Tag: HF Reading Challenge

Book Review – Invitation from a Dictator by Rory Clements @VikingBooksUK #20BOS26

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About the Book

On the eve of war, a royal guest is lured into Hitler’s deadly web…

Munich, 1937. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor have arrived in Germany for a historic meeting at Hitler’s mountain retreat.

But recent attacks by ruthless Communist band, Red Freedom, has brought fear and bloodshed to the area. As brutal as the Nazis, their next targets are Edward, Wallis and the Fuhrer himself.

Detective Sebastian Wolff is charged with their protection, but the conflict between his job and his politics becomes even more complicated when Wolff realises who is behind Red Freedom: Ulrike, his first love and the mother of his son.

Format: Hardcover (400 pages) Publisher: Viking
Publication date: 13th August 2026 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

I was a fan of Rory Clements’ John Shakespeare series, I’m a fan of his Tom Wilde series (present tense because I hope we get another one soon) and I’m now a fan of this series featuring Berlin detective Sebastian Wolff. Invitation from a Dictator follows on from Munich Wolf and Evil in High Places but don’t worry if you haven’t read either of those because the opening chapters provide some useful background information about the main characters and events to date.

A rather gruesome discovery sets Sebastian Wolff and Sergeant Hans Winter, initially seconded from the Gestapo to keep track of Wolff’s movements but now an ally, on the trail of Red Freedom, a Communist group opposed to the Nazis but just as capable of ruthless acts of violence. As always Wolff’s determination to bring culprits to book brings him up against some old adversaries in the Gestapo, two men who are more interested in arresting someone for the crime even if it’s not the perpetrator. After all, once in their hands for a few hours a person is likely to confess to anything.

Wolff is frustrated to find his investigation brought to a halt and assigned to the security team for the visit to Germany by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, a visit which will culminate in a meeting at Berghof, Hitler’s alpine retreat near Berchtesgaden. Wolff’s suspicions are aroused by two individuals, one of whom is dismissed as nothing more than a fanatical Royalist. The other? Well, let’s just say Wolff’s detective instincts tell him something’s not right. The proof of that comes when he has a very narrow escape.

The author is particularly good at creating seemingly disparate storylines and then bringing them together in a satisfying way. He does exactly that in this book. There’s also a great melding together of the professional and the personal, the fictional and the factual. For example, Wolff and his partner Hexie are keen to start a family but have met with no success as yet, although not for the want of trying. When they learn of an abandoned child that may be suitable for adoption they get a terrifying insight into a sinister Nazi programme and Hexie also realises her family history may make her a target for something even worse. She also has a chilling up close and personal encounter courtesy of her friendship with former colleague, Eva Braun. Yes, that Eva Braun.

Being set in 1937, we know what’s coming but of course Wolff doesn’t. However he has a growing sense of foreboding. ‘All pretence of open justice, fair play and democratic rule had long since been swept away. In his own life, he was trying to bring killers to court to protect the people of his beloved Germany from the forces of evil. But he knew he was fighting a losing battle.’ He’s even disgusted at himself for some of the things he’s had to do in the course of the investigation.‘ Was he totally lost? Was he becoming one of them?’

His failure to join the Nazi party has already earned him the hostility of his superiors. Only the fact Wolff’s uncle is a man of influence is keeping him in his position, even out of prison or a much worse fate. How much more can Wolff take? Let’s hope there’s another book that will answer that question.

Invitation from a Dictator is a terrific historical thriller with a gripping plot, great period detail and a constant sense of jeopardy. It would be perfect for fans of the late Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther novels.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of Viking via NetGalley. Invitation from a Dictator is book 12 of my 20 Books of Summer 2026.

In three words: Compelling, dramatic, authentic
Try something similar: A Death in Berlin by Simon Scarrow

About the Author

Rory Clements writes full time in a quiet corner of Norfolk. He was raised all over the world while his father served in the Royal Navy, an experience that went on to inspire Rory’s beloved historical thrillers. Previously a journalist for various papers, he is now a Sunday Times bestselling author, two-time winner and three-time nominee of the CWA Historical Dagger Award. His books have sold over 1 million copies to date.

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Book Review – A Fatal Love by Louisa Treger @BloomsburyBooks

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About the Book

It is Easter Sunday in 1955 and a young man lies face-down on the ground covered in blood. A woman, blonde and petite, stands over him with a gun in her hand. This is the story of Ruth Ellis as never told before…

As Ruth awaits her trial in Holloway Prison, she recollects growing up in England during the Second World War and the events that led to the death of her lover, David Blakely.

Meanwhile, Kitty Carrington – the assistant to Ruth’s trial lawyer – tries to forge her own path through the male-dominated legal world of the 1950s and ensure that Ruth receives a fair trial.

Navigating secrets, betrayal and a broken justice system, Ruth and Kitty try to take control of their own lives and narratives. But do we ever really know the full story?

Format: Hardcover (240 pages) Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication date: 27th August 2026 Genre: Historical Fiction, True Crime

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My Review

A Fatal Love is the story of an addiction. Not to drugs or drink, although those do play a part, but to a person. That person was David Blakely, a man with whom Ruth Ellis was passionately in love despite his frequent infidelity and violence towards her.

The author takes the reader inside the mind of a woman who has had to fend for herself from an early age, to struggle to make a life for herself. A woman who has had to overcome the stigma of having a child out of wedlock, a failed marriage that ended in divorce, and working as a hostess in night clubs. But Ruth proves herself to be brilliant at the latter. Always gorgeously turned out, she knows just how to charm the male clientele to ensure the drinks, and the money, keep flowing. Ruth’s no angel. In return for a roof over her head she’s expected by the club’s owner to have sex with many of the men who frequent the club, even while her young son Andy sleeps in the next room.

Then one night, Ruth meets racing driver David Blakely. The physical attraction is instant and overwhelming. It’s the first step on a path that will destroy them both.

Blakely comes across as a needy, duplicitous waster – and that’s putting it kindly. It’s heartbreaking to see Ruth so in thrall to him, unable to resist letting him back in her life after each lie, each broken promise, each act of betrayal. ‘He was light and oxygen to her. There were times when it seemed she could not breathe outside his presence.’ At the same time as recognising the hold he has over her, she sees the impossibility of her ever having the strength to break free from him.

What she does on that Easter Sunday 1955 is an act of desperation and a kind of madness, enabled by another who was never held responsible.

The author introduces a fictional character, Kitty, assistant to John Bickford, the solicitor appointed to represent Ruth. I didn’t think Kitty’s back story contributed much but she did provide an important perspective on the conduct of Ruth’s trial. We see that Ruth was failed by everyone. The psychiatrist who interviewed her but failed to find evidence of mental illness. Her barrister who rejected provocation as a potentially successful line of defence. The presiding judge whose partial summing-up contributed to the jury’s guilty verdict. The Home Secretary who refused a request for clemency.

But perhaps a woman like Ruth could never have overcome the misogyny of 1950s society. As Kitty observes to Bickford during the trial, ‘Ruth is a threat to the social order. They’re out to break her… The police, the newspapers, even your colleagues. She was too ambitious. No respect for the boundaries of sex and class – broke every rule. To them that’s the real offence.’

The final section of the book describes in unflinching detail the period Ruth Ellis spent in Holloway Prison after her trial and before her execution. In the condemned cell she is never left alone and is only footsteps away from where she will be executed. The details of her final hours, the meticulous preparations for her execution, are distressing to read.

As the author sets out in the Afterword, Ruth’s actions had a lasting impact on her family, especially her son Andy, as well as for others involved in the case. But her case also fuelled the campaign to end the death penalty.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of Bloomsbury via NetGalley. A Fatal Love is book 7 of my 20 Books of Summer 2026.

In three words: Moving, gripping, powerful
Try something similar: The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou by Eleni Kyriacou

About the Author

Louisa Treger is the critically acclaimed author of four novels – The Lodger (2014), The Dragon Lady (2019), Madwoman (2022) and The Paris Muse (2024) – translated into several languages. Her work has twice been selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month, most recently for Madwoman, which was also a Book of the Month in the Independent.

She has written for numerous publications, including Financial Times, The Times, the Telegraph, Tatler, BBC History Magazine, and English Heritage. Radio appearances include BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking programme and BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. She appears regularly at literary festivals and cultural institutions, and is deputy chair of the board of the Oxford Literary Festival. (Photo: Amazon author page)

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