Clara Vine Books

Paperback. Pub Date :2013-10-24 Pages: 496 Language: English Publisher:. Simon & Schuster Berlin. 1933 Warning bells ring across Europe as Hitler comes to power Clara Vine is young and ambitious. and determined to succeed as an actress. A chance meeting at a party in London leads her to Berlin. to the famous Ufa studios and. unwittingly. into an uneasy circle of Nazi wives. among them Magda Goebbels. Then Clara meets Leo Quinn who is undercover. working for British intelligence. Leo sees in Clara the perfect recruit to spy on her new acquaintances. using her acting skills to win their confidence. But when Magda Goebbels reveals to Clara a dramatic secret and entrusts her with an extraordinary mission. Clara feels threatened. compromised and desperately caught between duty and love.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale and Jacqueline Winspear’s Journey to Munich, here is the next exciting historical novel featuring Clara Vine, the actress and British spy in prewar Germany who maneuvers through the treacherous Nazi society gathering intelligence—and discovering a deadly secret. Berlin, 1937. Clara Vine’s star is on the rise. The British-born, half-German actress is about to take her first leading role in a movie produced by the Nazis’ official film studio. Even as she moves through the upper echelons of the Third Reich, Clara never stops acting. At cocktail parties hosted by Joseph and Magda Goebbels, she collects key information for Britain, risking her life for the cause. But soon it is another young woman’s life, and its abrupt end, that draw her attention. Clara knew Anna Hansen as a dancer and artist’s model in the heady days of the cabaret scene. Then she became engaged to an SS officer. Attending one of Hitler’s notorious Bride Schools, she was being groomed as the perfect Nazi wife. When she is found murdered on the school grounds, her death is hushed up, one casualty among many in the lead-up to war. But Clara cannot fathom why Anna’s death would be concealed. Was it simply an embarrassment to the regime, or did Anna know something that hastened her demise? Clara must tread carefully to unravel the truth—for the Gestapo is one step behind her. Previously published in the U.K. as The Winter Garden

Set in Europe, in 1938, during the tense run-up to war, and perfect for fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Charles Todd, Robert Harris, and Susan Elia MacNeal, this gripping historical novel features the half-British, half-German actress (and wholly covert spy) Clara Vine, who finds herself enmeshed in a dangerous game of subterfuge. The colorful, lively streets of Paris come as a welcome relief to Clara Vine after the dour countenance of Berlin, where bunkers and bomb shelters are being dug, soldiers march the streets in their high boots, and Jewish residents rush to make it home before curfew. Though Clara is in Paris to make a film, her true work is never far from her mind. Approached by a British intelligence officer, Clara is initially confounded by his request: Get close to Eva Braun and glean as much as she can about the Führer’s plans and intentions. Clara has already established friendships with several high-ranking Nazi wives, but Eva Braun is another matter altogether. Hitler keeps his “secret” girlfriend obsessively hidden, fiercely guarding their relationship as well as Eva’s delicate psychological state. From the gilded halls of the decadent City of Light to the cobbled, quaint streets of Munich, and even to the chilling, rarefied air of the Berghof, Hitler’s private mountaintop retreat, Clara flirts with discovery at every turn—and a dangerous, devious plot unfolds. Previously published in the U.K. as A War of Flowers “A brilliant tale of spies and secrets, of intense psychological drama, of edgy climax and one extraordinary heroine.” —Beatriz Williams, New York Times bestselling author of A Hundred Summers “A compelling story of love and betrayal in Hitler’s Berlin . . . Peppered with real-life characters, this series offers a fascinating glimpse of the extraordinary world of the Nazi wives.” —Daisy Goodwin, author of The American Heiress “An alluring blend of thrills, suspense, historic detail, and seduction.” —Susan Elia MacNeal, author of the Maggie Hope series “An extraordinary, absorbing read with an array of characters so real you’re there with them as war looms, and a pace that sweeps you from page to page. This is indeed a winner!” — Charles Todd, author of Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more.

Perfect for fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Charles Todd, Robert Harris, and Susan Elia MacNeal, here is the next thrilling historical novel featuring Clara Vine, the British actress and special agent who glides through the upper echelons of Nazi society, covertly gathering key intelligence—and placing herself in mortal peril. In the spring of 1939, the drums of war beat throughout Europe, but nowhere more ferociously than in Berlin. The film studio where Clara Vine works is churning out movies, but each day that she stays in Germany is more dangerous than the last. Spying on the private life of the Third Reich, passing secrets to contacts in British intelligence, falling into a passionate affair—any of these risky moves could get Clara shot. So she is wholly shaken when someone close to her is murdered instead. The victim is Lottie Franke, an aspiring costume designer and student at the prestigious Faith and Beauty finishing school that trains young women to become the wives of the Nazi elite. While the press considers Lottie’s death in the Grunewald forest the act of a lone madman, Clara uncovers deeper threads, tangled lines that seem to reach into the darkest depths of the Reich—and to a precious discovery that Hitler and his ruthless cohorts would kill for. Previously published in the U.K. as Faith and Beauty Praise for Jane Thynne’s first Clara Vine novel, The Scent of Secrets “A brilliant tale of spies and secrets, of intense psychological drama, of edgy climax and one extraordinary heroine.” —Beatriz Williams, New York Times bestselling author of A Hundred Summers “A compelling story of love and betrayal in Hitler’s Berlin . . . Peppered with real-life characters, this series offers a fascinating glimpse of the extraordinary world of the Nazi wives.” —Daisy Goodwin, author of The American Heiress “An alluring blend of thrills, suspense, historic detail, and seduction.” —Susan Elia MacNeal, author of the Maggie Hope series “An extraordinary, absorbing read with an array of characters so real you’re there with them as war looms, and a pace that sweeps you from page to page. This is indeed a winner!” — Charles Todd, author of Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries

TO SAVE HER OWN LIFE, WILL SHE SACRIFICE ANOTHER? June 1940: the first summer of the war. Berlin is being bombed and nightly blackouts suffocate the city. Then France falls and a shadow descends. A shadow has fallen over Clara Vine s own life, too. She is an Anglo-German woman in a country that hates England. Then she is summoned to meet the Propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who has decided that Clara should adopt a new role as his spy. Much as she dislikes the idea, Clara realises this might be the chance to find an escape route to England. But Goebbels has other ideas and soon Clara is drawn into a web that threatens to destroy her. As everything she holds dear is taken as ransom, she must fight to protect her family and to survive... Solitaire delivers brilliantly engrossing wartime fiction for fans of  Sadie Jones, Rosie Thomas and Irene Nemirovsky. Praise for Jane Thynne s Clara Vine novels: An absolute cracker of a read...fast-paced and gripping from the start Sunday Times A thoroughly enjoyable read: fast-paced, atmospheric and genuinely suspenseful Mail on Sunday Terrific Elizabeth Buchan