(See all my Book Reviews and Author Interviews) – Christopher Nicole is the author of more than 200 books & novels. Angel in Red was published in 2018 and is the second volume of his Anna Fehrbach series. This was the 102nd book I completed in 2022.
I downloaded this book while it was being promoted by Lume Books. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to scenes of violence and mature situations, I categorize this novel as R.
Twenty-year-old Anna Fehrbach is the primary character. She despises the Nazis, but since her parents and sister are being held as hostages, she has no choice but to continue acting the part of a dedicated SD agent. Fehrbach continues to wield her skills as an assassin when ordered by the SD. Nor does she hesitate to employ them to protect herself as a double agent for the British.
It is May of 1940, and the Phoney War has ended. After she is exposed as a Nazi agent, Fehrbach flees England for Berlin. The SD still believes in her as an agent. In particular, she has the trust of Reinhard Heydrich. Not only does he believe she is still an enthusiastic Nazi agent, but he has also taken her as his mistress on occasion.
With the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Germany and Russia are still at peace with one another. Fehrbach is sent to Moscow, where she is to use her feminine skills to become the mistress of Ewfim Chalyapov. Chalyapov is chosen as her target as he is close to Marshal Stalin. Her ultimate mission is to kill Stalin at the outset of Operation Barbarossa to disrupt the Russian military.
Fehrbach easily succeeds in her mission and soon becomes a friend of Stalin. She frequently is invited to a private afternoon tea with him. The opportunity will be there. But if she goes through with the assassination her life will be over. If she doesn’t, she will be on the hit list of the SD and Heydrich.
I enjoyed the 6.5+ hours I spent reading this 267-page WWII-era thriller. I had the opportunity to read the first book in the series, Angel From Hell, earlier in the year. This book is every bit as good as the first! The novel is full of action, sex, and intrigue. The Fehrbach character is very much a WWII-era James Bond. I look forward to reading the remaining six novels in the series. I like the cover art chosen for the novel. I give this novel a rating of 4.5 (rounded up to a 5) out of 5.
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If you have an interest in the WWII era of history, you may find these three pages of interest.
- The “World War II Resources” page is a constantly growing collection of more than 600 links to museums, memorials, websites, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and other sources with information on the World War II era in history.
- The “World War II Timeline” page expands almost daily and shows events leading up to WWII, as well as during the war. Events are broken down into the Pacific and European Theaters by date.
- The About WWII page is a collection of links to posts that I have made over the years that are relevant to WWII. Included are links to many fiction and non-fiction books on WWII that I have read and reviewed. There are also links to WWII oriented podcasts.
John's Notes 