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Anna Fehrbach #1
Angel From Hell
There's no escape...
When in March 1938 Germany invades Austria, all anti-Nazis are immediately rounded up and imprisoned.
Prominent amongst these is liberal editor Johann Fehrbach, his Anglo-Irish wife, and his two daughters. But the elder of the girls, seventeen-year-old Annaliese, is separated from her parents and taken into Gestapo custody.
The officer arresting her has immediately recognized that she is an exceptional personality: extraordinarily good-looking, she has an IQ of 173, is a superb athlete, head girl of her convent, and, because of her mother, speaks English fluently. Annaliese is taken off to an SS training camp and after an exacting and often terrifying learning process, is inducted into the SD, the most secret of German secret services.
She must serve the Reich – or her family dies...
Born in the West Indies, British author Christopher Nicole’s historical fiction has won international acclaim. Christopher Nicole lives with his wife, Diana, also a novelist, in the Channel Islands, where he also writes under the name Alan Savage.
Recent titles from this author include Ransom Island, Poor Darling, The Pursuit, The Voyage, Demon, The Followers, The Falls of Death, A Fearful Thing and, most recently, Cold Country, Hot Sun.
When in March 1938 Germany invades Austria, all anti-Nazis are immediately rounded up and imprisoned.
Prominent amongst these is liberal editor Johann Fehrbach, his Anglo-Irish wife, and his two daughters. But the elder of the girls, seventeen-year-old Annaliese, is separated from her parents and taken into Gestapo custody.
The officer arresting her has immediately recognized that she is an exceptional personality: extraordinarily good-looking, she has an IQ of 173, is a superb athlete, head girl of her convent, and, because of her mother, speaks English fluently. Annaliese is taken off to an SS training camp and after an exacting and often terrifying learning process, is inducted into the SD, the most secret of German secret services.
She must serve the Reich – or her family dies...
Born in the West Indies, British author Christopher Nicole’s historical fiction has won international acclaim. Christopher Nicole lives with his wife, Diana, also a novelist, in the Channel Islands, where he also writes under the name Alan Savage.
Recent titles from this author include Ransom Island, Poor Darling, The Pursuit, The Voyage, Demon, The Followers, The Falls of Death, A Fearful Thing and, most recently, Cold Country, Hot Sun.
- GenresThriller
275 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 2, 2006
45 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Nicole
220 books58 followersChristopher Robin Nicole was born on 7 December 1930 in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana), where he was raised. He is the son of Jean Dorothy (Logan) and Jack Nicole, a police officer, both Scottish. He studied at Queen's College in Guyana and at Harrison College in Barbados. He was a fellow at the Canadian Bankers Association and a clerk for the Royal Bank of Canada in Georgetown and Nassau from 1947 to 1956. In 1957, he moved to Guernsey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom, where he currently lives, but he also has a domicile in Spain.
On 31 March 1951, he married his first wife, Jean Regina Amelia Barnett, with whom he had two sons, Bruce and Jack, and two daughters, Julie and Ursula, they divorced. On 8 May 1982 he married for the second time with fellow writer Diana Bachmann.
As a romantic and passionate of history, Nicole has been published since 1957, when he published a book about West Indian Cricket. He published his first novel in 1959 with his first stories set in his native Caribbean. Later he wrote many historical novels set mostly in tumultuous periods like World War I, World War II and the Cold War, and depict places in Europe, Asia and Africa. He also wrote classic romance novels. He specialized in Series and Sagas, and continues to write into the 21st century with no intention of retiring.
He signs his books as Christopher Nicole and uses several pseudonyms, some of them female. Pseudonyms used include: Peter Grange, Andrew York, Robin Cade, Mark Logan, Christina Nicholson, Alison York, Leslie Arlen, Robin Nicholson, C. R. Nicholson, Daniel Adams, Simon McKay, Caroline Gray and Alan Savage. He wrote disaster thrillers in collaboration with his wife, Diana Bachmann, under the penname Max Marlow. Under his different pseudonyms he has worked with many publishing houses: Jarrolds, Hutchinson, Simon & Schuster, Coward-McCann & Geoghegan, Jove, Michael Joseph, Mills & Boon, and Severn House.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christop... and
http://openlibrary.org/authors/OL1009...
On 31 March 1951, he married his first wife, Jean Regina Amelia Barnett, with whom he had two sons, Bruce and Jack, and two daughters, Julie and Ursula, they divorced. On 8 May 1982 he married for the second time with fellow writer Diana Bachmann.
As a romantic and passionate of history, Nicole has been published since 1957, when he published a book about West Indian Cricket. He published his first novel in 1959 with his first stories set in his native Caribbean. Later he wrote many historical novels set mostly in tumultuous periods like World War I, World War II and the Cold War, and depict places in Europe, Asia and Africa. He also wrote classic romance novels. He specialized in Series and Sagas, and continues to write into the 21st century with no intention of retiring.
He signs his books as Christopher Nicole and uses several pseudonyms, some of them female. Pseudonyms used include: Peter Grange, Andrew York, Robin Cade, Mark Logan, Christina Nicholson, Alison York, Leslie Arlen, Robin Nicholson, C. R. Nicholson, Daniel Adams, Simon McKay, Caroline Gray and Alan Savage. He wrote disaster thrillers in collaboration with his wife, Diana Bachmann, under the penname Max Marlow. Under his different pseudonyms he has worked with many publishing houses: Jarrolds, Hutchinson, Simon & Schuster, Coward-McCann & Geoghegan, Jove, Michael Joseph, Mills & Boon, and Severn House.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christop... and
http://openlibrary.org/authors/OL1009...
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 13, 2018
An intriguing spy thriller where the secret agent is from Nazi Germany and is a woman trained to kill and thrill in sexual pleasures.
Originally from Austria, Annaliese Fehrbach a clever, athletic and beautiful teenager sees the German Army marching into her streets as they annex her country.
Since her father is newspaper editor his anti-fascist views are well known to the Nazi Party. By the end of the day the whole family have been arrested and taken into prison. An observant secret policeman takes Annaliese to another room. He feels her high IQ, natural beauty and physical form make her more useful to the party working for them.
She is given a simple choice. Allow them to complete her education and work for them; such obedience will save her families’ lives - disobey and they will be killed, she will be punished and used as a whore in a SS brothel.
She leaves her convent education behind and learns to kill with any weapon to hand and thrill anyone sexually to gain trust and secrets.
A new identity is created for her; she becomes Anna an operative of the SD, the most secret of the party’s clandestine agencies.
She learns quickly but becomes detached from her reality; cold emotionally and her only driver is to please her handlers that her family is saved. As the process continues she learns to survive, unfortunately her biggest threat is her own intellect that makes her questioning and inquisitive which in an army of loyal soldiers leaves her vulnerable.
A page turner of a read. Very interesting from the German perspective and with a female protagonist. Follows the historical events and makes good use of female spy craft when we are used to Bond like heroes. In addition it is a clash of loyalties since we both warm to this woman but she her ruthlessness. Is she a Nazi or all things to all men. To quote from this excellent book “Or she could be the most consummate femme fatale since Mata Hari.”
Originally from Austria, Annaliese Fehrbach a clever, athletic and beautiful teenager sees the German Army marching into her streets as they annex her country.
Since her father is newspaper editor his anti-fascist views are well known to the Nazi Party. By the end of the day the whole family have been arrested and taken into prison. An observant secret policeman takes Annaliese to another room. He feels her high IQ, natural beauty and physical form make her more useful to the party working for them.
She is given a simple choice. Allow them to complete her education and work for them; such obedience will save her families’ lives - disobey and they will be killed, she will be punished and used as a whore in a SS brothel.
She leaves her convent education behind and learns to kill with any weapon to hand and thrill anyone sexually to gain trust and secrets.
A new identity is created for her; she becomes Anna an operative of the SD, the most secret of the party’s clandestine agencies.
She learns quickly but becomes detached from her reality; cold emotionally and her only driver is to please her handlers that her family is saved. As the process continues she learns to survive, unfortunately her biggest threat is her own intellect that makes her questioning and inquisitive which in an army of loyal soldiers leaves her vulnerable.
A page turner of a read. Very interesting from the German perspective and with a female protagonist. Follows the historical events and makes good use of female spy craft when we are used to Bond like heroes. In addition it is a clash of loyalties since we both warm to this woman but she her ruthlessness. Is she a Nazi or all things to all men. To quote from this excellent book “Or she could be the most consummate femme fatale since Mata Hari.”
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February 11, 2019
Audiobook - 08:52 hours - Narrator: Jilly Bond
(Anna Fehrbach, the Angel #1)
3.5 stars.
Enjoyable read. Review to follow in due course, but suffice it to say that I will proceed with reading "the Angel #2, Angel in Red" in the near future.
(Anna Fehrbach, the Angel #1)
3.5 stars.
Enjoyable read. Review to follow in due course, but suffice it to say that I will proceed with reading "the Angel #2, Angel in Red" in the near future.
February 3, 2017
Anna is an extremely attractive girl born to an Anglo-Irish mother and German father. Her parents and her younger sister, are taken by force from their home by Nazi officials upon learning that her father was a liberal editor who was an anti-Nazi. Anna, fortunately for her soon-to-be learnt "useful attributes" to the Hitler regime,by the SS, separate her from the rest of her family and put her through special training to make a undercover agent out of her.
She is told to fulfill her duties to her hire-ups and is threatened to lose her family if she ever steps out of line.
Sadly, I must say, the ending of this book was somewhat predictable.
Nonetheless, I did enjoy the entire reading of the book. The author's style of writing was very engaging to me as a reader and as a result, I sailed through each page with ease.
I did feel bad for Ballentine for being the laughing stock of the English people, but, hey, that can serve as a lesson to anyone that, there is more than that meets the eye. Right?
I wont dare have any spoilers posted up here, so I would urge you my fellow readers to go into a shop or go online and buy this book. You will enjoy reading it and at least keep you away from watching your occasional cat videos on YouTube.
She is told to fulfill her duties to her hire-ups and is threatened to lose her family if she ever steps out of line.
Sadly, I must say, the ending of this book was somewhat predictable.
Nonetheless, I did enjoy the entire reading of the book. The author's style of writing was very engaging to me as a reader and as a result, I sailed through each page with ease.
I did feel bad for Ballentine for being the laughing stock of the English people, but, hey, that can serve as a lesson to anyone that, there is more than that meets the eye. Right?
I wont dare have any spoilers posted up here, so I would urge you my fellow readers to go into a shop or go online and buy this book. You will enjoy reading it and at least keep you away from watching your occasional cat videos on YouTube.
July 12, 2017
I really enjoyed the first half of the book. The story moved along fast and as everybody was very much a stereotype, it wasn't hard to know the characters quickly. Then about midway the guys took over. No longer was the heroine constantly in the picture, there were boring men talking and talking and talking. So if in the beginning I was hoping I could finally award a book five stars again, this dwindled to about three, which may yet be too generous as now that I'm writing this, I can't even remember how the book ended. So, sadly, I'll forego reading more books in the series.
The book probably would have benefitted from a good editor. Even I found discrepancies: Would a 1939 Brit say "The million dollar question is...", or "I don't watch the news" ?
Yes, I'll make that two.
The book probably would have benefitted from a good editor. Even I found discrepancies: Would a 1939 Brit say "The million dollar question is...", or "I don't watch the news" ?
Yes, I'll make that two.
January 18, 2023
Christopher Nicole is the author of more than 200 books & novels. Angel from Hell was published in 2018 and is the first book of his Anna Fehrbach series. This was the 90th book I completed in 2022.
I purchased this book from Amazon for my Kindle. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to scenes of violence, mature language, and mature situations, I categorize this novel as R.
The story opens in 1938 as the Nazis take Austria. Arrests are made of all those opposed to the Third Reich. Johann Fehrbach and his family are among those rounded up. He had been the publisher of a liberal newspaper that spoke out against the Nazis.
His eldest daughter, seventeen-year-old Annaliese, is separated from the rest of the family. A German officer recognizes that her intelligence and beauty can be used to the Reich’s advantage. The rest of her family is held hostage to force Annaliese to obey the Gestapo.
She is trained in the arts of seduction, assassination, and intelligence tradecraft. Upon completing her training, she is put to work for the SD. She is told to flirt, socialize, and seduce targets of the SD.
Eventually, she is told to focus on Ballantine Bordman of the British Foreign Office. The much older Bordman is soon smitten with Annaliese. They are married, and she returns to England with him. She has orders to make copies of her husband’s documents and send them to Germany.
Clive Bartley had traveled to Berlin with Bordman. He meets Annaliese there when she is introduced to the British diplomat. Bartley is suspicious of her and her quick romance with Bordman. As a member of MI6, he is constantly on alert for German operatives.
Bartley confronts Annaliese, and she willingly agrees to become a double agent. She also finds herself romantically entangled with him. Annaliese is forced to walk a fine line to maintain credibility with her German handlers while doing what she can for MI6.
I enjoyed the 6.5+ hours I spent reading this 275-page WWII-era thriller. The novel is filled with action. I have also had the opportunity to read another Nicole novel, Battleground. It is another enjoyable WWII-era thriller. I like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a rating of 4.5 (rounded up to a 5) out of 5.
You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).
I purchased this book from Amazon for my Kindle. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to scenes of violence, mature language, and mature situations, I categorize this novel as R.
The story opens in 1938 as the Nazis take Austria. Arrests are made of all those opposed to the Third Reich. Johann Fehrbach and his family are among those rounded up. He had been the publisher of a liberal newspaper that spoke out against the Nazis.
His eldest daughter, seventeen-year-old Annaliese, is separated from the rest of the family. A German officer recognizes that her intelligence and beauty can be used to the Reich’s advantage. The rest of her family is held hostage to force Annaliese to obey the Gestapo.
She is trained in the arts of seduction, assassination, and intelligence tradecraft. Upon completing her training, she is put to work for the SD. She is told to flirt, socialize, and seduce targets of the SD.
Eventually, she is told to focus on Ballantine Bordman of the British Foreign Office. The much older Bordman is soon smitten with Annaliese. They are married, and she returns to England with him. She has orders to make copies of her husband’s documents and send them to Germany.
Clive Bartley had traveled to Berlin with Bordman. He meets Annaliese there when she is introduced to the British diplomat. Bartley is suspicious of her and her quick romance with Bordman. As a member of MI6, he is constantly on alert for German operatives.
Bartley confronts Annaliese, and she willingly agrees to become a double agent. She also finds herself romantically entangled with him. Annaliese is forced to walk a fine line to maintain credibility with her German handlers while doing what she can for MI6.
I enjoyed the 6.5+ hours I spent reading this 275-page WWII-era thriller. The novel is filled with action. I have also had the opportunity to read another Nicole novel, Battleground. It is another enjoyable WWII-era thriller. I like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a rating of 4.5 (rounded up to a 5) out of 5.
You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).
April 19, 2024
I first came across this on Goodreads when randomly browsing books. The blurb was quite interesting and it was available on Kindle Unlimited. What was interesting was that this was an 8 book series.
I finally got around to reading it now and it more or less met my expectations. The story was quite fast-paced and I enjoyed reading the main character's thoughts and ideas. I don't know if her actions showed an IQ of 173 but she was quite resourceful.
The events in the second half of the book didn't really blow me away which is why i can't give it 5 stars. But it was quite entertaining. The ending promises a different setting in the second book which I will read sooner rather than later.
I finally got around to reading it now and it more or less met my expectations. The story was quite fast-paced and I enjoyed reading the main character's thoughts and ideas. I don't know if her actions showed an IQ of 173 but she was quite resourceful.
The events in the second half of the book didn't really blow me away which is why i can't give it 5 stars. But it was quite entertaining. The ending promises a different setting in the second book which I will read sooner rather than later.
June 21, 2019
Good book
Looking forward to the next book. Very good material. I am aware of is fiction but, could be based on truth I am sure. Many women were made to do awful things when their families were threatened.
Looking forward to the next book. Very good material. I am aware of is fiction but, could be based on truth I am sure. Many women were made to do awful things when their families were threatened.
April 8, 2018
Good read
A decent quick read, a bit heavy on the torture but she had to turn for a reason. It will appeal to anyone who enjoys war time spy stories.
A decent quick read, a bit heavy on the torture but she had to turn for a reason. It will appeal to anyone who enjoys war time spy stories.
November 27, 2018
Very good.
I loved this book. Anna was so likeable. She is WW11's female James Bond. Looking forward to the sequel, which is next on my TBR.
I loved this book. Anna was so likeable. She is WW11's female James Bond. Looking forward to the sequel, which is next on my TBR.
June 2, 2019
Angel from Hell
Superb read. I don't know if this is a true story, I hope it is. But who's. I'll have to do some research.
Superb read. I don't know if this is a true story, I hope it is. But who's. I'll have to do some research.
April 1, 2021
I don't normally read historical fiction, but I'm glad I made an exception for this series. With a fantastic female main character and excellent writing, this is a MUST read.
June 7, 2021
He'll has no fury
A well written story by this author hence the 5 stars. If you enjoy spy stories then ti s to read.
A well written story by this author hence the 5 stars. If you enjoy spy stories then ti s to read.
September 27, 2022
Drivel to excite aged schoolboys! 🤦♂️
November 14, 2016
Spy thrillers set in WWII are common enough but this book has unique qualities, not least that it almost qualifies as erotic fiction. Unlike books of that genre, it is well written which enables one to forgive the more lurid episodes and Nicole cleverly undermines resistance to them with the explanation of her motivation.
As the matter is introduced in the first passages, it isn't spoiling to mention that the heroine is an amusing synthesis of an assassin who excels in unarmed lethality whilst being convincing as a terrified girl forced by circumstances to act against all of her instincts and morals.
As the matter is introduced in the first passages, it isn't spoiling to mention that the heroine is an amusing synthesis of an assassin who excels in unarmed lethality whilst being convincing as a terrified girl forced by circumstances to act against all of her instincts and morals.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews