1936 Olympics. At least, posing as travel reporter Adelheid Zinsli, lover of SS officer Lars Lang, that's her cover story. Rather, she's collecting Nazi secrets fromLang and smuggling them back to Switzerland. When her mentor collapses at her feet, Hannah must scramble to create a cover story, particularly as she is surrounded by former colleagues who could identify her. The cover-up drives a deeper wedge between Hannah and Lars. To ensure her safety, and clear Lars' doubt, she sets out to discover the identity of Weill's killer, only to be driven into the arms of Boris, a former lover. In order to get Weill's package out of the country, she must decide whom to love—and whom to trust—before her true identity is revealed.
PRAISE FOR THE MACAVITY AND BRUCE ALEXANDER AWARD-WINNING AND ROMANTIC TIMES BEST HISTORICAL NOVEL NOMINATED SERIES
"Bold narrator and chilling historical setting...an unusually vivid context, [lets] Hannah report on the decadence of her world without losing her life –or her mind."— New York Times
"Cantrell's atmospheric mystery keeps you off-balance; there's a sense of dread as to what might be waiting around every corner. Vivid and dramatic descriptions allow readers to easily conjure up the imagery, as if you were watching a great old black-and-white film on the big screen." — Romantic Times 4 1/2 star review Top Pick
"Nails both the 'life is a cabaret' atmosphere and the desperation floating inside the champagne bubbles." — Booklist
"Evocative and hauntingly crafted...a treasure of suspense, romance, and murder. Her ability to spin history into a visceral reality is done with the artistry of a master storyteller."— James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of The Seventh Plague
