Reviewed by Emma Crowley
‘Smile, nod, and don’t breathe a word of what happens here. Or I’ll put you on the next train to Auschwitz myself.’
Four years later.Hanni Winter shivers in her thin coat as she hurries through the empty Berlin streets to her job. Despite the freezing winter and poverty all around, her cheeks flush when she meets the man she is photographing today, charismatic Tony Miller, the American pilot risking his life to bring food and provisions to the starving people of the city. But her rush of joy turns to ash as she sees the man behind him…
It’s been years since Hanni fled her terrible past, but seeing Reiner Foss now brings back harrowing memories of the man they called The Showman,and of the concentration camp he commanded. The last time she tried to expose him, Hanni almost died, can she dare to try again? Or should she seize the chance she sees in Tony’s sparkling eyes to leave the horrors of the war behind?
Hanni is no longer the frightened child she was when the Nazis devastated her life beyond repair. She vows to avenge every person who suffered at Reiner’s hands. But does her attraction to Tony leave her vulnerable? Can Hanni protect her loved ones from her past, or will the cost of fighting her demons ultimately prove more than she can pay?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Pilot’s Girl to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
I have loved Catherine Hokin’s earlier books but with this recent Hanni Winter series I feel she has really come into her own and I can’t get enough of it. The gap between publication of the first two books in the series hasn’t been long but I’d love to be able to read one after the other as they really are unputdownable, gripping and fantastic reads. The Pilot’s Girl picks up soon after where The Commandant’s Daughter left off and once again we are straight into the action with no messing around with unnecessary detail or scene fillers. Instead we get straight down to business, the scene is set and there after the plot moves forward at a great pace. Any information needed for new readers is supplied fairly on in a recap paragraph or two and in no way have you missed out if you are coming to this book as a stand alone story. In fact, it will just make you want to go back and meet Hanni and Freddy for the first time to discover where it all began.
What I really love about this series is that from the outset we know who the culprit is behind a series of gruesome murders throughout Berlin in 1948. You’d think that would ruin the entire plot of the book but far from it because the writing from Catherine is just brilliant and she weaves such an interesting and twisted tale that you are so eager to know will the culprit be caught? Will Hanni and Freddy have the wherewithal to figure out how to pin them down considering how clever the killer is and how the complex the case is that unfolds? It’s edge of your seat stuff that has you rapidly racing through the chapters and again, as with the previous book, I was initially in two minds as to whether I thought the killer was justified in his motives. Such plausible and realistic motives are presented to the reader and you almost understand and agree with what they are doing and why but then you step back and look at the bigger picture and it’s as if you come to your senses and wake up and think , no there can be no justification for the unlawful killing of anyone no matter the perceived slight and injustice you have.
Tony Miller is welcomed to Berlin as part of the American side bringing supplies to the city which has been blockaded by the Russians. He is admired and appreciated everywhere he goes as the people are enduring such hardships with supplies of everything practically non-existent and it’s like the conditions experienced during the war years have returned. But the Americans are doing their best to ensure supplies reach those who need it and it’s when Hanni, as part of her job as a photographer, meets Tony that he really catches her attention. She follows him around as he visits areas and is welcomed by many. Dare she think that she feels a spark of attraction to him even thought the reader has long known that it's Freddy, a Jewish detective, who has held a firm place in her heart. You hope Hanni doesn’t venture down a path with Tony because truly she is destined to be with Freddy but with such suave and charm Tony might just pull the wool over her eyes.
Freddy and Hanni are both very complex characters with a history between them but both have family history that affects how they exist on a day to day basis. Hanni has been keeping her true heritage and background a secret from Freddy. She couldn’t let herself truly love him even though she deeply does and the tug and pull between them is at times excruciating because you just want them together. She has kept her silence for too long and Freddy would certainly view it as a betrayal if the truth came to light. The hold her father Reiner still has over her is very strong even though she has become very independent. But Reiner was an evil man during the war and this cruelty still exists within him. He wields a very tight hand over her and she dares not step out of line and expose him for what he really is as she fears the repercussions if she does so. Hanni is fierce, clever and ambitious as is shown by both her photography and detective skills. She can see clues to the murders when Freddy draws a blank and she has become a valuable asset to police investigations when needed. You just want her to use these skills to outwit Reiner and allow her to find true happiness but as things stand the mountain she has to climb seems almost insurmountable even more so following the events in this book.
I loved how we got to learn a lot more about Freddy, how terrible the war was for him, what happened to his family and how the guilt he feels seems to grow rather than diminish. As Hanni too learns more about him she feels that she doesn’t have much choice in that she must keep her own secrets close to her chest. For too reveal them now would prove too detrimental to the friendship she has built with Freddy. Staying silent gnaws at her soul and I really don’t know how she does it and I question whether she is doing too much long term damage rather than getting everything out in the open and facing the repercussions? I feel now is the time for Hanni to be brave and make a strong move and I hope that will come in the next book. Freddi has revealed himself to a certain extent and has shown what harrowing circumstances he has been through and how his guilt still eats at him. The two share a common thread but at the moment it seems they come together briefly and then move apart again. That cliff-hanger ending left me desperate for more as I sense we are edging ever closer to everything coming to an epic climax.
The Hanni/Freddy plot is very strong throughout The Pilot’s Girl but so also is the crime/thriller aspect regarding the seemingly unconnected murders of people both old and young and male and female. The killer has one thing on his mind - vengeance and achieves this through strangling his victims. As the body count grows and one murder in particular hits very close to home, can Hanni and Freddy work together to solve the case or is this one that will be destined to slip through their fingers? Alongside the plot regarding the murders Catherine Hokin has done a fantastic job of showing how Berlin dealt with the aftermath of the war and the subsequent blockades by the Russians. Lives continued to be lost and broken and amongst the destroyed city and displaced people, political leaders pursued aggression rather than peace and we often forget all this as so many historical fiction books are based on the war itself. I hope Catherine is hard at work on book number three as I can’t get these characters out of my mind and my impatience is growing to discover what happens next which is always the sign of a very good book.
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