City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense | Ariana Franklin | City of Shadows Reviewer: Colleen...

City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense | Ariana Franklin | Among the Best

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City of Shadows: A...

	City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense Ariana Franklin Harper Paperbacks, 2007 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 25 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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.

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City of Shadows Reviewer: Colleen Booth, Seattle

A great read. I couldn't put it down. Ms Franklin's mixing of technology from different decades is a minor distraction. Just suspend disbelief and enjoy.

Among the Best

Franklin is as fine an historian as she is a novelist. This foray into Nazi Germany and the cult of Anastasia is no less finely wrought than her ventures into the Late Middle Ages. I found myself anguished with and by the novel's folk.

One of the Best Books I Have Ever Read

My husband and I purchased this book to read on vacation. We paced ourselves so we could make the book last longer. The story, characters, writing was so compelling, very hard to put down. Ariana Franklin is an excellent writer, I am SO glad I found her, and yes I have read her other books which are equally well written. This is a historical mystery, but we were disturbed by the parallels with our current political situation in the U.S. Especially when we came through Customs and Immigration at Los Angeles Airport. But, this is a life affirming story, reminding us of the power of good people in bad times.

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Inventive Plot

Ariana Franklin is the pseudonym of a well-known author of historical novels, Diana Norman, wife of the film critic Barry Norman. She is a former Fleet Street Reporter and lives in Hertfordshire.

Having read the author's other two books, the Mistress of the Art of Death and The Serpent's Tale, I decided to try this novel written before the above two. Although this book was an interesting read I cannot say that I enjoyed it as much as the above two, possibly because they were medieval novels, a period that I enjoy reading about very much.

However it would be unfair to criticise the book simply because of the period of history it depicts and all things being equal it was an enjoyable read. The storyline of the book takes place in Berlin, three or four years after the end of the war and revolves around a scheme to pass a young asylum patient off as Anastasia, the last surviving heir to the murdered Russian Czar . . .

The plot is both believable and inventive and the book is well written, in fact everything a reader could want from a good story.

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excellent book if had been written by a different author...

This would be an excellent book if it had been written by a different author... The ending was amazing! but i would have a hard time recommending this book to anyone. The author's writing style is a bit strange and the EXCESSIVE use of curse words is just totally unnecessary. All the characters seemed to have very few morals. But other than that the plot was good. Instead of waisting your time reading the whole book I would recommend reading a detailed summery and the last two chapters of the book. Though the last two chapters seem to help you forget the errors of the previous ones. Thus the high ratings.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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