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    City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense
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    City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense
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    City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense
    Ebook664 pages8 hours

    City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense

    By Ariana Franklin

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A cultured city scarred by war. . . . An eastern émigré with scars and secrets of her own. . . . A young woman claiming to be a Russian grand duchess. . . . A brazen killer, as vicious as he is clever. . . . A detective driven by decency and the desire for justice.

    . . . A nightmare political movement steadily gaining power. . . .

    This is 1922 Berlin.

    One of the troubled city's growing number of refugees, Esther Solomonova survives by working as secretary to the charming, unscrupulous cabaret owner "Prince" Nick, and she's being drawn against her will into his scheme to pass a young asylum patient off as Anastasia, the last surviving heir to the murdered czar of all Russia. But their found "princess," Anna Anderson, fears that she's being hunted—and this may turn out to be more than paranoia when innocent people all around her begin to die.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061834165
    Unavailable
    City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense
    Author

    Ariana Franklin

    Ariana Franklin was the award-winning author of Mistress of the Art of Death and the critically acclaimed, bestselling medieval thriller series of the same name, as well as the twentieth-century thriller City of Shadows. She died in 2011, while writing The Siege Winter.

    Read more from Ariana Franklin

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    Reviews for City of Shadows

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    • 3/5
      Abrooding dark read
    • 5/5
      City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin is an engrossing and entertaining murder mystery set in 1920s and 30s Berlin during the years leading up to Nazi control. After World War I, the Russian Revolution was a huge factor that brought about a shift in population. A surge of emigres, from rich White Russians to poor Jews arrived in Germany fleeing the Bolsheviks. One rumour seemed to capture the minds and hearts of people everywhere, could one of the Czar’s daughters have survived the massacre at Ekaterinburg?Prince Nick Potrovskov, a slick Russian nightclub owner hears about a woman who could possibly be a daughter of the Czar and rescues her from a Berlin insane asylum. He assigns two of his Russian employees to live, look after and groom this woman whom they name Anna Anderson. His Jewish secretary, Esther and an ex-Romanov servant now working as a stripper, Natalya. Anna Anderson lives in terror of a man who is stalking her, and all too soon people around Anna Anderson are being murdered. When Police Inspector Schmidt enters the case, he and Esther form a bond and eventually fall in love, all the while trying to protect Anna and hunt down her powerful enemy. In City of Shadows, author Ariana Franklin plays with the myth of Anastasia, the rumour of her survival when the family of the Czar were murdered was one that persisted up until 2007 when the bodies of the last Russian ruling family were located and identified by DNA evidence. I remember Anna Anderson, the woman who persisted in proclaiming herself the long lost Anastasia and although the author has changed some of the facts and developed a superb murder mystery around her, much of what she has written here did happen. To add to the authenticity of the story, the setting of Berlin as Hitler rises and gains control gives the book a sense of urgency and fatalism. I absolutely loved this story with it’s blend of romance, violence, humor and mystery.
    • 5/5
      I love this book; and it screams for a rereading after you know the plot twist. Upon rereading the clues are ingenious and heartbreaking both. Franklin (pseudonym for a writer of historical fiction) deftly writes history that is sharp in tone, not sentimental or maudlin. The tension of the last part of the book (when you know what's coming for Berlin but Berliners don't) is excruciating.
    • 5/5
      An instant classic. Seamlessly integrates the infamous historical mystery of Anastasia into an atmospheric novel with great characters.
    • 3/5
      I love historical fiction, but this book drug on a little for me. There were a few too many characters to keep track of and I just never really got into the story. It was well-written with an interesting premise, but not one of my favorites.
    • 3/5
      Set in Berlin from 1922 to 1933, this suspense novel explores a turbulent time for the people of Germany, who are struggling with hyper-inflation, a depressed economy and a government unable to get the nation back on its feet following defeat in WWI. Esther Solomonova is a refugee from that era; a Russian Jew who bears the scars of the pogrom which killed her family, she works as a secretary to fellow Russian “Prince” Nick who runs several cabarets. But when Nick discovers a woman in an insane asylum who claims to be a Romanov, Esther is pressed to help him pass her off as the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Whoever Anna Anderson really is, it’s clear that there is someone out to kill her.

      This was a very atmospheric novel, with the city and time frame central to the plot. However, it moved rather slowly for me. Not sure if this was a side effect of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, but I could never really lose myself in the story and it took me a long time to read.

      That being said, Franklin crafts an intricate plot and gives us wonderful characters which she slowly reveals throughout the novel. I came to really care about Esther, Anna, and Inspector Schmidt. While I thought that the actual killer and the reveal / resolution of that plot line was a little over the top, I give Franklin credit for building suspense. Already familiar with the historical events during this time frame, I grew increasingly nervous about how they would endure the coming political changes.

      In a brief Author’s Note at the end of the novel, Franklin explains how she took inspiration from the real story of Anna Anderson, who called herself the Grand Duchess Anastasia.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book even though I did not like the mystery and suspense elements much - in fact, the suspense became tiresome. What I liked was the very believable portrayal of a young Jewish woman's experience living in Berlin following WWI. It was well-researched and brought some history alive for me.
    • 5/5
      City of Shadows opens in 1920s Berlin, in the world of daring nightclubs and Russian emigres. After a gap of several years, it returns to 1930s Berlin, just as Hitler is coming to power. The protagonists are Schmidt, a Berlin policeman, and Esther, a Jewish refugee from Russia. They are tied together by Anna Anderson -- "Anastasia" -- whom Esther's boss, a fraudulent Russian prince, rescues from an insane asylum and supports in her claim to be heir to the Czarist throne. Anna has a mysterious stalker who reappears as if on schedule. I really can't tell too much more about this book without introducing spoilers. I liked it especially since I lived in Berlin for a year in the early 1970s and have read some other books about the city and the Weimar Republic. Franklin does an excellent job of conveying the atmosphere of Berlin during the rise of the Nazis, when so many couldn't believe it was happening until it was too late. The ending is both surprising and satisfying. Read this book! You won't be sorry.
    • 4/5
      I really like Ariana Franklin's books, I'm sad there will be no more of them. I think what I like best about them are the wonderful complex, flawed, unpredictable characters. Also there are usually at least one or two scenes in each book where I suddenly feel like I've been transported to the time and place she's writing about, and am feeling what it would have been like to have been there.

      In this one it was a terrifying moment in pre war Berlin watching a Nazi rally light up the night and knowing the light of civilization was guttering out.

      I've also read a fair about about Anna Anderson and I feel like she really portrayed her convincingly while at the same time showing me how it was possible to have sympathy for her in a way I didn't before.
    • 5/5
      Kept me reading at a frantic pace to get to the end. Really good integration of real people and events with fictional characters. Great read.
    • 3/5
      Nazis, Romanovs, Communists, German and Eastern European Jews, and expat Russians provide plenty of dramatic potential for this stand-alone historical mystery. Franklin uses the real-life Anna Anderson, who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, as the focus of a serial killer. Once she is aware of the danger, Russian Jew Esther Solomonova does everything in her power to protect Anna, even if it means supporting Anna's claim to be Anastasia when Esther is convinced that she isn't. Esther joins forces with a German policeman who risks everything important to him to uncover the truth.I think Ariana Franklin must be one of those authors who, for whatever reason, just doesn't click with me despite her popularity among readers with similar tastes to mine. A few anachronisms jumped out at me as I read, such as a woman described as a “silent film star” in the part of the book set in 1922-23. (Since all films were silent in those years, I think people of the era would call her a “film star” without the qualification.) I was also annoyed by Franklin's overuse of the “f” word. It's just not right for otherwise intelligent characters to have such a limited vocabulary. Although Esther very much reminded me of Maisie Dobbs, she didn't have Maisie's appeal.Possible SpoilerFranklin had the bad luck to release the book just months before the remains of the last two Romanovs were conclusively identified through DNA analysis. All of the Romanovs have now been accounted for, and none of them survived. Since the possibility that one of the Romanov daughters survived is integral to the plot, readers need to be willing to overlook all of the evidence to the contrary.
    • 5/5
      This is a little different from the Mistress of Death series by this author that I have read. For one thing it is set in a fairly recent historical era, the time between the two world wars. For another, it is not so much who did it as will he be caught.Esther is a Russian Jew who escaped from the Bolsheviks but not before she was badly scarred. She made it to Berlin and found a job as a secretary to another Russian who calls himself Prince Nick. Nick runs several nightclubs and he does very well even though Germany is suffering one of the worst economic times it has ever seen. Nick hears that there is a woman in an insane asylum who might be one of the Crown Princesses of Russia. He takes Esther with him to see the woman who says she is Anastasia. Nick gives Esther the job of looking after Anna Anderson(as he calls her) while he wines, dines and beds his newest conquest. As Esther keeps watch over Anna she sees a large man leave a hiding place in the nightclub and start to come up the stairs. Esther attacks him with a broom and together with a bouncer they manage to drive him off. This man then shows up at regular intervals trying to get to Anna and killing several other people in the meantime. A German police officer, Inspector Schmidt, was right on the spot for the first attack. Esther trusts him and they end up working together trying to find this monster. Meanwhile the Nazis and Hitler are gaining momentum and we know how that ends. The culmination occurs on the same night Hitler is pronounced Chancellor. The ending came as a complete surprise to me. I did not see it coming at all. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      In 1922 Berlin, an impoverished Russian prince, exiled from his country after the Revolution, hires Esther Solomonova, a young Jewish woman with a mysteriously scarred face. He reveals a daring plot to her: they will rescue a girl named Anna from a mental asylum, and pass her off to the world as the lost Duchess Anastasia Romanov. But with Anna living in her apartment, it doesn't take Esther long to realize that everyone around the strange girl is being assassinated. Who is Anna Anderson?I really enjoyed Ariana Franklin's "Mistress of the Art of Death," and the premise of this one sounded even better. Fraud and counterfeit princesses and 1920's identity theft? I just love Franklin's story ideas.I liked the book, but I didn't love it. I never felt that I got to know the characters very well, and in the middle of the book, I just didn't feel interested in what was going on.The little sketches we are given of the characters make them sound fascinating - a penniless prince, a stripper, a Jewish woman who is mysteriously disfigured, a young mental hospital patient posing as royalty... But they were never really filled out, and the excellent intrigue that the book presents us in the beginning had so much more potential, in my opinion.My favorite character was Anna Anderson, who was an actual person that attempted to convince the world she was Anastasia. For a short time, she even succeeded, until DNA testing decades later allowed us to determine that she had no relation to the Romanov family. Here, Anna is fascinating of course, but I so wish she had been focused on more strongly. At the peak of her sham, when she is beginning to mix in high society and interact with her supposed 'royal relatives,' she mostly slips out of the story and fades into the background. What! I love Franklin's ability to create an atmosphere, and the feel to this book is decidedly dark and brooding. Even though it is not all that big of a plot point, the rising hostility toward Judaism is mentioned quite a lot, and as time passes, we see things getting worse and worse for the Jews as time progresses. Hitler is also mentioned passingly a few times, and one of the main characters even appears to support him, or at least approve of him from a political standpoint. This foreshadowing of what we know is to happen later fits perfectly with the overall tension to the story - we know that the mystery killer is still out there, somewhere, watching, waiting, and plotting. The fact that we know nothing about him, and that the most detailed description we are given is of a silhouette, makes him seem all the more unearthly and frightening. We do not know who he is, or even his motives. All we know is that he appears in the night, and people are found dead the next day. The author is very good at capturing the emotion of fear, and creating suspense and an ominous mood. The characters are afflicted by all of these troubling thoughts, passing them on to the reader. They are always looking over their shoulders, and at one point a man thinks quite randomly to himself "The killer is near. He's coming toward me." In a historical world that lacks actual monsters, this book makes good use of using mind games and mystery to create villains.While I would never associate this book with the horror genre, the stalker/assassin is very memorable and stands out even though we never get to see much of him.Some little things that annoyed me would be...- The characters are always 'grunting.' They grunt out short answers, they grunt at a revelation, they grunt in surprise, they grunt in sorrow... The word was definitely over-used. And besides that, I just don't like that word, for some reason.- *mild spoilers* A love interest of Esther's is married when he first meets her. Hannelore is perfect for him, the sweet angel of a wife, but Schmidt still finds himself attracted to Esther. I wondered to myself how this would play out, since it wouldn't seem right for anything between Schmidt and Esther to develop. And then, Hannelore is conveniently killed off! Schmidt and Esther are now free to start up their relationship (and they do). It just annoyed me, even though Schmidt did wait a few years. Maybe it was that I predicted it.Overall, "City of Shadows" was a mix of good and bad. The beginning was good, the middle was un-interesting, and the ending was very good. I felt that it was a satisfying, if somewhat unbelievable, final twist.
    • 5/5
      I know I have read a fantastic book when, once finished, I realize I had been holding my breath and the only word I can say is an awed "Wow!" This was such a book.Written around the true person, Anna Anderson, who claimed until her death that she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia, this story stars Esther Salamonova, a strong, intelligent, scarred, proud woman, a Jew who takes a job with a self-proclaimed Russian prince who finds a woman in an asylum claiming to be a survivor of Tsar Nicolai's family. He rents an apartment for Esther, Anna, and Natalya, a dancer in one of his clubs. Esther and Natalya are charged with the preparation of Anna who is in mortal fear of the Cheka, the Russian secret police. It seems that someone is after her as one of Prince Nick's employees, Olga, is found tortured and murdered in her apartment, presumably a lost effort to discover where Anna is living. She is the first of several violent murders of people who are in direct or indirect contact of Anna. To investigate Olga's murder, the police send Inspector Schmidt who impresses Esther with his concern. At one point in this book I felt like the violence was being drawn out but it was necessary to give the reader the slow, insidious rise of the Nazi party into Berlin life. The naming of Hitler as Chancellor coincides with the climax of our story, raising the level of heart-pounding fear that much higher. The late Ariana Franklin, author of the amazing series featuring another proud, intelligent woman, Adelia Aguilar, had a wonderful gift of creating strong female characters who are able to shatter the glass ceilings and rise above the levels imposed on them by the men of their ages. She also had a way of presenting the plights of Jews in both these time periods without making the story about them.Readers who enjoyed the series should seek this book out. It's darker and more sinister but totally engrossing. I can't rave enough about this excellent story.
    • 5/5
      First Line: If Ignaz Stapel hadn't been so afraid of his father, he would have reported the incident and perhaps saved the lives of all the people who were to die as a consequence of it.It's 1922 in Berlin, Germany. Inflation is mind boggling, the German government seems paralyzed, anti-Semitism is at an all-new high, people are starving, and Hitler is on the rise. Esther Solomonova has managed to find a job as secretary to pseudo-Russian nobleman, Prince Nick, who's the owner of several night clubs in Berlin. Nick finds an inmate in a local insane asylum who claims to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, the sole survivor of the slaughter of the Russian royal family. Nick installs her in an apartment with Esther, beginning his quest to get his hands on the wealth of the Romanovs. However, a mysterious Nazi is trying to murder Anna, and people close to her begin to die.I have always had a fascination with Tsarist Russia-- in particular Nicholas and Alexandra and their children. As a result, the history of Anna Anderson has also captured my imagination. Franklin uses all this and the backdrop of Berlin to stunning effect. She made me see the hopeless struggles of the German people against runaway inflation and how desperation could make them turn to anyone or anything that seemed to have a solution.Esther is a beautifully drawn character. Her horrible disfigurement in a pogrom, her strong moral compass, her intelligence... Franklin made me care about this woman, made me wonder how she was going to get away from Prince Nick's schemes, made me hope that she would escape the murderer who was after Anna.And Franklin had certainly done her homework on Anna Anderson. Although we'll never know what made Anderson jump off that bridge in Berlin, the author's inventions are entirely plausible. In fact, she had me so wrapped up in Anderson's story that I was stunned by the neat twist at the end of the book.Franklin's depiction of Berlin in the 1920's, her use of the riddle of the woman who was called Anna Anderson, the steadfast and mysterious character of Esther Solomonova, and a frightening murderer in the shadows all combined to make City of Shadows one of the best books I've read so far this year. If you enjoy historical mysteries, I certainly hope you'll give this one a try. As a person who has yet to sample Franklin's more famous Mistress of the Art of Death, I can't help but feel that I have a real treat in store for me!
    • 4/5
      A Russian nightclub owner in Berlin hears of a young woman who an asylum inmate says is a daughter of the slain czar. Prince Nick decides to capitalize on the woman's story by taking her out of the asylum and grooming her for presentation as Anastasia. His secretary, a scar-faced Russian Jew named Esther Solomonova, and a stripper in one of his clubs take on the job. But soon the stripper and another woman are dead and Esther doubts the Cheka is behind the killings. She and Berlin Inspector Schmidt pool their knowledge, try to quench their mutual flame, and a decade later set out again to solve the mysteries surrounding Anna Anderson/Anastasia. The characters are well-formed, the writing pulls the reader along, and the atmosphere of a Germany struggling back from World War I and out of severe economic depression is marvelously depicted. Schmidt, a smart man, does a couple of incredibly stupid things just to further the plot and body count, and the big "reveal" at the end is diminished by the heavy hints dropped along the way, but all in all this is a satisfying and intelligent novel.
    • 4/5
      It took me a while to get into this story about Esther Solomonova, a Russian Jewish refugee who escapes the Bolsheviks only to find herself in pre-ww2 Germany. But by the time I was a quarter or so into it I didn't want to put it down. Its a good read built around a clever plot, believable characters and atmosphere.
    • 5/5
      A colleague introduced me to Ariana Franklin's work, and I've been grateful ever since. She is an astounding writer. Each of her books in the Mistress of the Art of Death series has been excellent, so when I found she has a standalone mystery it was inevitable that I would read it.City of Shadows is set in Berlin. The first part is set in 1923, the second part in 1932-33, ending on the day that Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.In 1923 Berlin is suffering hyperinflation. People are starving, unable to find work. Esther Solomonoa, a Jew who has suffered through a pogrom in Russia, is glad to have a job as secretary to a Russian man who claims to be a prince and owns several nightclubs among other rather shady businesses. Nick hears of a woman in an insane asylum claiming to be Grand Duchess Anastasia. He rescues her from the asylum, and sets her and Esther up in an apartment with another girl, Natalya, who had worked for the czar and can train Anna to become Anastasia. Nick expects to earn a share of Anastasia's inheritance. Anna is afraid, saying the Russian secret service is out to assassinate her, and when Natalya is murdered Esther begins to fear she is right. A Berlin police investigator, Seigfried Schmidt, becomes convinced as well, but is unable to convince his superiors. He is assigned to other cases, and there things lie until 9 years later, when he is re-assigned to Berlin and gets back together with Esther at the news that Nick has been murdered.The book starts out slowly, but builds into something magnificent. The plot has a number of twists that all work brilliantly, and the final major twist is quite a surprise. There are a few too many coincidences scattered through the plot, but the power of whats being unfurled is too enthralling for the reader to care. The characters of Esther and Schmidt are excellent. But what makes the book so outstanding is the picture of Berlin during two periods of great historical significance, and how the author uses the history to build a story and uses the story to make the history alive.Whenever Ariana Franklin publishes a book, I'll rush out and buy it. She is an amazing talent.
    • 5/5
      Set in Berlin in the 1920s and early '30s, as Hitler and his storm troopers are coming into power. Esther, a survivor of Russian pograms, finds herslf in the position of protecting and coaching Anna Anderson, the real-life woman claiming, and perceived by many, to be the the Grand Duchess Anatasia. An unknown enemy is pursuing Anna and people around her are being murdered. The very honest, very decent police detective who becomes involved in the case is Schmidt. A beautiful love story develops betweem him and Esther as they try to unravel the mystery behind Anna and the man who wants to murder her. I enjoyed the mystery and the romance of this book, as well as gaining insight into the Germany that existed between the two World Wars. This book was written and published before the recent discoveries and DNA studies that proved that none of the Tsar's family escaped the executions of 1918. That knowledge colors somewhat the ultimate plot and ending of the book, but it's still a wonderful novel, a great read.
    • 5/5
      This beautifully written thriller is one of the most satisfying books I've read in some time. Set in a vividly depicted Berlin between the wars, it revolves around Esther Solomonova, a scarred Russian Jewish refugee with a tragic past; Siegfried Schmidt, a kind and honest man who is also a clever and relentless investigator; and the real-life Anna Anderson, who claims to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Is someone trying to kill Anna? Is it because she is Anastasia or because she isn't? Why do people around her keep dying instead? The solution to the mystery is never obvious, and the climax of the book, on the day of Hitler's accession to power, is nail-bitingly suspenseful (with the minor quibble that since Anderson lived until 1970, the reader knows that she, at least, won't be killed). Esther and Schmidt's partnership is tender and convincing, and I would be happy to think there was a sequel in the works for them.
    • 5/5
      Intelligent crime drama set in Germany just before World War II begins. Paints a stunning picture of prewar Germany. The plot centers around a police detective who has fallen in love with a photographer, who may or may not be protecting the Russian princess Anastasia.