Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman
Author: Anne Blankman
Series: Prisoner of Night and Fog #2
Publisher: Blazer + Bray
Publication Date: April 21, 2015
Genre: Fiction; Historical Fiction; Romance; Adventure; Mystery; Young Adult
Pages: 406
Format: ARC
The girl known as
Gretchen Whitestone has a secret: She used to be part of Adolf Hitler’s inner
circle. More than a year after she made an enemy of her old family friend and
fled Munich, she lives with a kindly English family, posing as an ordinary
German immigrant, and is preparing to graduate from high school. Her love,
Daniel Cohen, is a reporter in town. For the first time in her life, Gretchen
is content.
But then, Daniel gets a
telegram that sends him back to Germany, and Gretchen’s world turns
upside-down. And when she receives word that Daniel is wanted for murder, she
has to face the danger she thought she’d escaped-and return to her homeland.
Gretchen must do
everything she can to avoid capture and recognition, even though saving Daniel
will mean consorting with her former friends, the Nazi elite. And as they work
to clear Daniel’s name, Gretchen and Daniel discover a deadly conspiracy
stretching from the slums of Berlin to the Reichstag itself. Can they dig up
the explosive truth and get out in time-or will Hitler discover them first?
*Sigh*Historical fiction is so great.
Gretchen Whitestone was once Adolf Hitler’s pet. She was the perfect niece, and she admired Hitler to the point of fault. After meeting Daniel Cohen, her world shattered, and she ended up in England, free from Hitler’s tight reign over her and Germany. She’s happy, and she sees the life she always wanted stretched out before her. However, when Daniel is captured in Germany, Gretchen must face her horrible past, and triumph over the once inescapable grasp of her Uncle Adolf.
Even though we all know how it ends (Hitler gains control of Germany and starts a war around the world), Anne Blankman still manages to keep me guessing. She writes like there’s a chance of Hitler’s defeat, even if there’s not. When I’m reading her work, I’m in Germany while the Nazis are rising. I’m watching the Nazi parade and seeing Hitler’s stupid little mustache. Her melding of history and fiction together is astounding and thoroughly entertaining. Her painstaking attention to detail is enough to send her novels over the moon.
I love how this book shines a totally new light on who Adolf Hitler was, and how his comrades in his quest for domination acted and thought. I love the historical value of Anne Blankman’s writing, and it totally makes this whole reading historical fiction thing worth it ten times over. Reading and learning are two of my favorite things, and both come in this 406 page package.
I maintain that the Prisoner of Night and Fog series is one of the best World War II novels written, among Code Name Verity and The Book Thief. If there is ever another book in this series, I would read in a heartbeat.
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