Berlin 1943 Amanda Hamilton, a Scottish photographer and violinist, marries a Nazi Party official and spends ten years in Germany, absorbing a new culture, immersed in one of the most tumultuous periods in human history. Her life takes a turbulent turn in the midst of World War II, when an English spy named Michael York arrives in Berlin and convinces her to betray her adopted country. A favorite of Hitler, admired by Goebbels and Goring, her photographs document life in the upper echelons of the Nazi party, a world that none on earth ever dreamed existed. It was there that Amanda Hamilton, never the author of an evil thought, walked in Satan's shadow."

PROLOGUE

London, England

November 26, 1946

London was alive with optimism after the war ended: ruins in renovation, the hurt healing, the separated reunited, and the dead honored and mourned. The future offered so much more promise than the past, when two global conflicts in a generation left tens of millions dead, and many living who wished they were not. But hundreds, if not thousands, of Nazi leaders responsible for the recent cataclysm had vanished, eluding the net cast by the Americans, Russians, British, and French. It was feared they assembled in an unknown country and continent, birthing the Fourth Reich on the ashes of the Third.

Michael York stood in the Victorian Treasures book store, gazing at a display of recent releases. His face was solemn, his eyes showing a muted pain, as he looked at the week’s bestseller. It was a book of photographs, Berlin in the last decade, as night fell and darkness draped the world.

From the store front window he could see the Tower Bridge, the Thames winding underneath it. A double-decker bus stopped, blocking his view, and two Canadian soldiers got off, followed by some schoolchildren. The bus drove away, revealing an American soldier in a red telephone booth, probably calling his British girlfriend. London was inundated with military personnel savoring a last look at the greatest city in the world before they returned home. Most were American, buoyant and brash but friendly, while others represented the British Empire: Canadians, South Africans, Australians, and some from the Caribbean. They wandered the streets, the world theirs for the taking, savoring every pleasure the global metropolis had to offer.

He opened the book, turning to the dust jacket, and studied the author’s picture. It was a good photograph, capturing the twinkle that lived in her eye, a smile that came so easily to her face, and wavy black hair that cascaded upon her shoulders. Amanda Hamilton, born to Scottish royalty, had married a German, a leader in the Nazi party. Leaving her homeland behind, she spent ten years in Berlin, absorbing a new culture, starting a new life. Her photographs documented a world collapsing around her, civilization at its ebb, humanity at its worst. Now they were shared with mankind.

Michael York turned the pages, her pictures bringing the past to life, memories returning. Germany’s evil geniuses were caught in poses the world had never before seen. Berlin’s finest buildings: Kaiser Wilhelm Church, the Reichstag, the Berlin Cathedral, and the Brandenburg Gate were shown in their original splendor, before Allied bombs destroyed them. And birds, not knowing they had trespassed on a calamity, posed innocently but proudly.

Fate had placed her on the enemy’s doorstep, friend to some of the most hated men on earth during the most tumultuous days in human history. A favorite of Hitler, admired by Goebbels and Göring, her photographs documented life in the upper echelons of the Nazi party, a world that none on earth ever dreamed existed. It was there that Amanda Hamilton, never the author of an evil thought, walked in Satan’s shadow. view abbreviated excerpt only...

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