PERFIDIA

Author: Elspeth McKendrick ISBN: 0505527391 9/2007 HISTORICAL/SUSPENSE Publisher: DORCHESTER
Time Period: 1939 Berlin, Germany

"To you, my heart cries out 'Perfidia,' for I find you, the love of my life, in someone else's arms." PERFIDIA Sophie de Havilland fled London and her past, vowing never to return. In Germany she sought solace, with her aunt, and couldn't help but admire how the Third Reich had reclaimed a country so near ruin. But soon the veneer crumbled. Beneath the frenetic nightlife of 1939 Berlin, the swirling parties with the dashing SS in their night-black uniforms and their beautiful dames, she saw cancer growing. Stories of an impossible nature—terrible stories, terrible crimes—she began to believe. These Nazis were Germany's demon lover: handsome, fearsome, faithless, murderous. Her aunt had been right to seek escape. But, was it possible? One man offered hope: a handsome half-American. But while his spicy scent and strong arms seduced her with safety, the lightning on his collar and his searing blue eyes reminded her that sometimes the handsomest faces hid perfidious intent.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Since PERFIDIA is such a unique read—a romance that takes place during Nazi occupied Germany can only be classified as such—it scored high thoughts from me before I read more than the first page. Given its historical details, intrigue, partnership style love story and attention to the smallest details, it more than earns them.

The most interesting thing I find about PERFIDIA is the fact that the heroine and her friends are all high placed Aryan females involved with SS officers—among them, the hero. I suppose when I scanned the cover, I automatically expected the book to be more about the Jews or other oppressed people, falling in love and escaping the Nazi's instead of what I assume are the enemy doing so. What a strange, yet good surprise my mistake is.

Now, for my nit-picky pleasure, I have to tell you that though filled with extremely interesting details and descriptions—something this author is tops at, by the way—sometimes PERFIDIA is a bit too much. Here are just a couple examples of what I mean: There is too much information in the very first chapter regarding a scene in which I clearly know what is happening without the coarse dialogue and physical description of the act taking place. Another is the deviation from the fact that the Gestapo is continually alluded to as being inescapable, all powerful, and horrible. And yet, a slip-of-a-girl can bully her way in to rescue her friends in the blink of an eye.

Anyway, these instances did strike me as being off, but in the whole of the book they are minor. Honestly, though nit-picky as I stated, they do not keep me from enjoying and recommending PERFIDIA as a one-of-a-kind read.

Shannon Johnson