Three years after WWII, Europe struggles with rationing, widespread unemployment and a growing Soviet threat. Hitler's former capital lies ruined under the joint occupation and control of wartime allies bitterly at odds. With the currency worthless, the population lives on hand-outs or turns to crime and prostitution. Deep inside the Soviet Zone, Berlin appears to be an ideal target for a communist take-over, putting the defenders of democracy on a collision course with Stalin's merciless aggression.
A Battle of Britain ace, a female air traffic controller, a concentration camp survivor and an ex-ATA woman pilot are just some of those trying to find their place in the post-war world. An air ambulance service offers a shimmer of hope, but when a Soviet fighter brings down a British passenger liner, Berlin becomes a flashpoint. The world stands poised on the brink of World War Three.
Helena P. Schrader is an established aviation author and expert on the Second World War. She earned a PhD in History from the University of Hamburg with a ground-breaking dissertation on a leading member of the German Resistance to Hitler. Her non-fiction publications include Sisters in Arms: The Women who Flew in WWII, The Blockade Breakers: The Berlin Airlift, Codename Valkyrie: General Friederich Olbricht and the Plot against Hitler.
In addition, Helena is the author of nineteen historical novels and winner of numerous literary awards. Her novel on the Battle of Britain, Where Eagles Never Flew, won the Hemingway Award for 20th Century Wartime Fiction 2020 and a Maincrest Media Award for Historical Fiction. RAF Battle of Britain ace Wing Commander Bob Doe called it "the best book" he had ever seen about the battle. Moral Fibre: A Bomber Pilot's Story won a Hemingway Award in 2022, a Maincrest Media Award and was a finalist for a Book Excellence Award.
"... a fast-paced, complex book, a wonderful mixture of hard historical facts, minutely and meticulously researched and synthesised, with raw portrayals of the human condition. Readers will be anxious for more." - Historical Fiction Company
