Customer Reviews

A Trace of Smoke (Hannah Vogel Novels)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

. . . this is my first book review on Amazon. Reading A Trace of Smoke is like settling into a comfortable chair, right smack in front of a massive open window with all the sights, sounds, and smells of a strange new world unfolding in front of you. Cantrell writes about a time and place that I knew little about, early 30's Berlin at the start of the Nazi rise to power. She weaves a tight plot of murder and suspense through the hard and unforgiving shadows of Berlin, and propels it forward with a cadre of historical and unique fictional characters that makes you flinch, gasp, and keep turning the page. It's a world I didn't know and story I wasn't expecting, but I want more of both. Impressive.

Rebecca Cantrell hits a homerun with her stunning debut. The plot is intricate and her characters engaging, especially young Anton. Hannah Vogel, Cantrell's main character is believable and charming, yet tough as nails. I won't spoil the plot, but the ending took me by surprise. I read it in three sittings. My only complaint is that the book ended!

I'll be buying Cantrell's next books. She's got a new fan for life.

In 1931 thirty two years old crime reporter for the Berliner Tageblatt Hannah Vogel visits Berlin's Hall of the Unnamed Dead. There on the wall is the picture of an unknown naked corpse whom she recognizes. The victim is her beloved gay brother Ernst, who could not harm a fly; he had no papers because he gave them to their Jewish friends to escape dangerous Germany for New York.

Outraged that someone would torture and kill her effeminate kind sibling, she knows she must remain silent re his identity or her "lost papers until their friends reach America. Still Hannah investigates using Ernst's sexual proclivity and his performing at the underground El Dorado cabaret as the starting points With the help of her dedicated lover and a young urchin claiming to be her nephew, Hannah makes her inquiries including the claim of the street kid that her obviously gay brother sired a child.

This is a powerful historical tale that looks deep inside the souls of the groups that make up the Weimer Republic at a time when Hitler is just starting to rise in power. The story line contrasts caring people from various religions vs. the brutal angry assaults of the Nazis. Not an easy read with no sugar coating, A TRACE OF SMOKE will have readers pondering whether this could happen in modern day America.

Harriet Klausner

This historical mystery takes place in 1931 Berlin where, as in the play and film CABARET, the decadence of the city's nightlife clashes with the rise of the Nazi party. Hannah Vogel is a 32-year old sketch artist who also writes as Peter Weill for a newspaper's crime reportage. On her daily visit to the police station and its display of photos of unidentified crime victims, she is shocked and devastated to see a picture of her brother Ernst, a gay cross-dressing singer in a nightclub.

To protect friends who are temporarily using Ernst's identity papers, she cannot immediately identify Ernst to the police. She decides to investigate herself and, along the way, she meets up with members of the demimonde, Nazi thugs and even the then-head of Hitler's SA, Ernst Rohm. She also opens up her lonely personal life to a handsome widower and a five-year-old orphan.

This is a quick read, with appealing characters and a fast-moving plot. It was refreshing to read a story whose plot had some twists and turns but was still easy to follow. The author has done her research and does an excellent job putting us in the time and place of the story. This is Cantrell's first novel and I look forward to her next.

This is fantastic book! It has lots of great detail and surprises. I could taste and smell the fear, the dirt, the hunger, the cold. I have never read a mystery where the protagonist is in such desperate situations and yet where tender relationships are also developed. I couldn't put it down for the second half of the book. This mystery does not disappoint! The author is truly brave and courageous!

A smooth step back in time "Smoke" beckons to be read. The plot and characters are skillfully crafted. The once great people of Germany are still feeling the humiliation of their defeat in WWI. World over, economic times are terrible. The Nazis are able to gain a foothold in all of the turmoil. The party is rife with contradictions. What does one do when you see your country moving in a horrible direction. You become Hannah Vogel. You use your wits. You survive. You try your best to do what is right. "Smoke" reveals the humanness of all societies. Both good and bad are found in the characters. When the problems are vast and unbearable, countries turn to simple answers. The book is a page turner. 1931 Germany is alive and in your face.

Generally I'm not a big fan of historical novels, but this one was recommended and I read it. This did not seem like a first novel at all. It is richly complex, full of danger, emotion and man does it suck you in. If you start reading this in an airport, hope for a long flight because you're not going to want to put it down. It's been said before, but Cantrell's research on 1930's Germany is impecable and infuses this book with authenticity. It puts you THERE, and it can get pretty uncomfortable...scary with the subliminal feeling of danger everywhere that Cantrell so deftly share with her readers. I understand that many of her sources were extremely rare and had to be read in old German... which apparently she reads quite well. It all comes together in a refreshingly different sort of novel that has broadened my interest away from the same old top ten Airport novelists that I'm tiring of.

The author Dennis Lehane, when once asked about advice for first-time novelists, replied, "Be prepared to suck." So A Trace of Smoke has already cleared the first hurdle- it doesn't suck. The author paints a morbidly interesting picture of life in Weimar-era Berlin as a cesspool of poverty, near-poverty, and depravity. You can get a feel for why Germans, living amidst such economic and cultural turmoil, would have gravitated towards the supposedly simple remedies offered by the Nazis.

I think the choice of writing the novel in the first person made it that much more difficult for the author. Hannah Vogel is always either in tears or about to burst into tears. And the central mystery- Anton's paternity- is easy to figure out if you know a little about early-1930's Germany. And better editing would have caught clunkers like "every hand in the room applauded."

Cantrell's book is a venture into a genre blending of mystery and historical fiction - a blend I find near irresistible. In a word, the author has taken up where CABARET left off. Historically, we see a German people still suffering from the debilitating effects of the Treaty of Versailles and the ensuing inflation, coupled with a growing paranoia over the rise of the Nazis.

But this is simply Cantrell's backdrop. In the foreground we have news reporter Hannah Vogel telling us in first person, first of discovering that her flamingly gay brother Ernst has been killed and dumped naked in the river. But this is no ordinary murder - Ernst has powerful gay friends in Cantrell's Berlin, and some of them are highly placed Nazis. Hannah soon loses her job over her quest to conceal Ernst's death as she ferrets out the reasons for the murder.

Cantrell has mastered the gift of creating a page-turner, replete with blind alleys, suspense, near-death experiences - all in the social and political underbelly of Germany between the World Wars. Throughout, however, she overwrites details and feels compelled to over-explain almost everything to her readers. If she can learn to pare her prose, leaving room for the reader to interpret the story, she may very well place her writing up there with the likes of Dennis Lehane.

This is a great debut and unabashedly Philip Kerr-like in setting, atmosphere and plot. In fact, I kept expecting Hannah Vogel to hire Bernie Gunther or at least bump into him at the Adlon. And this is not a criticism because Cantrell pays homage to Kerr's work but goes her own way too through the lead female character. It is a decent mystery and educates the reader on the excesses of the Weimar Republic (and the soon-to-be excesses of the Nazis). Using Ernst Roehm as a pivotal character to expose personal and political depravity is a fresh choice from the usual Nazi leadership figures who appear in fiction. I will definitely read the author's follow-up, A Night of Long Knives.