“As pacey as any modern thriller” this novel set on the eve of WWII “is a vivid portrait of an entire city in turmoil, seething with intrigue and danger” (The Times, UK).
Berlin in the spring of 1939. Hitler is preparing for war. Colonel Noel Macrae, a British diplomat, plans the ultimate sacrifice to stop him. The West’s appeasement policies have failed. There is only one alternative: assassination. The Gestapo, aware of Macrae’s hostility, seeks to compromise him in their infamous brothel. There Macrae meets and falls in love with Sara, a Jewish woman blackmailed into becoming a Nazi courtesan.
Macrae finds himself trapped between the blind policies of his government and the dark world of betrayal and deception in Berlin. As he seeks to save the woman he loves from the brutality of the Gestapo, he defies his government and plans direct action to avert what he knows will be a global war.
Inspired by true events and characters, James MacManus’s Midnight in Berlin is a passionate story that will leave you in awe of the human capacity for courage, sacrifice, and love set against a world on the brink of war.
“Detailed yet quick-moving, [a] tense, morally charged narrative.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A fascinating novel . . . An intriguing and highly recommended book.” —Country Life (UK)
“MacManus[‘s] storytelling gifts are as strong as his historical insights.” —Connecticut Post
“Well-informed, smoothly crafted, fast-paced. . . . If you like good historical fiction, and have a penchant for international politics and an interest in the rise of Hitler and life in the diplomatic world of Germany on the brink of war, this is a recommended read—emotions and all.” —Portland Book Review