An intriguing historical novel

Flight Berlin Novel David John

A very nice book from a first time author. This is a work of historical fiction, i.e. fictional characters in a historical setting. In this case, the setting is the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin. It follows the story of Eleanor Emerson, an American swimmer (based on real life Eleanor Holm), Richard Denham, a British reporter and Hannah Liebermann (based on real life Helene Mayer) a German Jewish fencer.

The writing was easy to read and follow, the characters were easy to like and I think the author did a good job of establishing the setting in pre-war Berlin. The story made an abrupt turn from entertainment into reality when one of the characters was detained and "questioned" by the Gestapo, this was when the reality of the historical setting set in and you realized it was real.

The two female leads, Eleanor Emerson and Hannah Liebermann were well written and a nice touch, based close enough to their real life counterparts to give the story a good sense of verisimilitude. Though the character of Leibermann might serve to confuse some readers since it was based on Helene Mayer but the finer details are completely different.

Overall the book lacked edge of the seat excitement but it's still very much worthwhile reading. I would call this light reading because the story is relatively uncomplicated and reads fast. The author did a good job of putting his story into a historical context. I give it 8-9/10 which is still in the 5 star range and I would definitely give this author's next novel a try.