Luncheon book discussion on 'A Trace of Smoke' by Rebecca Cantrell.
It's 1931 in Berlin, and though the Weimar Republic has begun to crumble, the celebrated decadence of the era remains in full flower. Hannah Vogel is a crime reporter, on intimate terms with Berlin's underbelly, but that doesn't protect her from the shock of seeing her brother's picture posted in the police department's Hall of the Unnamed Dead. She's reluctant to make a formal identification until she knows what happened to him; scandal may lurk behind his death, as Ernst was a cross-dressing cabaret star whose list of male lovers included at least one Nazi leader. There's also the matter of the orphan girl who turns up on Hannah's doorstep, claiming that Ernst is her father and Hannah her mother! Hannah follows Ernst's trail where most commonsensical Germans know not to go—deep into the Nazi power structure, where alternative sexual behavior is pursued with gusto, despite the soon-to-be führer's disapproval.
No registration required.
