Monday 4 April 2022

Review - The Pilot's Girl by Catherine Hokin

The Pilot's Girl by Catherine Hokin
Publisher: Bookouture
Release date: 4 April 2022
Back cover blurb: ‘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? 

Hanni Winter, formerly known as Hannelore Foss is the daughter of a high ranking former concentration camp commandant SS officer, Reiner Foss. She has spent years both during the war and after trying to think of a safe way to expose him without putting her own life in danger. Each time she comes close, he fires a warning shot her way.

Now a photographer, who also works with the local police Hanni has rebuilt her life, but her desire for it to be normal is overshadowed by her Father. She is unable to be with the man she loves through a sense of guilt and fear that she is complicit in her Father's crimes by knowledge and association. 

Reiner has survived the war and is living his life undercover so he doesn't have to face up to the crimes that he committed during the war. Still a fully fledged Nazi, he is working undercover to retain the party's name and all that it stands for. In his ideal world, the party would rule again, and he would be one of the elite.

Tony Miller, an American pilot, arrives in Berlin under a celebratory fanfare. The Americans bring food and provisions to the city, and with that a heroic persona. Hanni, is tasked with taking photographs of the popular American, and is at first as taken in with him as everyone else.

But there is something about Tony Miller that isn't quite what it seems. His German is almost too perfect for a native American, and there is a strangeness about him at times, almost as if he's weighing up your usefulness to him.

Hanni can't decide whether she should be in love with him, or afraid of him. It makes her relationship with Freddy seem almost straightforward...

As a serial killer stalks the streets of Berlin, Hanni's love life is the least of her worries, and she is thrown into working with Freddy again and must cast her feelings aside if they are to find the killer together.

The Pilot's Girl is the second of what I believe to be three books in a series, and I can't wait for the next!

The Pilot's Girl is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

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