Berlin and Betrayal

Tangled Roots Historical Mystery #3

by Susan Finlay

In this gripping and emotional World War II genealogical mystery, the third in the Tangled Roots series, Lucas Landry deepens his search for answers about his ancestry by moving his family to Munich, Germany for a year.

In February 2020, Lucas Landry’s burning desire to bring his large German family together for a family reunion uproots him, his wife, and kids from California and moves them to Germany for a year. Unfortunately, coincident with their arrival and start of new jobs, a worldwide pandemic occurs, throwing the world and Lucas’s plans into chaos. With his oldest WWII-surviving relatives in their 80’s and 90’s being most vulnerable to the disease, Lucas fears a reunion might be impossible.

While Lucas tries to adjust to a pandemic world and protect his immediate family, he keeps busy further delving into his family’s German roots. Thinking being in Germany will at least make his research easier, he’s in for a surprise. Many Germans want to forget the past, having lived under a cloud of guilt over their ancestors’ mistakes. Key relatives want Lucas to just leave it alone. But he doggedly continues digging.

In February 1945, Germany’s defeat in WWII is inevitable and ethnic Germans, including Jette Nagel, her Nazi son, and his family, are being chased out of their homes in the German controlled Sudetenland by the Red Army. Dresden, the home of Jette’s closest family, is bombed to shambles by the Allies.

Berlin and Betrayal is a historical genealogical mystery with a dual-timeline. It’s a story about guilt, betrayal, tragedy, and forgiveness.

290 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 9, 2021

Reviews

[Debbie Trammell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series

This series has truly been very emotional. I hope there will be a book 4 but, this fractured family has come a long way. Alot of research has gone into these books.

[Scott Finlay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great episode in the B&B saga!

Finlay delivered once again, this time finally revealing some answers for the open mysteries regarding the fates of some of her characters from the previous stories. We get to see what happened to the characters and how their stories turned out in the end as well as what happened to them in the present day. It was also a nice and interesting touch to include the pandemic, and the author portrayed it very accurately.


As always, I particularly enjoyed how history is shown to be multi-faceted, with so many different perspectives. You can see how, in times of war, everyone can be both the hero and the villain depending on the point of view, and most of the time people's actions (on all sides) are relatable and justified when you understand the circumstances.


Now I'm just left wondering: is this the end of a trilogy, or is there still more? Perhaps a spin-off series is on the way? (Fingers crossed)

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Reunion of Sorts

Lucas moved his family and M-I-L to Germany in the hopes of getting all of the Angel families together again. Then the Pandemic hit the world and so other plans had to be made.

[Mimi Huminski]

I read Susan Finlay's bio after reading the first of the Tangles Roots Series. Because she seemed like the type of person I would enjoy, I read the first 2 books in this series and kept thinking the writing (and perhaps editing) would improve and constant confusion with the characters would stop! Well it has not. There are too many errors that any good proofreader should have corrected. The stories are interesting and I particularly enjoyed Lucas and his family's interaction and his desire to stay with the "search". However, it was rather difficult to keep who was who in the stories straight. Perhaps if the reader were to sit and read straight through each book it would have been easier. However when I found the "Cast List" at the end of book 2 it really helped. I even printed it out to try to "enjoy" book 3 but it was way too much work. Perhaps if the prologue of book one had the "CAST OF CHARACTERS", it would give the reader the opportunity to determine if it was a book they would enjoy or might not.
I read for enjoyment away from work and certainly did not need to have to study the genealogy to follow the story. Thus I gave it up mid book 3 and have gone on to more enjoyable relaxing books.

[Aryn-Marietta Eaton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t waist your time. There is much better historical fiction set against WWII available.