The German Sisters by Marty Wingate

 

As the train carries her far away from home, ten-year-old Dagmar’s hand tightens around her sister’s. As little Heike leans in, her acorn-coloured eyes wide, Dagmar is terrified she won’t be able to keep her safe…

Dagma heart aches for her mother but only children were allowed on board. The carriage is crowded; a small boy hugs a battered teddy bear and cries for his father. A girl her own age whispers that this train is rescuing Jewish children. But their families have been left behind…

As the train jolts along the track, Dagmar holds her breath. Her scuffed suitcase, with everything she owns inside, bangs painfully against her.Dagmar and Heike have nobody else but each other; what will happen to them? And will they ever see their mother again?

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About The Author

 

USA Today best-selling author Marty Wingate shares her love of Britain in three mystery series.

The First Edition Library mysteries (Berkley) are set in the lovely Georgian spa town of Bath. Here we find Hayley Burke, curator of an impressive collection of books from the Golden Age of Mystery—Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and all the rest. Too bad Hayley has never read a detective story in her life. In book one, The Bodies in the Library, she attempts to bluff her way along when a member of a local fan-fiction writers group turns up dead—in her library. In book two, Murder Is a Must (October 2020), Hayley plans an ambitious spring exhibition and with luck finds the best venue and the best—if the most difficult—manager to put it on. Then, said manager is found dead at the bottom of a spiral staircase.

Marty’s first historical fiction book, Glamour Girls (Alcove Press, January 2021) is set against the backdrop of the Second World War in England and follows the story of Rosalie Wright as she goes from farm girl to Spitfire pilot.

Marty also write two further mystery series. The Potting Shed books feature Pru Parke, a middle-aged American gardener transplanted from Texas to England—in the latest, Midsummer Mayhem, Pru finds herself up to her ears in murder and Shakespeare, as she builds the set for an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Also, look for the short story Christmas at Greenoak. The Birds of a Feather mysteries follow Julia Lanchester, bird lover, who runs a tourist office in a Suffolk village—in book four, Farewell, My Cuckoo, Julia attempts to identify a murder victim found at the edge of the village while doing battle with her boyfriend’s sister, who has made herself entirely too at home in Julia’s cottage.

Marty lives with her husband and two cats near Seattle, her local library standing in for a more colorful writing venue—say, Vita Sackville-West’s tower at Sissinghurst. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the Crime Writers Association (Britain) as well as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Royal Horticultural Society. She has her own modest vintage collection of books from the Golden Age writers.

Marty takes research seriously—she is a former how-to garden writer of three books and a countless number (at least, she stopped counting ages ago) of magazine and newspaper articles on everything from apple maggot to the prettiest daffodils and the best-smelling roses. Research took on an entirely new light when she began writing mysteries, and now she and her husband travel regularly to England and Scotland, where she plunges deeply into study concerning the next adventure for Hayley, Julia, or Pru—sparing not a few minutes a day to head to the pub.

Connect with Marty on Facebook (Marty Wingate Author) or on her website: martywingate.com.

 

My Review

This read starts in Germany, and parents making the hard decision to send their children to safety. Evil has taken over Europe in the thirties, such horrible hate, and we meet a Jewish family that makes that hard decision, a hard sacrifice. We follow their daughters Dagmar and Heike to England, and hopefully away from harm.
Dagmar is a ten year old girl, and keeps writing letters to home, she want her parents to come to England. We meet the people put in these girls lives, and the road is not always easy for them. They do finally land in a home of "love", but still no word on Mutti and Vatti.
The author does a great job of weaving this story of the great sacrifices being made, the danger of even being in England, and the story of family, new and old.
I did like the epilogue here, and wished I could have followed these girls further!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Bookouture, and was not required to give a positive review.