City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense by Ariana Franklin
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Book Reviews of City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense
Book Review: A really enjoyable read
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my third book by Ariana Franklin and I really enjoy this author. This historical novel is terrifically interesting as the period of history in post WW1 Germany with the rise of National Socialism is rich with tension and dread.
The twists and turns of the plot are wonderful, the characters are engaging and the book is great.
Book Review: A Brilliant Noir Mystery, Truly Superlative
Summary: 5 Stars
City of Shadows is magnificent novel that has it all: richly drawn believable characters, compelling plot, tension, suspense, an engaging murder mystery, and best of all it is set in a less well-known part of history so as you read you gain illumination as well as first-rate entertainment. I absolutely loved this book. I read and loved Arianna Franklin's "Mistress of the Art of Death" last year, which I believe is a five star read, but this novel blows that one away.
Set in the 1920s Weimar Republic, and centered in Berlin, this story starts with a perplexing assault, and then introduces Russian emigres Prince Nick, a roguish hustler operating a seedy nightclub and blackmarket empire, and his Jewish assistant Esther Solomonova. Both have fled from Bolshevik Russia and are struggling to make a go of it in Berlin, when Nick thinks have may have discovered a living daughter of the executed Tzar in a german insane asylum. Although her authenticity is dubious, assassins seem to be on her trail which convinces Nick there must be something to her claim and eventually police inspector Schmidt, famous for his work in tracking serial killers or "werewolves" is swept up into the action. Solomonova and Schmidt are both extremely memorable characters drawn with exquisite empathy. Their extraordinary story takes place over ten years and concludes with a deeply satisfying and surprising plot twist.
Atmospheric and noir are adjectives that can't possibly do justice in describing this book. City of Shadows takes their meaning to new heights. I simply haven't ever read a book more noir or atmospheric than City of Shadows. It's an awesome, stunning achievement and the book is a brilliant read. This book does something else though that deserves additional high praise. I've always wondered how a country could lose its way so badly that it became Nazi Germany under Hitler. Nothing I've ever read before, fiction or non-fiction, has ever adequately made me understand that slide into madness. This book grabs you by the throat and drags you through the poverty, despair, powerlessness and fear of the Weimar Republic and at the conclusion you viscerally understand the incomprehensible through the stunned horror of the protagonists.
I can't say enough good things about this literate and fascinating novel. In fact, this was my favorite book of the year until I had the pleasure of reading The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss last week, but it is depressing to have to choose between them. Both books are easily six star reads. Arianna Franklin has become one of my favorite writers, one whom I will always be anxiously awaiting their next book. Don't miss this one.
Book Review: City of Shadows Reviewer: Colleen Booth, Seattle
Summary: 5 Stars
A great read. I couldn't put it down. Ms Franklin's mixing of technology from different decades is a minor distraction. Just suspend disbelief and enjoy. Book Review: Among the Best
Summary: 5 Stars
Franklin is as fine an historian as she is a novelist. This foray into Nazi Germany and the cult of Anastasia is no less finely wrought than her ventures into the Late Middle Ages. I found myself anguished with and by the novel's folk.Book Review: Inventive Plot
Summary: 4 Stars
Ariana Franklin is the pseudonym of a well-known author of historical novels, Diana Norman, wife of the film critic Barry Norman. She is a former Fleet Street Reporter and lives in Hertfordshire.
Having read the author's other two books, the Mistress of the Art of Death and The Serpent's Tale, I decided to try this novel written before the above two. Although this book was an interesting read I cannot say that I enjoyed it as much as the above two, possibly because they were medieval novels, a period that I enjoy reading about very much.
However it would be unfair to criticise the book simply because of the period of history it depicts and all things being equal it was an enjoyable read. The storyline of the book takes place in Berlin, three or four years after the end of the war and revolves around a scheme to pass a young asylum patient off as Anastasia, the last surviving heir to the murdered Russian Czar . . .
The plot is both believable and inventive and the book is well written, in fact everything a reader could want from a good story.