A Truth to Lie For
An Elena Standish Novel
-
-
4.6 • 42 Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
A lethal new weapon endangers all of Europe—unless Elena Standish can rescue an ingenious scientist from Hitler’s clutches—in this action-packed suspense novel by bestselling author Anne Perry.
“Unbearably suspenseful . . . pushes the envelope and succeeds on nearly every level.”—Bookreporter
It is the summer of 1934, and Hitler is nearing the summit of supreme power in Germany. When Britain’s MI6 gets word that a German scientist has made a key breakthrough in germ warfare, they send Elena Standish on a dangerous mission to get him out of Germany before he’s forced to share his knowledge and its destructive power with Hitler’s elite.
But the British soon learn that the new head of Germany’s germ warfare division is an old enemy of Elena's grandfather Lucas, the former head of MI6. And he’s bent on using any means to avenge his defeat at Lucas’s hands twenty years before.
What starts as an effort to save Europe from the devastation of disease becomes an intensely personal fight. As Elena and the scientist make their way across Germany, they confront not only the Gestapo but also a group of unpredictable Nazi supporters. With Elena’s every decision challenged, this compelling thriller takes a searing look at what it means to make the right choices in a world rife with so much evil.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1934, bestseller Perry's underwhelming fourth novel featuring photographer turned spy Elena Standish (after 2021's A Darker Reality) finds Elena tapped by Peter Howard, her boss at MI6, for a vital mission. Howard plans to smuggle two German biochemists involved in creating a deadly bioweapon and its antidote out of Germany and bring them to England. Elena is to travel to Berlin to exfiltrate one of them. Though the Germans are aware that the biochemists' research is known to MI6, illogically they don't expect an effort by the Brits to either extract or kill them. Sections focused on the vicissitudes of Elena's assignment alternate with the actions of a morally conflicted Nazi, a clichéd secondary character with whom the reader spends too much time. Having the potential use of an atomic bomb briefly discussed in 1934 by Elena and Howard is also a jarring anachronism, given that nuclear fission had not yet been discovered. The combination of thin characters, plot contrivances, and not sweating the details makes for a forgettable outing. Perry is capable of better.
