Böcker i Stella Bled-serien

November 1939It''s been a year since Stella Bled Lawrence and her husband, Nicky, escaped Italy by the skin of their teeth and a lot has changed. Nicky joined the Royal Air Force and Stella spent the year training as a spy for His Majesty''s Secret Intelligence Service. She has the languages and the tradecraft down pat, but she still has a way to go when the Earl of Bickford pulls her from her training early. The earl uses his influence to make her a courier, a job well below her skills, but it''s not as simple as it seems. The new head of the service isn''t convinced of her worth and Stella has to use the opportunity to show him that she and other women can deliver for Britain or she''s out on her ear. That would be enough to make any newly-minted spy nervous, but the earl isn''t done. He has a favor to ask and the request sends Stella to a place that will haunt her forever. 

November, 1938It began in Vienna, after a night of fire and fear. Stella Bled Lawrence made a promise and she kept it. But the job isn''t done. Abel Hershmann''s cousins, unaware of the danger, are heading to Venice in search of him and the family secret he carried. Stella and her husband, Nicky, follow, intent on warning them.But things don''t go to plan. Venice is flooded, Stella aggravates her injuries, and the cousins are no where to be found. Suspicions abound and friends are hard to find. Italy has fallen under Hitler''s spell and nothing is as it was. The Nazis and, in particular, SS Oberf├╝hrer Peiper still want their prize and believe Stella and Nicky have it. Stella will have to decide how far her loyalty goes and where she belongs: far away safe from the gathering storm or on the front lines with a chance to change the course of the coming war. Her choices will affect her family''s future for generations to come.

For newlywed Stella Bled Lawrence being wealthy and stylish in 1938 is exactly what it''s cracked up to be. She''s on her honeymoon, young and blissfully unaware of the rising tensions in Europe even as she travels to Vienna on the eve of the Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass, Hitler''s first large-scale action against the Jews of Germany and Austria.  Stella and her husband, Nicky, witness the night''s atrocities first hand and, during the chaos their Jewish tour guide, Abel, disappears. They search the city only to find Abel arrested and being shoved into a boxcar. Abel gives Stella a package and asks two promises of her, to deliver the package to his family in Paris and not to exchange the package for his life, no matter what the Nazis promise her. Stella agrees and, before she knows it, she and Nicky are identified by the SS and being chased across Europe. Money and fame can''t help the young couple as it becomes clear the Nazis will do anything to get Abel''s package, including killing them. Stella must decide who and what she''s willing to sacrifice to keep a secret that Abel''s family has been guarding for five hundred years.