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Hannah Vogel #4
A City of Broken Glass
In Rebecca Cantrell's A City of Broken Glass, journalist Hannah Vogel is in Poland with her son Anton to cover the 1938 St. Martin festival when she hears that 12,000 Polish Jews have been deported from Germany. Hannah drops everything to get the story on the refugees, and walks directly into danger.
Kidnapped by the SS, and driven across the German border, Hannah is rescued by Anton and her lover, Lars Lang, who she had presumed dead two years before. Hannah doesn't know if she can trust Lars again, with her heart or with her life, but she has little choice. Injured in the escape attempt and wanted by the Gestapo, Hannah and Anton are trapped with Lars in Berlin. While Hannah works on an exit strategy, she helps to search for Ruth, the missing toddler of her Jewish friend Paul, who was disappeared during the deportation.
Trapped in Nazi Germany with her son just days before Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Hannah knows the dangers of staying any longer than needed. But she can't turn her back on this one little girl, even if it plunges her and her family into danger.
Kidnapped by the SS, and driven across the German border, Hannah is rescued by Anton and her lover, Lars Lang, who she had presumed dead two years before. Hannah doesn't know if she can trust Lars again, with her heart or with her life, but she has little choice. Injured in the escape attempt and wanted by the Gestapo, Hannah and Anton are trapped with Lars in Berlin. While Hannah works on an exit strategy, she helps to search for Ruth, the missing toddler of her Jewish friend Paul, who was disappeared during the deportation.
Trapped in Nazi Germany with her son just days before Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Hannah knows the dangers of staying any longer than needed. But she can't turn her back on this one little girl, even if it plunges her and her family into danger.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published July 17, 2012
34 people are currently reading
884 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Cantrell
61 books541 followersA few years ago Rebecca Cantrell quit her job, sold her house, and moved to Hawaii to write a novel because, at seven, she decided that she would be a writer. Now she writes the award-winning Hannah Vogel mystery series set in Berlin in the 1930s. “A Trace of Smoke,” "A Night of Long Knives," "A Game of Lies," and "A City of Broken Glass." She also co-writes the Order of Sanguines series with James Rollins, starting with the upcoming book 1: "The Blood Gospel." And she writes the iMonster series as Bekka Black, including "iDrakula" and "iFrankenstein."
A faded pink triangle pasted on the wall of Dachau Concentration Camp and time in Berlin, Germany in the 1980s inspired “A Trace of Smoke.” Fluent in German, she received her high school diploma from the John F. Kennedy Schule in Berlin and studied at the Freie Universität in Berlin and the Georg August Universität in Göttingen.
When she visited Berlin in the summer of 2006, she was astounded to discover that many locations in her novel have been rebuilt and reopened in the last few years, including the gay bar El Dorado and the Mosse House publishing house.
Her short story “Coffee” will appear in the “Missing” anthology in February 2009.
Her screenplay “The Humanitarian” was a finalist at Shriekfest 2008: The Los Angeles Horror/Sci-fi Film Festival. Her screenplay “A Taste For Blood” was a finalist at the Shriekfest 2007: The Los Angeles Horror/Sci-fi Film Festival.
As of this writing, she lives in Berlin with her Ironman husband and son.
A faded pink triangle pasted on the wall of Dachau Concentration Camp and time in Berlin, Germany in the 1980s inspired “A Trace of Smoke.” Fluent in German, she received her high school diploma from the John F. Kennedy Schule in Berlin and studied at the Freie Universität in Berlin and the Georg August Universität in Göttingen.
When she visited Berlin in the summer of 2006, she was astounded to discover that many locations in her novel have been rebuilt and reopened in the last few years, including the gay bar El Dorado and the Mosse House publishing house.
Her short story “Coffee” will appear in the “Missing” anthology in February 2009.
Her screenplay “The Humanitarian” was a finalist at Shriekfest 2008: The Los Angeles Horror/Sci-fi Film Festival. Her screenplay “A Taste For Blood” was a finalist at the Shriekfest 2007: The Los Angeles Horror/Sci-fi Film Festival.
As of this writing, she lives in Berlin with her Ironman husband and son.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
August 6, 2012
The fourth book in the Hannah Vogel series is a bit of a disappointment--many aspects of the plot seem redundant to previous books (since the main character finds herself in the same basic predicament) and the revelation of the villian and climax are not foreshadowed as well as in the other books; the book is resolved too quickly once we understand what the source of the trouble is. If I hadn't (recently) read the previous books, I don't think I would understand much of the importance of the relationships between characters or the allusions to the past. And I wonder (as I did in the second book) why this supposedly devoted mother thinks it's a good idea to take her son with her on even innocuous journalistic assigments, given that the slightest misstep could land her (and him) in an almost certainly fatal situation--although she seems adept at escaping where no one else could possibly have such luck. If there's a fifth book, the author needs to present a new predicament.
December 28, 2018
kristallnacht, the precursor of a much sadder event
at least anton was more prominent here
at least anton was more prominent here
May 29, 2012
In Cantrell’s soon to be published mystery, A City of Broken Glass, Hannah Vogel has gone to Poland in 1938 with her adopted son Anton to write a fluff article on festival pastries for a Swiss newspaper. That should send shivers into anyone familiar with Cantrell’s Hannah. She doesn’t write fluff and in 1938 even Poland isn’t as safe as Hannah has assumed. Almost immediately she goes in pursuit of a different story and discovers Jewish refugees rounded up by the Germans and dumped into Poland in cold barns with no food or medical care. Among the starving women lies Miriam, the pregnant wife of Hannah’s old lover Paul, and she’s in labor. When Hannah returns with a doctor, Miriam is suspiciously dead and the woman who was with her has disappeared. Unfortunately for Hannah, this tragedy is only a hint of the real danger lurking nearby. Soon she’s trapped in Berlin against her will with a surprising old ally and to her especial horror, her son Anton. How to get her son and herself safely out of Berlin? In addition, because she’s Hannah, how to help the various people whose needs cry out to her even while she herself is in dire peril?
Cantrell always succeeds in creating nail-biting suspense while building a thematically rich story. Hannah criticizes herself for not having done more to stop the Nazis in the past when she feels she could have. Her self-recriminations are unfair as the reader knows, but her thoughts underscore a central idea of this book—each person faced with great evil has a choice either to protect the vulnerable at the cost of his or her own safety or to turn away. One of the subtle measures of this theme in A City of Broken Glass is the response of those who love Hannah when she chooses to fight for the innocent. If a character would prefer for Hannah to stay safe but nonetheless lets her go forward and assists her, in each case that character is the one to trust and value. Love, in Cantrell’s book, is measured in the harsh crucible of standing up to the Nazis. If the person you love refuses to let you endanger your life and instead wishes you to take the cowardly way, perhaps they do not love you enough. That’s a tough theme in a tough period of history. Cantrell’s heroes have to love even into the maw of death. Combined with Cantrells’ vivid portrayal of place and time, such soul-searing action and character development makes for an amazing read, which will feed your heart and soul as well as entertain you.
Cantrell always succeeds in creating nail-biting suspense while building a thematically rich story. Hannah criticizes herself for not having done more to stop the Nazis in the past when she feels she could have. Her self-recriminations are unfair as the reader knows, but her thoughts underscore a central idea of this book—each person faced with great evil has a choice either to protect the vulnerable at the cost of his or her own safety or to turn away. One of the subtle measures of this theme in A City of Broken Glass is the response of those who love Hannah when she chooses to fight for the innocent. If a character would prefer for Hannah to stay safe but nonetheless lets her go forward and assists her, in each case that character is the one to trust and value. Love, in Cantrell’s book, is measured in the harsh crucible of standing up to the Nazis. If the person you love refuses to let you endanger your life and instead wishes you to take the cowardly way, perhaps they do not love you enough. That’s a tough theme in a tough period of history. Cantrell’s heroes have to love even into the maw of death. Combined with Cantrells’ vivid portrayal of place and time, such soul-searing action and character development makes for an amazing read, which will feed your heart and soul as well as entertain you.
November 4, 2015
I have really enjoyed the first three books of this series about Hannah Vogel, a German caught in the web of the Gestapo during pre-World War II Berlin in 1938. Hannah is a spunky heroine and tries to right he world which is far too out of orbit for her to change. Meanwhile, she gets mixed up with helping her Jewish friends, picking up orphans and falling in love with ex-SS officers who are also alienated in Germany. In this novel, she is in Berlin on Kristallnacht trying to find a Jewish orphan and a mad woman beant on killing her, Hannah and her son for revenge of her father's death. Two things bothered me in this book: one: Hannah and Lars' long, long argument concerning his absence of two years and his unfaithfulness. Enough was enough! And second, I still don't understaned (and do not buy) Lar's argument why he drove a concussed Hannah to Berlin rather than into Nazi-free (at that time) Poland where she would have been a lot safer and her son would have had his Swiss passport. Because she and Anton, her son, end up back in Berlin, hunted by the Gestapo and the vengeful woman, her life is hanging on a fine thread. But I guess that was needed to make the story happen. Anyway, some suspenseful pages and lots of history come combined with interesting characters who have many more advantures to go as the Second World War starts to erupt.
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October 16, 2012Love, love, LOVE Cantrell's Hannah Vogel series. I have to confess to reading the whole fourth book in one night, which is something I both love and hate to hear about my own novels. Great characters, fascinating setting, fast-paced action. She does a brilliant job developing relationships, and I'm completely puzzled by the reactions of a few reviews that say there's too much in Broken Glass about Hannah's relationships. The whole series is ALL about relationships, not the least of which is Hannah's with herself. The series works on so many levels, so just pick a level that works for you and enjoy the ride!
September 23, 2012
Rarely have I read multiple books in a series where there isn't a single clunker. The fourth book of the Hannah Vogel series continues to enthrall me. A suspenseful read, abundant with detailed locations and events that deliver me to the 1930s Berlin I’m grateful to experience only through Ms. Cantrell’s words. As with every Hannah Vogel book, I feel, taste, hear and smell every location, every step, while being propelled along Hanna’s hazardous journey with other true-to-life characters so captivating I wish were in my own. Cantrell remains at the top of my favorite authors list.
November 12, 2012
This is the last of the Hannah Vogel novels for now - but I'll certainly be looking for the next one. What a great combination of history and mystery and thriller. I'm glad that I stumbled across these books.
July 1, 2022
I recommend this series mostly because of its setting. It has moved about seven years through the history of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. This one climaxes on Kristallnacht, and is less a mystery than combination of Berlin Babylon and Ripping Yarns. Hannah, Anton and Lars race all over the place in a series of adventures so improbable Clive Cussler would have hesitated to put his characters into them. But here's the thing: Cantrell can write, and the background to the story is so compelling that you surrender all disbelief and actually get invested in the trio's fate. However, and this is a big flaw, it is difficult to sustain interest in what is supposed to seem like sexual tension between Hannah and Lars, but which comes off as petulance. Lots of petulance. If you haven't read the previous three books, do that first so you can follow along. Several past characters bubble to the surface briefly, or in one case longer than that, and it can only help to know who they are to Hannah before starting A City of Broken Glass.
Cantrell did fake me out in regard to the little girl's father. Based upon the character description of both the child and the face in the locket, I was sure it was going to be Heydrich. Nope.
A good, fast read.
Recommended.
Cantrell did fake me out in regard to the little girl's father. Based upon the character description of both the child and the face in the locket, I was sure it was going to be Heydrich. Nope.
A good, fast read.
Recommended.
July 16, 2012
A CITY OF BROKEN GLASS
The fourth book in a series of historical thrillers, A City of Broken Glass by Rebecca Cantrell is a blend of the mystery/intrigue and noir genres. It is a well written story that takes place in what many (myself included) consider the darkest period in the modern western world.
Set in Nazi Germany in 1938, the story follows Hannah Vogel, a journalist sent by the Swiss newspaper she works for to cover a fluff piece about pastries during a festival in Poland. But soon after she and her son Anton arrive in Poland, Hannah discovers a real story to cover: the deportation of Jews from Germany. The Jewish refugees Hannah finds are housed in a stable under deplorable conditions and guarded by Polish soldiers as if they are prisoners. When Hannah recognizes one of the refugees as the wife of a former lover, Hannah goes to her and sees that the woman is about to give birth. The woman begs Hannah to ensure the safety of her two year old daughter who has been hidden in a cupboard in the woman's home in Berlin. As Hannah agrees to help, she faces not just the mystery of why the toddler was left alone or where she is but also Hannah's very own mystery - how she herself becomes trapped in Berlin with her son and how it all ties together with her past. The suspense is built carefully through both the fictional events created and the actual historical events leading to the Holocaust and World War II.
The story is told in first person from Hannah's point of view and in that respect it's very well done. The writing is a little on the colder side but almost exactly what the reader would imagine to be written by a journalist. It also fits well with the bleakness of the time period. Although there is a lot of internal dialogue and self criticism (for not doing enough to fight the Nazis) within Hannah and surrounding the other characters, the characters themselves still struck me as a little cold. Most of the emotion I felt arose from the events rather than the characters - even though the author does a good job of making the main characters a little more likeable towards the end (and they are probably realistic for the time).
As I mentioned earlier, this is the fourth book in the Hannah Vogel mystery series but it can easily be read as a stand alone thriller. There is a lot of historical information behind it and the author even provides additional information from her research at the end.
For a suspense thriller, it's a very good story. It also has an interesting but very disturbing setting. So it's probably just me, but I did feel a little discomfort when I read the novel. Yes, I know there were German citizens who did stand up against the Nazi Regime and their inhuman laws. The author even points this out at the end with real examples. However, as history tells us there were so many who didn't. It gives the reader a lot to think about. I think if the storyline was in a different setting and the characters just a little different, it would have been an easier novel to like.
The fourth book in a series of historical thrillers, A City of Broken Glass by Rebecca Cantrell is a blend of the mystery/intrigue and noir genres. It is a well written story that takes place in what many (myself included) consider the darkest period in the modern western world.
Set in Nazi Germany in 1938, the story follows Hannah Vogel, a journalist sent by the Swiss newspaper she works for to cover a fluff piece about pastries during a festival in Poland. But soon after she and her son Anton arrive in Poland, Hannah discovers a real story to cover: the deportation of Jews from Germany. The Jewish refugees Hannah finds are housed in a stable under deplorable conditions and guarded by Polish soldiers as if they are prisoners. When Hannah recognizes one of the refugees as the wife of a former lover, Hannah goes to her and sees that the woman is about to give birth. The woman begs Hannah to ensure the safety of her two year old daughter who has been hidden in a cupboard in the woman's home in Berlin. As Hannah agrees to help, she faces not just the mystery of why the toddler was left alone or where she is but also Hannah's very own mystery - how she herself becomes trapped in Berlin with her son and how it all ties together with her past. The suspense is built carefully through both the fictional events created and the actual historical events leading to the Holocaust and World War II.
The story is told in first person from Hannah's point of view and in that respect it's very well done. The writing is a little on the colder side but almost exactly what the reader would imagine to be written by a journalist. It also fits well with the bleakness of the time period. Although there is a lot of internal dialogue and self criticism (for not doing enough to fight the Nazis) within Hannah and surrounding the other characters, the characters themselves still struck me as a little cold. Most of the emotion I felt arose from the events rather than the characters - even though the author does a good job of making the main characters a little more likeable towards the end (and they are probably realistic for the time).
As I mentioned earlier, this is the fourth book in the Hannah Vogel mystery series but it can easily be read as a stand alone thriller. There is a lot of historical information behind it and the author even provides additional information from her research at the end.
For a suspense thriller, it's a very good story. It also has an interesting but very disturbing setting. So it's probably just me, but I did feel a little discomfort when I read the novel. Yes, I know there were German citizens who did stand up against the Nazi Regime and their inhuman laws. The author even points this out at the end with real examples. However, as history tells us there were so many who didn't. It gives the reader a lot to think about. I think if the storyline was in a different setting and the characters just a little different, it would have been an easier novel to like.
November 9, 2012
Goodreads Description- In Rebecca Cantrell's A City of Broken Glass, journalist Hannah Vogel is in Poland with her son Anton to cover the 1938 St. Martin festival when she hears that 12,000 Polish Jews have been deported from Germany. Hannah drops everything to get the story on the refugees, and walks directly into danger.
Kidnapped by the SS, and driven across the German border, Hannah is rescued by Anton and her lover, Lars Lang, who she had presumed dead two years before. Hannah doesn’t know if she can trust Lars again, with her heart or with her life, but she has little choice. Injured in the escape attempt and wanted by the Gestapo, Hannah and Anton are trapped with Lars in Berlin. While Hannah works on an exit strategy, she helps to search for Ruth, the missing toddler of her Jewish friend Paul, who was disappeared during the deportation.
Trapped in Nazi Germany with her son just days before Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Hannah knows the dangers of staying any longer than needed. But she can’t turn her back on this one little girl, even if it plunges her and her family into danger.
This is a fresh voice for the all to familiar topic of the Nazi Regime and the Holocaust that ended so many Jewish lives. I had to read a book based on Kristallnacht, the night that the Nazi's invaded Jewish neighborhoods, destroyed everything in sight, and deported approximately 12,000 German Jews to Poland. This was the first major round of deportations that led to many Jews ending up in concentration camps. I love historical fiction books based on this time period but Cantrell did a great job adding a unique voice to the story and managing to add a mystery into the story seamlessly. The characters were well developed. The only criticism is that the story dragged on a bit in the middle while Hannah, Lars, and Anton, the 3 main characters, were trying to figure out a way to leave Berlin after entering illegally. I don't want to go into to much detail to give any spoilers but I truly enjoyed this novel. There are so many books on this time period but like I said Cantrell has added something unique in the voice of the book as well as the plotline. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in reading about the Jewish Plight in Nazi Germany as well as how non-Jews were just getting through this terrible time in history. 4 stars!
Kidnapped by the SS, and driven across the German border, Hannah is rescued by Anton and her lover, Lars Lang, who she had presumed dead two years before. Hannah doesn’t know if she can trust Lars again, with her heart or with her life, but she has little choice. Injured in the escape attempt and wanted by the Gestapo, Hannah and Anton are trapped with Lars in Berlin. While Hannah works on an exit strategy, she helps to search for Ruth, the missing toddler of her Jewish friend Paul, who was disappeared during the deportation.
Trapped in Nazi Germany with her son just days before Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Hannah knows the dangers of staying any longer than needed. But she can’t turn her back on this one little girl, even if it plunges her and her family into danger.
This is a fresh voice for the all to familiar topic of the Nazi Regime and the Holocaust that ended so many Jewish lives. I had to read a book based on Kristallnacht, the night that the Nazi's invaded Jewish neighborhoods, destroyed everything in sight, and deported approximately 12,000 German Jews to Poland. This was the first major round of deportations that led to many Jews ending up in concentration camps. I love historical fiction books based on this time period but Cantrell did a great job adding a unique voice to the story and managing to add a mystery into the story seamlessly. The characters were well developed. The only criticism is that the story dragged on a bit in the middle while Hannah, Lars, and Anton, the 3 main characters, were trying to figure out a way to leave Berlin after entering illegally. I don't want to go into to much detail to give any spoilers but I truly enjoyed this novel. There are so many books on this time period but like I said Cantrell has added something unique in the voice of the book as well as the plotline. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in reading about the Jewish Plight in Nazi Germany as well as how non-Jews were just getting through this terrible time in history. 4 stars!
September 11, 2012
This latest installment of the Hannah Vogel series finds Hannah in Poland, assigned as Adelheid Zinsli, her Swiss identity, to cover the 1938 Saint Martin festival. When she learns that 12,000 Polish Jews have been deported from Nazi Germany, Hannah knows that's where the real story is and sets out to find the refugees. She discovers a barn full of refugess and while getting the story, discovers the Jewish wife of an former co-worker, who asks Hannah to find her daughter, who she left in Berlin when she was deported.
As Hannah begins to plan how she can get the two year old Rose to safety, she finds her old fiance, Lars Lang in the hotel where she and her son Anton are staying. Lars is the current lover of Hannah's drive, Fraulein Ivona. While Hannah and Lars are trying to discuss the previous two years, the Gestapo arrives and arrests Hannah, carrying her back into Germany.
When ensues is a daring rescue and a race to find a missing child in the tinderbox that is Berlin in the days just before Kristallnacht. Weaving the past episodes of Hannah's adventures in fighting for those she cares for, we revisit many of the characters of previous novels and learn more about Hannah and Lars and their pasts. Full of suspense and action, Hannah, Lars and Anton must risk their own safety to save one innocent child.
Author Rebecca Cantrell has delivered another edge of your seat adventure. She has wisely placed each installment a couple of years apart, allowing the characters and the historical events to develop separately from each book. I'm eagerly awaiting the next adventure.
As Hannah begins to plan how she can get the two year old Rose to safety, she finds her old fiance, Lars Lang in the hotel where she and her son Anton are staying. Lars is the current lover of Hannah's drive, Fraulein Ivona. While Hannah and Lars are trying to discuss the previous two years, the Gestapo arrives and arrests Hannah, carrying her back into Germany.
When ensues is a daring rescue and a race to find a missing child in the tinderbox that is Berlin in the days just before Kristallnacht. Weaving the past episodes of Hannah's adventures in fighting for those she cares for, we revisit many of the characters of previous novels and learn more about Hannah and Lars and their pasts. Full of suspense and action, Hannah, Lars and Anton must risk their own safety to save one innocent child.
Author Rebecca Cantrell has delivered another edge of your seat adventure. She has wisely placed each installment a couple of years apart, allowing the characters and the historical events to develop separately from each book. I'm eagerly awaiting the next adventure.
July 7, 2012
A City of Broken Glass is the fourth in the “Hannah Vogel” series of books by Rebecca Cantrell. This is the story of Hannah, who has many aliases, who is trying to get out of pre-war Berlin, along with her son. She is on the Gestapo’s list as a spy. She is an investigative reporter for a newspaper in Switzerland who was sent to do a story on a saint’s celebration in Zbaszyn, Poland. She stumbles upon the deportation of German Jews to Poland and tries to help find a little girl who was left behind. She is kidnapped by Gestapo and transported back into Berlin where her life is in great danger. She escapes her captors and the story continues as she tries to get her son, herself and her SS contact out of Berlin before the Gestapo catch up with her. The ending takes place during Kristallnacht which is considered the beginning of the Holocaust by some. I was so enthralled with this story that I couldn’t stop reading until I was finished. I was kept on the edge of my seat by the danger always lurking around the corner as I devoured this story. I wish that I had read the first three novels before this one. I don’t think it will diminish my enjoyment of those because I read this last one first if the plot of those novels is as deep as this book. I congratulate Rebecca Cantrell for providing a historical novel that keeps mostly true to events as they happened during that hellish time in Berlin. I heartily recommend this book to anyone, especially those who enjoy looking back to that time in history.
I received this e-book for free from the publisher for this review.
I received this e-book for free from the publisher for this review.
October 25, 2012
This is an story about an anti-Nazi female German journalist, living in Switzerland, who is drawn back to Berlin to rescue a Jewish child. She is in Berlin at the time of "Kristallnacht", Nov. 9, 1938, the night when Nazi Stormtroopers and German citizens launched a massive government coordinated attack against Jews throughout Germany. Homes were ransacked, businesses destroyed and synagogues burned and Jewish citizens brutalized. It is a very well written, fast moving novel,full of history and just the right amount of romance. I discovered that this is part of a series written about this journalist. I will have read the rest.
December 23, 2020
I have fallen in love with Rebecca Cantrell. I got this 4th book on the character Hannah Vogel. I then decided to start from the beginning when she was introduced in Trace of smoke. I flew thru the 3 books till I got to the last one. Hannah is a german citizen in the time of the Nazi rise. She becomes disenchanted and puts herself to help by being a spy. The feel of the times, is immediately felt. You realize what people must have been going through. I wish that everyone read this series. A great historical fiction piece.
December 31, 2012
Rebecca Cantrell has written another page turning thriller in the Hannah Vogel series. This is the fourth in her her remarkable series. Hannah is in Poland investigating Jews being moved through the city when she is kidnapped and returned to Berlin. Set in 1938, Hannah must escape from Berlin as the Nazi regime continues to rise and destroy the lives of people who are important to her.
I enjoy the plot, but I also enjoy the historical details in this amazing series.
I enjoy the plot, but I also enjoy the historical details in this amazing series.
November 6, 2012
Enjoyed this author... would like to have written previous books with the protagonist Hannah Vogel, a journalist and former spy for the British who goes into hiding in Switzerland, but cannot truly escape Nazi Germany where she is wanted for murder.
December 9, 2012
This was set in Berlin during WWII under Nazi rule. This is the first book that I have read by this author. The main character is a journalist and former British spy, named Hannah Vogel. This author has other books with Hannah Vogel. Very suspenseful.
October 30, 2012
Another fantastic installment!
June 13, 2012
i love reading things from this time! it kept me excited the whole way through! def a good read!received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
September 19, 2012
Hannah is an eyewitness to the deportation of thousands of Jews to Poland and Kristallnacht. An interesting and well written series. I look forward to the next installment.
September 3, 2012
Another great book about the life of Hannah Vogel, good character development, great plot line, left me anxious for the next installment.
January 1, 2013
Last book I read in 2012! Good read!
November 21, 2012
I will go back and read the books I missed.
December 8, 2012
The best so far!
November 30, 2017
I really love this series. And I highly recommend reading all the books in order.
Cantrell has done her research, and the descriptions of the period of Hitler's rise to power, giving us time to take in the frightening steps of change covered in each book (1931, 1934, 1936, 1938..) are palpable, terrifying, and should not be forgotten. Such patterns can be successfully repeated in the right environment.
The reader feels right there in the midst of it. We can see and feel how widespread economic distress and fear, combined with a lack of knowledge and understanding of other people and groups, results in a kernel of distrust and suspicion, and can be the catalyst for a charismatic authoritarian and loyal followers with a wish for more control to gain power for their own selfish purposes.
Take the understandable fear of people with distressed conditions, slowly begin to distract and suggest possible scapegoat(s) who may have nothing to do with the problems at hand, feed the fear with exaggerated news stories and purposeful actions that provoke response and blame, then begin to seed and actually take over the media (the main source of a population's wider societal and political information), meanwhile starting to remove societal safeguards and general rights, and tightening law enforcement to gradually bring it all under centralized control of the regime.
Many people, good honest hard-working people, want and need a solution so badly and know change of some kind is necessary that they can fail to see the wider results of what is actually happening, even to the point at which the authoritarian control and fear of defying the elements of that control become normalized.
I didn't think about it at first, but it makes sense for Cantrell's protagonist to be a journalist, and also to not give journalism a total moral high ground, which would be unrealistic. Hannah has access to much more information than most, cares about people in general, and is willing to take increasingly extreme risks to find answers and help people.
She is most definitely not perfect - she's stubborn and makes snap judgements and poor decisions that can endanger both herself and the very people she wants to help, she generally fails to make plans with options to cover possible problems (especially considering the level of danger), and she has little sense of when it is better and safer in the big picture to retreat.
It bothers me intensely that as a mother (a single mother) Hannah takes such dangerous risks and even puts her son right in the center of those risks when he could have been (should have been) safe at home. If everyone had a mother like that, few of us would survive and thrive.
She still doesn't understand the nature of love, either for a child or for a partner. She wants to, and tries to, but isn't yet able to do the clear self-examination that leads to change and the right sort of choices and sacrifices love requires.
Also, the constantly arising and changing extreme situations and obstacles Hannah finds herself in sometimes seem completely unrealistic, but still.....
I have found it impossible to put these books down. The setting, the suspense and the fully drawn characters are compelling, and I have more than once found myself still reading into the early morning, even when I had to be up only a few hours later.
I will have a hard time adjusting when this series ends, and I will miss every single central character, and a good many minor ones. It has been gripping, emotional, and educational - an unforgettable reading experience.
And so, 5 stars, in spite of a few bothersome hiccups (that's the nature of the human experience anyway).
Cantrell has done her research, and the descriptions of the period of Hitler's rise to power, giving us time to take in the frightening steps of change covered in each book (1931, 1934, 1936, 1938..) are palpable, terrifying, and should not be forgotten. Such patterns can be successfully repeated in the right environment.
The reader feels right there in the midst of it. We can see and feel how widespread economic distress and fear, combined with a lack of knowledge and understanding of other people and groups, results in a kernel of distrust and suspicion, and can be the catalyst for a charismatic authoritarian and loyal followers with a wish for more control to gain power for their own selfish purposes.
Take the understandable fear of people with distressed conditions, slowly begin to distract and suggest possible scapegoat(s) who may have nothing to do with the problems at hand, feed the fear with exaggerated news stories and purposeful actions that provoke response and blame, then begin to seed and actually take over the media (the main source of a population's wider societal and political information), meanwhile starting to remove societal safeguards and general rights, and tightening law enforcement to gradually bring it all under centralized control of the regime.
Many people, good honest hard-working people, want and need a solution so badly and know change of some kind is necessary that they can fail to see the wider results of what is actually happening, even to the point at which the authoritarian control and fear of defying the elements of that control become normalized.
I didn't think about it at first, but it makes sense for Cantrell's protagonist to be a journalist, and also to not give journalism a total moral high ground, which would be unrealistic. Hannah has access to much more information than most, cares about people in general, and is willing to take increasingly extreme risks to find answers and help people.
She is most definitely not perfect - she's stubborn and makes snap judgements and poor decisions that can endanger both herself and the very people she wants to help, she generally fails to make plans with options to cover possible problems (especially considering the level of danger), and she has little sense of when it is better and safer in the big picture to retreat.
It bothers me intensely that as a mother (a single mother) Hannah takes such dangerous risks and even puts her son right in the center of those risks when he could have been (should have been) safe at home. If everyone had a mother like that, few of us would survive and thrive.
She still doesn't understand the nature of love, either for a child or for a partner. She wants to, and tries to, but isn't yet able to do the clear self-examination that leads to change and the right sort of choices and sacrifices love requires.
Also, the constantly arising and changing extreme situations and obstacles Hannah finds herself in sometimes seem completely unrealistic, but still.....
I have found it impossible to put these books down. The setting, the suspense and the fully drawn characters are compelling, and I have more than once found myself still reading into the early morning, even when I had to be up only a few hours later.
I will have a hard time adjusting when this series ends, and I will miss every single central character, and a good many minor ones. It has been gripping, emotional, and educational - an unforgettable reading experience.
And so, 5 stars, in spite of a few bothersome hiccups (that's the nature of the human experience anyway).
February 28, 2019
The first four novels in Rebecca Cantrell's Hannah Vogel series span the history of Nazi Germany from 1931 to 1938:
** In the first book, set in 1931 during the tense time before Hitler seized the Chancellery, we meet Hannah, then working as a crime reporter for a leading Berlin newspaper. In the course of investigating the death of her brother, she adopts a five-year-old orphan named Anton.
** In book two, set in 1934, Hannah flees to Bolivia to escape Ernst Röhm, a top Nazi official who considers Anton his son. But she finds herself unwillingly diverted back to Germany. There, she barely avoids being forced to marry Röhm to cover his homosexuality, only to be inadvertently rescued by Hitler when he engineers Röhm's murder in the Night of the Long Knives.
** The 1936 Berlin Olympics is the setting for book three. Now based in Switzerland and living under an assumed name, Hannah is covering the games as a reporter. She has become a British spy and is passing secrets to them from a renegade Nazi officer, Lars Lang.
Now, in book four, it's November 1938. Neville Chamberlain has already ceded the Sudetenland to Germany, and Kristallnacht is near. Now 39 years of age, Hannah is working as a reporter for a prominent Swiss paper, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Her editor has sent her to Poland, where she stumbles across a major story in a small town named Zbąszyń. There, the Nazis have deported 12,000 Polish Jews, many of whom are dying in the cold and inhospitable town.
Hannah "had been banished to this backwater from Switzerland because [her] recent anti-Nazi articles had resulted in a series of threatening letters." She has brought along 13-year-old Anton, thinking the trip to Poland would allow her to escape the drama of her long-standing conflict with the Nazi regime. But that's not to be. Two Gestapo thugs kidnap her in Zbąszyń and throw her into the trunk of a car before setting out for Berlin. But in what seems to be a coincidence, her former lover, Lars Lang, surfaces during the kidnapping. He succeeds in saving Anton. Thus begins another thrilling tale in Rebecca Cantrell's Hannah Vogel series.
In A City of Broken Glass, Hannah, Lars, and Anton will return to Berlin. There, the three will encounter constant danger as they attempt to learn the identify of the person who wrote those threatening letters and to solve the murder of another one of Hannah's former lovers.
About the author
The four books in Rebecca Cantrell's Hannah Vogel series were the first of the 16 novels she has written. The others include mysteries set in the tunnels beneath New York City and a series of vampire novels she coauthored with James Rollins. She studied and lived in Berlin for many years and speaks fluent German but has moved with her husband to Hawaii.
** In the first book, set in 1931 during the tense time before Hitler seized the Chancellery, we meet Hannah, then working as a crime reporter for a leading Berlin newspaper. In the course of investigating the death of her brother, she adopts a five-year-old orphan named Anton.
** In book two, set in 1934, Hannah flees to Bolivia to escape Ernst Röhm, a top Nazi official who considers Anton his son. But she finds herself unwillingly diverted back to Germany. There, she barely avoids being forced to marry Röhm to cover his homosexuality, only to be inadvertently rescued by Hitler when he engineers Röhm's murder in the Night of the Long Knives.
** The 1936 Berlin Olympics is the setting for book three. Now based in Switzerland and living under an assumed name, Hannah is covering the games as a reporter. She has become a British spy and is passing secrets to them from a renegade Nazi officer, Lars Lang.
Now, in book four, it's November 1938. Neville Chamberlain has already ceded the Sudetenland to Germany, and Kristallnacht is near. Now 39 years of age, Hannah is working as a reporter for a prominent Swiss paper, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Her editor has sent her to Poland, where she stumbles across a major story in a small town named Zbąszyń. There, the Nazis have deported 12,000 Polish Jews, many of whom are dying in the cold and inhospitable town.
Hannah "had been banished to this backwater from Switzerland because [her] recent anti-Nazi articles had resulted in a series of threatening letters." She has brought along 13-year-old Anton, thinking the trip to Poland would allow her to escape the drama of her long-standing conflict with the Nazi regime. But that's not to be. Two Gestapo thugs kidnap her in Zbąszyń and throw her into the trunk of a car before setting out for Berlin. But in what seems to be a coincidence, her former lover, Lars Lang, surfaces during the kidnapping. He succeeds in saving Anton. Thus begins another thrilling tale in Rebecca Cantrell's Hannah Vogel series.
In A City of Broken Glass, Hannah, Lars, and Anton will return to Berlin. There, the three will encounter constant danger as they attempt to learn the identify of the person who wrote those threatening letters and to solve the murder of another one of Hannah's former lovers.
About the author
The four books in Rebecca Cantrell's Hannah Vogel series were the first of the 16 novels she has written. The others include mysteries set in the tunnels beneath New York City and a series of vampire novels she coauthored with James Rollins. She studied and lived in Berlin for many years and speaks fluent German but has moved with her husband to Hawaii.
July 6, 2018
Hannah Vogel and Anton are in Poland to report on St Martin's Day traditions. Germany has transported Jews across the border into Poland, where this particular group is being held in a stable. Adelheid (Hannah) gets into the stable to et a story. She finds Her friend Paul's wife in labor, who tells her she hid her two year old daughter in the apartment. That night after helping a doctor with the refugees Hannah calls Bella in Germany to ask her to rescue the little girl. Who is there but Lars. Don't want to spoil but Hannah, Anton, and Lars end up in Berlin. The danger swirls ever closer to them. You start to feel how trapped they felt, how horrible things were in Germany at that point in time. The danger and tension build as the story goes on. It leads up to a night of broken glass (no surprise if you know a little history. Rebecca Cantrell weaves a story of fiction with real events and actual people in A City of Broken Glass. Do they escape? Who Lives and who dies? Who is behind the letters that threaten Hannah, the ones received at her Swiss newspaper? Hopefully there will be another book that follows the ending of this one.
November 10, 2019
I am devastated that this is the last book currently available in the Hannah Vogel book series. Hannah, once a crime reporter in Berlin, has by now (in Book 4) been sought after by the Gestapo multiple times for various reasons. In an earlier book she took in the son of a prostitute (now deceased) and a presumed father who was (in real life) close to Hitler. Along the way, Hannah has an identity in Switzerland working for another newspaper. In this book, Hannah goes to Poland on a reporting assignment and finds a group of Jews who have been moved to a stable for the moment and (of course) are being treated horribly. Among this group is a woman Hannah knew in Berlin who left a two-year old daughter behind. Much of the book is about Hannah's search to find the daughter with all the usual page-turning excitement of what will happen next as she is a high target for the Gestapo. There is also a wonderful relationship story with a man she loves, and great moments where her now son is involved in the twists and turns. I just loved these books and am sad to be leaving these characters behind for now.
December 21, 2017
This is the fourth book in this series, (so far) and i have read them back to back, absolutely enthralled, as well as addicted.
the chemistry between the two main characters is tense and realistic, and I have to say that they are the two characters that I HOPED to see together after the second and third book - Redemption is always a wonderful thing - the fugue state events were frightening, touching, and realistic, also - no spoiler here, go read the book (s)
Ms. Cantrell is greatly talented, the atmosphere is frighteningly realistic and I feel as if Ive personally just time traveled through Nazi Berlin.
She is also completely talented at dropping a cliff hanger at the end of a chapter, causing her (poor) reader (me) to lose much sleep ....as I just had to read a little further.. like another three chapters.
The books GRAB you and keep you, I highly recommend them and I really admire the amount of detail as well as knowledge they portray. Absolutely frightening.
never again.
the chemistry between the two main characters is tense and realistic, and I have to say that they are the two characters that I HOPED to see together after the second and third book - Redemption is always a wonderful thing - the fugue state events were frightening, touching, and realistic, also - no spoiler here, go read the book (s)
Ms. Cantrell is greatly talented, the atmosphere is frighteningly realistic and I feel as if Ive personally just time traveled through Nazi Berlin.
She is also completely talented at dropping a cliff hanger at the end of a chapter, causing her (poor) reader (me) to lose much sleep ....as I just had to read a little further.. like another three chapters.
The books GRAB you and keep you, I highly recommend them and I really admire the amount of detail as well as knowledge they portray. Absolutely frightening.
never again.
May 25, 2018
Have you ever seen a bird battering at a window? You'd think after the first bang, it'd move on, but something compels it to keep at trying. Hannah Vogel (which means bird in German) has the same problem. Nothing seems to be able to keep her from throwing herself in the path of oncoming Nazis. By the fourth book, I've given up on her. She has a death wish. She's a one-woman fighting machine, rescuing homosexuals, small children and of course, Jews. And for lord's sake, she's only up to 1938. How many times can she risk death by stormtrooper before she gets sent to a camp? Really, Hannah, you need tofind some other way to save the world from Fascism.
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