THE BERLIN GIRL, Mandy Robotham’s novel of prewar Germany, brings us right into the close-knit world of the journalists who staff tiny offices in capitals around the world in times of strife. Through the eyes of George Young, born Georgina Young and also known as Georgie Young, we enter the cosmopolitan, complex and perilous environment of Berlin as the Nazis become more ruthless and less concerned with world approbation.

Georgie arrives in Berlin in 1938 with Max Spender, a journalist from a rival paper. They are supposed to work together to learn the ropes in Berlin, and Georgie, who is fluent in German, is to help Max get around town. Max, though, isn't interested in her assistance, and she is left to her own devices. The bureau chief of Georgie's paper in Berlin is not present to show her around, and she quickly learns about something Max had been investigating --- which is so dangerous that it might be related to his disappearance.

"Robotham's writing is so engaging and the characters so real that we forget they are fictional.... Reading about the cult mentality and the horrifying mob frenzy around Hitler is an important reminder of the danger of allowing any one person to become a demagogue..."

Robotham's able writing and intricate yet engrossing plot ensure that we keep reading and turning pages to find out what will happen when Georgie attracts the attention of Kasper Vortsch, an up-and-coming member of Hitler's SS. There are many fascinating characters, including other members of the British and American press and the sophisticated, seasoned female journalists with whom Georgie is able to live. The scenes include dinners in elegant restaurants, extended drinking afternoons and delicious strudel. Those waiting tables make extra money and satisfy their patriotism by being informants. We also vicariously ride in a blimp and dine with a group of Nazi elite, seeing their debauchery as comparable to that of the Roman Empire.

Georgie has become reacquainted with Rubin, who was her driver when she was in Berlin years earlier. She hires him to work as her driver again until after Kristallnacht, when Jews are not allowed to drive cars. By this point, she has met Rubin's wife Sara, their two children, and Sara's brother Elias, who was badly injured in a fall and is unable to work. They worry constantly that Elias is in danger from the Nazis, and we feel the palpable dark shadows that loom over all of Berlin --- especially the Jews --- as the violence and hatred directed at them comes to a head.

Robotham pulls no punches. In the prologue, she seems to be attempting to inoculate us from the violence she will hint at with a scene in which a Gestapo official tortures and kills a Jew. The excellent writing makes the brutal event more horrific by not actually delving into the minute details, but by describing the officer's rage over the speck of blood that stains his pristine uniform. Similarly, we feel the hunger of imprisoned Jews not from the stark description of their living conditions, but by their appearance and how they react when serving a sumptuous dinner for a group of high-ranking Nazis.

The action grows increasingly fraught with danger as Georgie and Max move from functioning as detached journalists to becoming involved conspirators who are determined to get Rubin, Sara and their family to safety, endangering their own lives along the way. I literally did not want to stop reading after reaching the midpoint of the story because I had to find out how it all ended.

Robotham's writing is so engaging and the characters so real that we forget they are fictional. It actually slipped my mind for just a moment that the newspaper articles in the Epilogue are part of the fiction. She chillingly shares the evil of those to whom genocide is nothing, and the evil of those who were willing to stand by and ignore it happening literally on their doorstep. We are frustrated by the inaction of England and America as they fail to recognize and even ignore Hitler's demonic actions. We also vicariously feel the frustration of the press who were there and saw it happening but were helpless to actually do anything.

Reading about the cult mentality and the horrifying mob frenzy around Hitler is an important reminder of the danger of allowing any one person to become a demagogue --- to reign despotically above the law and willfully disregard the very essence of moral decency.