Reading While Black

Earlier this week I pondered whether fiction (the romance genre in particular) would begin to mimic Hollywood and lo and behold, when I walked into the bookstore yesterday there was Perfidia. I’ve followed McKendrick since her first book (Blood Moon Over Bengal) and have patiently waited for book #3 for two years, so I was pleased when Perfidia was as engaging and suspenseful as her previous releases.

Set in 1939 Berlin, WWII hasn’t yet begun when Sophie de Havilland flees England after witnessing the perfidy of her fiance. She takes refuge with her aunt, who’d married a German baron, and as a result, Sophie finds herself taken under the Fuhrer’s wing, her blonde hair and blue eyes proclaiming her a perfect Aryan. Embracing the whirlwind of Nazi society to forget her past, Sophie nonetheless finds it difficult to ignore the dangerous undercurrent permeating the Reich. Out of neccessity she becomes involved with an SS officer, Baron Karl von Richten, a half-American aristocrat whose loyalties are a mystery despite his high rank.

McKendrick provides a number of satisfying twists and conveys the period as skillfully as someone who lived through the Nazi regime. Though the romance is overshadowed by the suspense, and we rarely see enough in Karl’s head to fully understand him, McKendrick did provide enough balance between the history, romance and suspense to render Perfidia an excellent read. In particular, I enjoyed the glossary provided and the helpful chapter openings that marked the progress of the beginning of WWII that further set the time period. I look forward to more from McKendrick and hope this book is a harbinger for more historicals set outside of traditional settings.