Hannah Vogel, crime reporter turned anti-Nazi spy, has been living fairly peacefully in Switzerland for most of the time since we last encountered her in [b:Night of the Long Knives.] That is, when she wasn't couriering film out of Nazi Germany, where her contact is a Gestapo officer. In [b:A Game of Lies|10301134|A Game of Lies (Hannah Vogel, #3)|Rebecca Cantrell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312076029s/10301134.jpg|15203108], Hannah, in her Swiss identity as Adelheid Zinsli, is in Berlin to report on the fencing in the 1936 Olympics. She's also spending a fortnight with her Gestapo contact, Lars Lang, and their cover story is that she's his fiancee -- a story complicated by Lars's obvious attraction to Hannah and her recent breakup with long-time lover Boris. At the opening ceremonies, Hannah has arranged to meet her old friend and mentor Peter Weill. She has barely said hello and learned that Peter has a "package" he wants her to smuggle out when he drinks from his pocket flask and promptly dies. This tragedy begins a chain of events which will put Hannah once again in great danger and cause her to question many things in her life.

Cantrell's books are always well-researched but never smell of the lamp. The changes in Hannah's old friends,both Jews and "Aryans," as the Nazi regime grows ever more powerful and intrusive, are disturbing both to Hannah and the reader, and seem to give a true flavor of what life was like in 1936.

With the London Olympics coming up soon, there will probably be people wanting to read Olympics-themed mysteries. This would be a good one to add to the list. Recommended. ( )

In the third book in the series, Hannah has returned to Germany under a different name in order to report on the 1936 Olympics. When her friend Peter Weill is murdered, she begins a dangerous search to uncover his secrets. Hannah must also deal with her cover, SS officer Lars Lang, and their turbulent relationship.

I thought this book was not as interesting as the others. The plot line was a bit weak and everything just fell seamlessly into place right at the end. Further, I'm concerned that the character may have brain damage, this is the third book, and the third time she has a concussion. I think the author should lay off some of the injuries, or at least change them around a bit more. Despite my criticisms, it wasn't bad for a third book in a series. The characters were flushed out a bit more and you could follow their growth and evolution. I still like the series, but this is probably my least favor. ( )

Hannah Vogel is back in Berlin, this time to report on the 1936 Olympic Games and do some spying for the British under cover as neutral Swiss reporter Adelheid Zinsli. She’s been working for the British for a few years, sneaking documents out from her contact and supposed lover, SS Hauptsturmführer Lars Lang. But those trips only brought her to Germany for brief weekends and kept her far from her journalist colleagues. Now she has to cover the hottest news item of the day for two weeks and somehow avoid being seen by her old “friends,” many of whom will turn her in to the Gestapo, who know her as the kidnapper of Nazi leader Röhm’s young son and a murderer. And that’s only the beginning of her troubles. Old friends die, others betray her—or do they? She’s given up love and safety for this work. Is it worth it? She hopes to undermine the Nazis and awaken the British before it’s too late, but is she actually accomplishing anything? Quite the existential crisis in the midst of terrifying action.

Part of what makes Cantrell’s books work so well is that we know how this story comes out in the big picture. We want to tell Hannah to run like hell. You can’t make this a happy story, Hannah. But she can make this a totally absorbing, inspiring story. We step into a specific moment with a heroine we admire, who chooses the right thing—well, most of the time—and history comes alive without overwhelming us. And nothing goes as we would predict no matter how well you know the years leading up to WWII. Except, of course, that the bad guys are really bad and being good takes ungodly amounts of courage. But the bad and the good pop up in such unexpected places.

Her first book, A Trace of Smoke, focused frequently on the theme of parenting, both the good and the ugly. In A Game of Lies, in the midst of the Nazis’ giant propaganda machine that was the 1936 Olympic Games, Cantrell raises two thematic questions. Can a person make a worthwhile difference in the midst of gathering evil? What’s worth giving up love and human bonds for? I found the complexity and subtlety of Hannah’s struggles with these questions engaging, thought-provoking and heart-wrenching. The fast-paced action, the beautifully developed characters, and the sharply drawn setting keep you glued to every page, holding your breath, and sending out a little prayer that the people you’ve grown to love make it through. ( )

When first we meet Hannah Vogel (in Rebecca Cantrell’s debut novel, A Trace of Smoke) she’s a criminal reporter, working in Berlin, during the dark days when the Nazis were coming to power in Germany.
Three years later, in A Night of Long Knives, Hannah returns to witness the humbling of the SA and the murder of their leader, Ernst Röhm.
And now she’s back, in the third installment of Ms. Cantrell’s outstanding series.
The book: A Game of Lies. The time: 1936. The backdrop: The most famous Olympic Games in modern history, an event in which American black athlete, Jessie Owens, disproved the Nazis absurd racial theories by winning four gold medals.
Hannah, already living for some time in Switzerland, has crept back into Berlin. She’s there under an assumed name, and under a false passport, ostensibly to report for the Swiss press, but actually to continue her work as a spy for the British.
Hannah is well-known to her colleagues in the German press, and already wanted by the Nazis for her previous activities, so the danger she’s in, this time, is greater than ever before.
And it’s exacerbated by insecurity. Lars Lang, her collaborator, is an SS officer who might well be a double agent.
The action begins with a bang, when Peter Weill, Hannah’s colleague and mentor, is murdered, at the Olympic Stadium.
And it doesn’t let-up until the very last page.
The stadium, by the way, is a place immortalized in the classic documentary Olympiad, directed by Hitler’s favorite filmmaker (also dancer and actress) Leni Riefenstahl.
You can see a sample here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apN5VgQ_FcM&skipcontrinter=1

As you watch it, and enter into the spirit of Ms. Cantrell’s latest book, note the nations who give the Hitlergruß, the Nazi salute, and those who don’t. It might surprise you.
Ms. Riefenstahl’s film shows us the Berlin of those days in dim, black and white.
Ms. Cantell’s words bring it back in living color – with sounds and smells attached. Her writing is that vivid.
Fans of Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther, or David Downing’s John Russell, will love Rebecca Cantrell’s Hannah Vogel. She’s right up there with the best of them. ( )

Hannah Vogel has been living in Switzerland with her adopted son Anton and her lover Boris, occasionally working as a reporter for a Swiss newspaper under the name of Adelheid Zinsli. She has also been acting as a courier, transporting documents out of Germany for quisling SS Officer Lars Lang.

This time, though, Adelheid has been asked to remain in Berlin for the entire two weeks of the Olympics, which could prove to be difficult as many of the local press would certainly recognize Hannah.

At the opening ceremonies, Hannah slips away to meet her mentor, Peter Weill, but moments after they greet each other, he dies. She suspects he's been poisoned, but how to prove it?

Rebecca Cantrell won the Bruce Alexander Memorial and the Sue Feder Memorial(Macavity) historical mystery awards in 2010 for the first book in the series, A Trace of Smoke. Fluent in German, she went to high school and university in Germany, and it is obvious that she has done deep and careful research about life in Nazi Germany.

Cantrell writes from Hannah's point of view in the first person, describing Hannah's experiences so vividly that the reader can almost identify with her completely. The "almost" is a result of the many instances when the reader wants to caution her against something she's decided upon, but of course this is what makes the narrative into a story.

The book concludes with a glossary and historical notes. ( )